Submission 439
Rule Encoding by Mental Simulation
SymposiumTalk-04
Presented by: Yanick Kloss
Rules exert a powerful influence on human behavior. They even shape human action through instructions without any previous experience of following the rule. Here we suggest that rules become ingrained deeply into the human cognitive system because encoding a rule entails mentally simulating an instance of rule following. We tested the mental simulation hypothesis by measuring sub-threshold muscular activity in the left and right forearm via electromyography (EMG) while presenting rule instructions mapping a stimulus to either a left or a right key press. As predicted, EMG activity during instructions was higher in effectors targeted by an instruction as compared to non-targeted effectors. Mental simulation, therefore, likely represents a key mechanism that ingrains a rule into the cognitive system and paves the way for later retrieval of rule-based behavior.