Action-specific perception, or perception-action, is a
psychological
Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...
theory
A theory is a systematic and rational form of abstract thinking about a phenomenon, or the conclusions derived from such thinking. It involves contemplative and logical reasoning, often supported by processes such as observation, experimentation, ...
that people
perceive
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...
their environment and events within it in terms of their ability to act.
[Witt, J. K. (2011). Action's effect on perception. ''Current Directions in Psychological Science''.][Proffitt, D. R. (2006). Embodied perception and the economy of action. ''Perspectives on Psychological Science''.] This theory hence suggests that a person's capability to carry out a particular task affects how they perceive the different aspects and methods involved in that task.
For example, softball players who are hitting better see the ball as bigger. Tennis players see the ball as moving slower when they successfully return the ball. In the field of human-computer interaction, alterations in accuracy impact both the perception of size and time, while adjustments in movement speed impact the perception of distance.
Furthermore, the perceiver's intention to act is also critical; while the perceiver's ability to perform the intended action influences perception, the perceiver's abilities for unintended actions have little or no effect on perception. Finally, the objective difficulty of the task appears to modulate size, distance, and time perception.
Overview
Action-specific effects have been documented in a variety of contexts and with a variety of manipulations.
[ The original work was done on perceived slant of hills and perceived distance to targets. Hills look steeper and targets look farther away when wearing a heavy backpack. In addition to walking, many other actions influence perception such as throwing, jumping, falling, reaching, grasping, kicking, hitting, blocking, and swimming. In addition to perceived slant and perceived distance, other aspects of perception are influenced by ability such as size, shape, height, and speed. These results have been documented in athletes such as softball players, golfers, tennis players, swimmers, and people skilled in ]parkour
Parkour () is an athletic Training#Physical training, training discipline or sport in which practitioners (called ''traceurs'') attempt to get from one point to another in the fastest and most efficient way possible, without assisting equipment ...
. However, a criticism would be that these action-specific effects on perception may surface only in extreme cases (e.g., professional athletes) or condition (e.g., steep hills). Recent evidence from virtual reality, indicated that these action-specific effects are observed in both "normal" conditions and average individuals.
Background
The action-specific perception account has roots in Gibson's (1979) ecological approach to perception. According to Gibson, the primary objects of perception are affordance
In psychology, affordance is what the environment offers the individual. In design, affordance has a narrower meaning; it refers to possible actions that an actor can readily perceive.
American psychologist James J. Gibson coined the term ...
s, which are the possibilities for action. Affordances capture the mutual relationship between the environment and the perceiver. For example, a tall wall is a barrier to an elderly person but affords jumping-over to someone trained in parkour, or urban climbing. Like the ecological approach, the action-specific perception account favors the notion that perception involves processes that relate the environment to the perceiver's potential for action. Consequently, similar environments will look different, depending on the abilities of each perceiver. Since abilities change over time, an individual's perception of similar environments will also change as their abilities change.
Criticisms
The claim that activity and intention influence perception is controversial. These findings challenge traditional theories of perception, nearly all of which conceptualize perception as a process that provides an objective and behaviorally-independent representation of the environment. The fact that the same environment looks different depending on the perceiver's abilities and intentions implies that perception is not behaviorally-neutral.
Alternative explanations for apparent action-specific effects have been proposed, most commonly that the perceiver's ability affects the perceiver's judgment about what they see, rather than affecting perception itself. In other words, perceivers see the world similarly but then report their impressions differently.[Loomis J M, Philbeck J W, (2008). Measuring spatial perception with spatial understanding and action”, in ''Embodiment, Ego-Space, and Action'' Eds. R L Klatzky, B MacWhinney, M Behrmann (Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press) pp. 1–44, here: p. 33.]
Problems
Perception cannot be measured directly. Instead, researchers must rely on reports, judgments, and behaviors. However, many attempts have been made to resolve this issue. One technique is to use many different kinds of perceptual judgments.[ For example, action-specific effects have been found when verbal reports and visual matching tasks. Action-specific effects are also apparent with indirect measures such as perceived parallelism as a proxy for perceived distance. Action-specific effects have also been found when using action-based measures such as Blindwalking.
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See also
* Active inference – a generic formulation of embodied perception based on variational (Bayesian) free energy minimisation
* Active vision – an area of computer vision and machine learning concerned with active sampling of sensory data
* Affordance
In psychology, affordance is what the environment offers the individual. In design, affordance has a narrower meaning; it refers to possible actions that an actor can readily perceive.
American psychologist James J. Gibson coined the term ...
* Ecological psychology
Ecological psychology is the scientific study of the relationship between perception and action, grounded in a direct realist approach. This school of thought is heavily influenced by the writings of Roger Barker and James J. Gibson and stands ...
* James J. Gibson
* Motor cognition The concept of motor cognition grasps the notion that cognition is embodied in action, and that the motor system participates in what is usually considered as mental processing, including those involved in social interaction. The fundamental unit o ...
– the notion that cognition is embodied in action, and that the motor system participates in what is usually considered as mental processing.
* Motor theory of speech perception
The motor theory of speech perception is the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates. It originally cl ...
– the hypothesis that people perceive spoken words by identifying the vocal tract gestures with which they are pronounced rather than by identifying the sound patterns that speech generates.
* Perception
Perception () is the organization, identification, and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand the presented information or environment. All perception involves signals that go through the nervous syste ...
* Qualia
In philosophy of mind, qualia (; singular: quale ) are defined as instances of subjective, conscious experience. The term ''qualia'' derives from the Latin neuter plural form (''qualia'') of the Latin adjective '' quālis'' () meaning "of what ...
* Embodied cognition
Embodied cognition represents a diverse group of theories which investigate how cognition is shaped by the bodily state and capacities of the organism. These embodied factors include the motor system, the perceptual system, bodily interactions wi ...
References
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Visual perception
Perception
Enactive cognition
Action (philosophy)