Links Between Active Perception and the Control of Action

Abstract

A synergy is taken to refer to independent things acting together to produce an ordered, macroscopic state. It is argued that perception and action act synergistically, with the macroscopic state being the perceiving-acting cycle. This perspective entails a rethinking of perception along the lines suggested by J. J. Gibson: the appropriate observables are at the ecological scale (i.e., they are intrinsically coarse); the appropriate organ of sensitivity is a perceptual system (not a receptor or nerve); and the appropriate treatment of information is as specification.al (i.e., it is lawfully related to it:s source). With this reformulation, th.e idea of a perceiving-acting cycle is elaborated, especially with reference to the relationship among intentional states, exploratory states, and informational states. The basic theme is that perception constrains action which, in tum, "sets up" perception. Examples of perceptually constrained exploratory and perfonnatory activities are provided to illustrate the kinds of macroscopic variables that have been identified as being relevant to understanding perceiving-acting cycles.