Table Of ContentRelationships
Between Perception
and Action
Current Approaches
Edited by
O. Neumann and W. Prinz
With Contributions by
P. Bieri . B. Bridgeman . H. Cruse . J. Dean . C.-A. Hauert
H. Heuer . D. G. MacKay . D. W. Massaro . P. Mounoud
O. Neumann . W. Prinz . E. Scheerer . R. A. Schmidt
A. H. C. van der Heijden . A. Vinter . P.-G. Zanone
Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg New York
London Paris Tokyo Hong Kong
Dr. ODMAR NEUMANN
Abteilung ffir Psychologie
Universitiit Bielefeld
Postfach 8640
4800 Bielefeld, FRG
Prof. Dr. WOLFGANG PRINZ
Abteilung ffir Psychologie
UniversiUlt Bielefeld
Postfach 8640
4800 Bielefeld, FRG
With 28 Figures
ISBN-13:978-3-642-75350-3 e-ISBN-13:978-3-642-75348-0
DOl: 10.1007/978-3-642-75348-0
Ubrary of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data. Relationships between perception and action:
current approaches / edited by O. Neumann and W. Prinz; contributors, P. Bieri ..• let aI.J. p.
em. Includes bibliographical references. ISBN-J3:978-3-642-75350-3 1. Perceptual-motor pro
cesses. I. Neumann, Odmar. II. Prinz, Wolfgang. III. Bieri, Peter, 1943- . [DNLM: 1. Behavior.
2. Perception. BF 311 R382] BF295.R44 1990 152.1 - de20 DNLMlDLC 90-9414
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Preface
This book is the fruit of a study group on perception and action that
worked at the Center for Interdisciplinary Research (ZiP) of the
University of Bielefeld, FRG in the academic year 1984-1985. We
express our gratitude to the ZiF for hosting the group and for providing
fmancial and organizational support for its scientific activities, including
a meeting of the authors of the present volume that took place at the ZiF
in July 1986.
This is/ the study group's last common product, and it took
considerable time to give the book its fmal shape. Most of the editing
was done while one of us (0. N.) was a Fellow at the Netherlands
Institute for Advanced Study in the Humanities and Social Sciences
(NlAS) during the academic year 1987-1988. Thanks are due to NIAS
for its generous support. We also thank all our friends and colleagues
who contributed to the book.
Bielefeld, March 1990 OOMAR NEUMANN
WOLFGANG PRINz
Contents
Introduction
W. PRINz and O. NEUMANN ................................. 1
Prologue: Historical Approaches to Perception and Action
O. NEUMANN and W. PRINz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. 5
The Physiological Basis of the Act of Perceiving
B. BRIDGEMAN (With 3 Figures) ............................. 21
Utilization of Sensory Information for Motor Control
H. CRUSE, J. DEAN, H. HEUER, and R.A. SCHMIDT
(With 3 Figures) ......................................... 43
The Neuroethology of Perception and Action
J. DEAN (With 5 Figures) .................................. 81
An Information-Processing Analysis of Perception and Action
D.W. MASSARO (With 7 Figures) ........................... 133
A Common Coding Approach to Perception and Action
W. PRINz .............................................. 167
Visual Information Processing and Selection
A.H.C. v AN DER HEIIDEN (With 3 Figures) ................... 203
Visual Attention and Action
O. NEUMANN ........................................... 227
Perception, Action, and Awareness: A Three-Body Problem
D.G. MACKAy (With 4 Figures) ............................ 269
Sensory and Perceptual Control of Action
in Early Human Development
A. VINTER (With 1 Figure) ................................ 305
vm Contents
Development of Motor Control in the Child: Theoretical and
Experimental Approaches
C.-A. HAUERT, P.-G. ZANONE, and P. MOUNOUD
(With 2 Figures) ........................................ 325
Informational Accounts of Perception and Action:
Skeptical Reflections
P. BIERI . . . . . . . . . • . . • . . • • • . • • . . • • . . . . • . . • • • . . . • . • • • • • •. 345
Relations Between Perception and Action: Unity in Diversity
E. SCHEERER ........................................... 367
Author Index ........................................... 389
Subject Index ........................................... 407
Contributors
Dr. P. BIERI, Universitltt Bielefeld, Abteilung fUr Philosophie, Postfach
8640, 4800 Bielefeld, FRG
Dr. B. BRIDGEMAN, Program in Experimental Psychology, University of
California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Dr. H. CRUSE, Universitltt Bielefeld, Fakultltt ffir Biologie, Postfach
8640, 4800 Bielefeld, FRG
Dr. J. DEAN, Universitltt Bielefeld, Fakultltt ffir Biologie, Postfach 8640,
4800 Bielefeld, FRG
Dr. C.-A. HAUERT, Universite de Geneve, Faculte de Psychologie et des
Sciences de IEducation, 24, rue General Dufour, 1211 Geneve,
Switzerland
Dr. H. HEUER, Philipps-Universitltt, Fachbereich Psychologie,
Gutenbergstr. 18, 3550 Marburg/Lahn, FRG
Dr. D.G. MAcKAY, DepanmentofPsychology, University of California
at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Dr. D.W. MASSARO, Program in Experimental Psychology, University of
California at Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA
Dr. P. MOUNOUD, Universit.e de Geneve, Facult.e de Psychologie et des
Sciences de lEducation, 24, rue General Dufour, 1211 Geneve,
Switzerland
Dr. O. NEUMANN, Universitltt Bielefeld, Abteilung ffir Psychologie,
Postfach 8640, 4800 Bielefeld, FRG
Dr. W. PRINz, Universitltt Bielefeld, Abteilung ffir Psychologie, Postfach
8640,4800 Bielefeld, FRG
x
Contributors
Dr. E. SCHEERER, Universitlit Oldenburg, Fachbereich Psychologie,
Institut fUr Kognitionsforschung, Birkenweg 3, 2900 Oldenburg, FRG
Dr. R.A. SCHMIDT, Department of Psychology, University of California
at Los Angeles, Los Angeles, CA 90024, USA
Dr. A.H.C. VA N DER HEDDEN, University of Leiden, Faculty of Social
Sciences, Wassenaarseweg 52, P.O. Box 9555, 2300 RB Leiden, The
Netherlands
Dr. A. VINTER, Faculte des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, 30, rue
Megevand, 25030 Besancon Cedex, France
Dr. P.-G. ZANONE, Universite de Geneve, Faculte de Psychologie et des
Sciences de l'Education, 24, rue General Dufour, 1211 Geneve,
Switzerland
Introduction
W. PRINz and O. NEUMANN
The French historian Jules Michelet used to begin his lectures on Great Britain
with the statement, "Gentlemen, Britain is an island." Presumably, he did not sup
pose that this fact was unknown to his students. He cited it in order to point out
that many of the peculiarities of British history and political life can be better un
derstood if one takes into account that country's geographical situation.
Similarly, an appropriate opening sentence for this book could have been, "The
brain is a device for the control of the bodily apparatus." Everybody knows, of
course, that this is true in a descriptive sense. Less trivially, it may also be true in
the functional sense in which Michelet interpreted Britain's msular geographical
condition. If the brain has evolved as a control instrument for the guidance of
physical organisms, then an analysis of its functions should profit from an ade
quate understanding of the way in which these functions contribute to this ultimate
task.
While such an approach is commonplace in biology, it is much less prevalent in
present-day psychology. Further, while it may suggest itself readily for fields such
as motivation or the mechanisms of motor control, it seems, at first glance, less
obvious that it can foster our understanding of sensory, perceptual, and cognitive
functions.
Indeed, modem psychology has until recently tended to regard perception and
cognition as fields that can, and in fact should, be investigated without reference to
action control. The highly successful approach to psychology that started as the in
formation processing approach and is now usually called cognitive psychology
(for recent overviews and retrospects see, e.g., Anderson, 1985; Gardner, 1985;
Massaro, 1986; Neumann, 1985; Scheerer, 1988) has had a strong preference for
studying perceptual and cognitive processes as decoupled from action control. One
of the founding fathers of this approach, Ulric Neisser, has aptly described its tenet
as "attempting to trace the fate of the input" (Neisser, 1967, p. 4) - a pursuit that
usually stopped short of the control of overt action. (Neisser's book nicely illus
trates this: Although cognitive psychology was purportedly "concerned with all
human activity" [po 4], the journey through its realm ended with a chapter on me
mory and thought).
There are signs that this self-imposed abstinence is beginning to taper off. Al
though the often-heard dictum "out is in" may overstate the situation, there are in
dications of a renewed interest in the motor aspect of human activity and its rela
tionships to sensory, perceptual, and cognitive aspects. In part, this is probably due
Relationships Between Perception and Action
Edited by O. Newnann and W. Prinz
©Springer·Verlag Berlin Heidelbetg 1990
2 W. Prinz and O. Nemnann
to the challenge from ecological realism with its insistence on the inseparability of
perception and action (e.g., Gibson, 1979; Turvey, 1977; Turvey & Carello, 1986).
In part, it may have been a logical result of the progression of psychomotor re
search, which has begun to embrace complex movements and their planning, thus
bridging or at least reducing the gap to cognitive psychology (for surveys see, e.g.,
Heuer & Fromm, 1986; Magill, 1983). Moreover, the upsurge of robotics, one of
the latest branches of artificial intelligence, is likely to have buttressed the novel
interest in motor performance. And, fmally, it seems that all this takes place within
a more general reorientation of theoretical psychology, favorable to a reconsidera
tion of the perception-action relationship.
This reorientation started only a few years ago. Its character and impact are still
difficult to assess. Its most predominant manifestation has been the advance of the
connectionist movement (e.g., Hinton & Anderson, 1981; McClelland & Rumel
hart, 1987; Rumelhart & McClelland, 1987), which, according to Schneider
(1987), bears the hallmark of a paradigm shift in the sense put forward by Kuhn
(1962), i.e., a scientific revolution in which the basic assumptions within a field
are being reconsidered and redefined. However, the success of connectionism may
not be a singular event. There are signs that it is just one facet of a broad transition
that may involve a reconsideration of psychology's place in the geography of the
sciences. The information processing approach tended to view psychology as a
close kin (if not an offspring) of computer science. The new orientation that may
be emerging places it closer to the biological sciences.
Unlike technological computation, biological computation involves the control
of a complex effector apparatus. The biological sciences have always been aware
of the close functional linkage between information uptake and action control.
This is why, in our view, the general theoretical climate that is presently develop
ing is propitious to the exploration of relationships between perception and action.
In this volume the reader will fmd some of the flavor of this novel theoretical
climate. The book has a prologue, two epilogues, and ten chapters in between. The
first three chapters consider basic issues involved in the interaction between infor
mation uptake and action control: Bridgeman stresses the reciprocal nature of this
interaction, drawing upon Gibson's concept of perceptual systems. In perceptual
systems there is action in the service of information uptake, and at the same time
the acquired information is used for the control of further action. This reciprocity
characterizes the operation of perception and action as well as their development
In the next chapter, Cruse, Dean, Heuer, and Schmidt provide a thorough concep
tual analysis of modes of utilizing information for action control. They propose a
unified taxonomy for types of motor control structures, based on a distinction
between three basic ways in which sensory information is used for motor control.
Dean's chapter gives an account of the neuroethology of the relationships between
perception and action. As this approach relies on study material drawn from ~
entire animal kingdom, it stresses both comparative and ecological aspects in the
study of behavior and its underlying neural mechanisms.
In the next two chapters the emphasis is shifted from acting animals to reacting
subjects, i.e., to human subjects who are instructed to perform certain movements
