WHEN NEAR BECOMES FAR Figure 3. Panel A: Experiment 1: Separate workspace, N – 1, No–No–No versus No–Ob–No trials (Ob = obstacle; No = no obstacle). Panel B: Experiment 2: Shared workspace, N – 1, No–No–No versus No–Ob–No trials. The trajectories shown are the aggregate of each participant’s average reach in that condition. The vertical lines mark the points of the curve used in the analysis of variance (ANOVA) analysis described in the Results section. To view a colour version of this ﬁgure, please see the online issue of the Journal. curved reach some time afterwards. Critically this priming effect is detected both when separate and when shared workspaces are experienced in the intervening trial. This is in sharp contrast to the priming effects produced when another person’s actions are observed (N – 1), where separate or shared workspace plays a critical role. Only in the latter shared-workspace condition is another person’s reach trajectory simulated such that it inﬂuences the observer’s subsequent reaching action. Therefore, sharing a workspace and objects with another person appears to activate action simulation processes and facilitates memory of such motor states such that a participant’s sub- sequent reach is inﬂuenced by the previous observation. THE QUARTERLY JOURNAL OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY, 2012, 65 (7) 1247