Abstract
Previous research has shown that humans appropriate tools and incorporate them into their body schema, effectively extending peripersonal space to include the volume of the tool. This tool appropriation occurs after physical practice and experience using the tool. The present study investigated whether manipulating a virtual representation of the tool via a computer interface would enable appropriation of the real (physical) tool. The index of tool appropriation was the change in reaction time (RT) to specific LEDs before and after virtual practice with a tool (a rake). In the RT task, participants fixated a central cross and were instructed to press a button with the left hand as quickly as possible when one of four LEDs illuminated. The LEDs were on the back of the right hand (1), the tip of a rake grasped in the right hand (2), and on the surface of the table to the left (3) and right (4) of the rake. During training, participants played a video game for ten minutes where they controlled (via keyboard) an avatar holding a rake identical to the one in the simple RT task. The key finding of the current experiment was a significant pre/post RT reduction for the LED on the tip of the rake, but not for the hand LED. This finding suggests that manipulating a tool via a keyboard-controlled virtual effector is sufficient to induce physical appropriation of a tool. The implications of this result for the interactions between real and virtual worlds will be discussed.Acknowledgments: This research was supported by funding from the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada, the Ontario Ministry of Research and Innovation, and the National Science Foundation.