Traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation, so that an adequate account of the perception-action interface is still missing On the perceptual side, the dominant cognitive view largely underestimates, and thus fails to account for, the impact of action-related processes on both the processing of perceptual information and on perceptual learning On the action side, most approaches conceive of action planning as a mere continuation of stimulus processing, thus failing to account for the goal-directedness of even the simplest reaction in an experimental task We propose a new framework for a more adequate theoretical treatment of perception and action planning, in which perceptual contents and action plans are coded in a common representational medium by feature codes with distal reference Perceived events (perceptions) and to-be-produced events (actions) are equally represented by integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes – cognitive structures we call event codes We give an overview of evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, and ideomotor action, showing that our main assumptions are well supported by the data

https://www.cambridge.org/core/services/aop-cambridge-core/content/view/S0140525X01000103

The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning.

The theory of affordances

The development of reading depends on phonological awareness across all languages so far studied. Languages vary in the consistency with which phonology is represented in orthography. This results in developmental differences in the grain size of lexical representations and accompanying differences in developmental reading strategies and the manifestation of dyslexia across orthographies. Differences in lexical representations and reading across languages leave developmental “footprints” in the adult lexicon. The lexical organization and processing strategies that are characteristic of skilled reading in different orthographies are affected by different developmental constraints in different writing systems. The authors develop a novel theoretical framework to explain these cross-language data, which they label a psycholinguistic grain size theory of reading and its development.

Reading acquisition, developmental dyslexia, and skilled reading across languages: a psycholinguistic grain size theory.

Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see, the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The outside world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the governing laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Several lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor adaptation, visual \"filling in,\" visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.

A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness-Authors' Response-Acting out our sensory experience

Let's read! We will often find out this sentence everywhere. When still being a kid, mom used to order us to always read, so did the teacher. Some books are fully read in a week and we need the obligation to support reading. What about now? Do you still love reading? Is reading only for you who have obligation? Absolutely not! We here offer you a new book enPDFd the perception of the visual world to read.

The Perception of the Visual World. By James J. Gibson. U.S.A.: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1950 (George Allen & Unwin, Ltd., London). Price 35s.

By watching each other's lower oscillating leg, 2 seated Ss kept a common tempo and a particular phase relation of either 0 degrees (symmetric mode) or 180 degrees (alternate mode). This study investigated the differential stability of the 2 phase modes. In Experiment 1, in which Ss were instructed to remain in the initial phase mode, the alternate phase mode was found to be less stable as the frequency of oscillation increased. In addition, analysis of the nonsteady state cycles revealed evidence of a switching to the symmetric phase mode for the initial alternate phase mode trials. In Experiments 2 and 3, Ss were instructed to remain at a noninitial phase angle if it was found to be more comfortable. The transition observed between the 2 phase modes satisfies the criteria of a physical bifurcation--hysteresis, critical fluctuations, and divergence--and is consonant with previous findings on transitions in limb coordination within a person.

/pdf/phase-transitions-and-critical-fluctuations-in-the-visual-582qbqcwq0.pdf

Phase transitions and critical fluctuations in the visual coordination of rhythmic movements between people.

Four experiments designed to assess observers' ability to perceive whether or not something is within reach, under a variety of circumstances, are reported. Actual reaching ability is influenced by the posture in which reaching is to be done (e.g., with the arm alone, extending the arm while bending from the hip, and main- taining balance while bending from an upright standing position) and by the surface layout that confronts the reacher (e.g., the height of a surface to be reached and the presence of barriers to bending). Our investigation reveals that perceivers are sensitive to these influences on their reaching ability, although some are quite complex biomechanically. The results are discussed in the context of the demands that they place on computational and ecological accounts of perceiving what is within reach.

Visually perceiving what is reachable.

Perception refers to how animals, including humans, can be aware of their surroundings. The ecological approach to perception refers to a particular idea of how perception works and how it should be studied. The label “ecological” reflects two main themes that distinguish this approach from the establishment view. First, perception is an achievement of animal-environment systems, not simply animals (or their brains). What makes up the environment of a particular animal—cliffs or caves or crowds—is part of this theory of perception. Second, perception’s main purpose is guiding activity , so a theory of perception cannot ignore what animals do. The kinds of activities that a particular animal does—how it eats and moves and mates—are part of this theory of perception. Including the environment and behavior as important parts of perceptual theory, rather than as afterthoughts, is clearly different from theories that start inside the eye (or the ear or the skin), but it is not necessarily controversial. Nonetheless, the ecological approach is considered controversial because of one central claim: Perception is direct. To understand the claim, and why some might consider it troubling, we have to contrast it with the more traditional view. Most scientists believe that perception begins with faulty input. For example, when objects in the world reflect light, the pattern of light that reaches the back of the eye (the part called the retina) has lost and distorted a lot of detail. The job of perception, then, becomes one of fixing the input and adding meaningful interpretations to it so that the brain can make an inference (or educated guess) about what caused that input in the first place. This traditional view is called indirect perception because the animal’s awareness of the world is a result of these intermediary steps. A theory of direct perception, in contrast, argues that the intermediary steps are only needed if the scientist has described the input incorrectly. Including the environment and activity into the theory of perception allows a better description of the input, a description that shows the input to be richly structured by the environment and the animal’s own activities. This means that the intermediary steps are not needed and perception is direct.

The ecological approach to perception

A study is reported in which it is shown that observers can use at least three types of acoustic variables that indicate reliably when a moving sound source is passing: interaural temporal differences, the Doppler effect, and amplitude change. Each of these variables was presented in isolation and each was successful in indicating when a (stimulated) moving sound source passed an observer. These three variables were put into competition (with each indicating that closest passage occurred at a different time) in an effort to determine their relative importance. It was found that amplitude change dominated interaural temporal differences which, in turn, dominated the Doppler effect stimulus variable. The results are discussed in terms of two interpretations. First, it is possible that subjects based their judgements on the potential discriminability of each stimulus variable. However, because the stimuli used involved easily discriminable changes, subjects may instead have based their judgements on the independence of a stimulus variable from different environmental situation conditions. The dominance ordering obtained supports the second interpretation.

Relative Effectiveness of Three Stimulus Variables for Locating a Moving Sound Source

Although hearing is classically considered a temporal sense, everyday listening suggests that subtle spatial properties constitute an important part of what people know about the world through sound. Typically neglected in psychoacoustics research, the ability to perceive the precise sizes of objects on the basis of sound was investigated during the routine event of dropping wooden dowels of different lengths onto a hard surface. In two experiments, the ordinal and metrical success of naive listeners was related to length but not to the simple acoustic variables (duration, amplitude, frequency) likely to be related to it. Additional analysis suggests the potential relevance of an object's inertia tensor in constraining perception of that object's length, analogous to the case that has been made for perceiving length by effortful touch.

/pdf/perception-of-object-length-by-sound-ijh65rjmf2.pdf

Claudia Carello

Papers

Phase transitions and critical fluctuations in the visual coordination of rhythmic movements between people.

Visually perceiving what is reachable.

The ecological approach to perception

Relative Effectiveness of Three Stimulus Variables for Locating a Moving Sound Source

Perception of Object Length by Sound