Date of Award

2019

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Harley, Heidi

Area of Concentration

Cognitive Science & Psychology

Abstract

Body ownership illusions provide novel insights into what the brain can process as one’s body. Since the classic Rubber Hand Illusion (RHI), much research has been done on developing similar hand illusions and exploring what factors are needed to induce them. In the Robotic Hand Illusion (RoHI), participants wear a glove on one of their hands, allowing them to control the movements of a robotic hand (when they move a finger, the robotic hand moves its corresponding finger). Then the participant rests their real hand (wearing the glove) under a table while they view the robotic hand on top of the table. Because of synchronous movements (visuo-proprioceptive information) between the real and robotic hand, participants start to feel like the robotic hand is their own hand. Little research has been conducted on the effects of explicitly imagining a fake hand is one’s own during hand illusions. In the present study, participants (N=22) underwent the RoHI, and were asked to either “imagine that the hand on the table is your own hand” or “imagine that the hand on the table is a tool you are using”. Ownership, agency, and proprioceptive drift were measured for each condition. No significant differences were found between the two conditions. These results could be due to the equipment’s low reactivity at times; further research with more sophisticated equipment is necessary.

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