Category-based attention facilitates the recognition of actions

Action recognition relies on efficiently prioritizing relevant sources of information. This study examined the degree to which category-based attention facilitates the identification of basic action categories (climb, jump, run, walk) depicted as static avatar images (Exp. 1, 2) and naturalistic images (Exp. 3, 4). Participants received prior information about the target action category through a word cue (Exp. 1, 2, 4) or an avatar image cue (Exp. 3), with a 3:1 ratio of valid to invalid trials. Performance was assessed in terms of accuracy, reaction time (RT), and sensitivity (d-prime). Exp. 1 revealed a cueing effect of word cues on processing subsequent avatar stimuli that depicted different actions. Exp. 2 confirmed that this facilitation was due to the cue itself rather than specific motor associations. Exp. 3 indicated that avatar cues aid action recognition in naturalistic images, though the effect was weaker and limited to accuracy. Exp. 4 combined word cues with the same naturalistic images and revealed robust cueing effects on both accuracy and RT, indicating that top-down facilitation is preserved for naturalistic stimuli when word cues are used. Together, these findings provide an important extension of previous studies, suggesting that category-based attention enhances action recognition by pre-activating relevant action representations.