Testing a model of the cognitive structure of perceivable human actions

Several models have been proposed to explain the cognitive structure underpinning our perception of human actions. These studies have conceptualized this structure as a domain specific “action space” defined by a limited number of important dimensions that describe the meaningful information on which we evaluate actions. However, these different models have disagreed on both the number of dimensions, and what action qualities each dimension represents. To resolve these differences, we retested a 4-D action space model whilst considering additional qualities identified by all other models. Using an EFA-to-CFA approach we show that action space was best modelled by 5 factors. Two substantial dimensions, Friendliness and Formidableness, each explained 18-19% of the variance. Whilst 3 smaller dimensions each explained 10-8% of the variance; these included Abduction, Locomotion and Environmental Interaction. We interpret this representation of action space as having 2 + 3 dimensions. We show that friendliness and formidableness retain their central role as the two most important action qualities when alternative theoretically motivated characteristics are incorporated, consistent with their interpretation as action-specific signals of warmth and competence. The differences between earlier studies of action space can be attributed to nonrepresentative samples of actions or the use of static images of actions.