Relationships Between Perception and Action: Current Approaches PDF
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Relationships 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 This work is subject to copyright. All rights are reserved, whether the whole or part of the material is concerned, specifically the rights of translation, reprinting, re-use of illustrations, recitation, broadcasting, reproduction on microfilms or in other ways, and storage in data banks. Duplication of this publication or parts thereof is only permitted under the provisions of the German Copyright Law of September 9, 1965, in its current version, and a copyright fee must always be paid. Viola tions fall under the prosecution act of the German Copyright Law. © Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 1990 Softcoverreprint of the hardcover 1st edition 1990 The use of registered names, trademarks, etc. in this publication does not imply, even in the absence of a specific statement, that such names are erempt from the relevant protective laws and regula tions and therefore free for general use. Product liability: The publisher can give no guarantee for information about drug dosage and ap plication thereof contained in this book. In every individual case the respective user must check its accuracy by consulting other pharmaceutical literature. 2126/3130 (3011)-543210 - Printed on acid-free paper 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
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