A Closer Look at the Agent Advantage Effect: The Impact of Motion Lines

This research investigates the influence of visual cues, specifically motion lines, on the agent advantage effect in still pictures. The agent advantage effect refers to human observers responding faster to someone performing an action (called an agent) compared to the person or thing acted upon (patient). We investigated how the presence of motion lines behind the agent or patient impacts the agent advantage effect. We presented the participants with pictures showing two fish, with one fish biting the other. Participants searched for the agent or the patient and pressed the corresponding button, and their reaction time was recorded. Experiment 1 used parallel motion lines aligned with the direction of motion, whereas Experiment 2 used orthogonal motion lines. Both experiments replicated the agent advantage effect, demonstrating that participants consistently responded faster to agents than to patients. Crucially, the addition of either parallel or orthogonal motion lines behind the agent, patient, or both did not significantly affect the magnitude of the agent advantage effect. These findings do not only underscore the robustness of the agent advantage effect against additional visual cues such as motion lines but also suggest that the cognitive mechanisms underlying event role processing and motion line perception may operate independently.