Action-Specific Perception
Encyclopedia
The action-specific perception account proposes that people perceive the environment in terms of their ability to act in it. 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. Furthermore, the perceiver’s intention to act is also critical. Only the perceiver’s ability to perform the intended action influences perception, while the perceiver’s abilities for unintended actions do not influence perception.
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.
The action-specific perception account has roots in Gibson’s (1979) ecological approach to perception. According to Gibson, the primary objects of perception are affordances, 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 midget 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 to perceivers with different abilities, or even to the same perceiver as his or her abilities change.
The claim that actionability influences 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.
Because the action-specific perception account challenges traditional theories of perception, alternative accounts to explain apparent action-specific effects have been proposed. The most common of these explanations is 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.
Perception is an internal state and thus 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.
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.
The action-specific perception account has roots in Gibson’s (1979) ecological approach to perception. According to Gibson, the primary objects of perception are affordances, 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 midget 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 to perceivers with different abilities, or even to the same perceiver as his or her abilities change.
The claim that actionability influences 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.
Because the action-specific perception account challenges traditional theories of perception, alternative accounts to explain apparent action-specific effects have been proposed. The most common of these explanations is 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.
Perception is an internal state and thus 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.
See also
- Ecological PsychologyEcological psychologyEcological psychology is a term claimed by a number of schools of psychology. However, the two main ones are one on the writings of James J. Gibson, and another on the work of Roger G. Barker, Herb Wright and associates at the University of Kansas in Lawrence...
- PerceptionPerceptionPerception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of the environment by organizing and interpreting sensory information. All perception involves signals in the nervous system, which in turn result from physical stimulation of the sense organs...
- James J. Gibson
- AffordanceAffordanceAn affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling...
- Motor cognitionMotor cognitionThe 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 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 perceptionMotor theory of speech perceptionthumb|250px|right|When we hear [[speech|spoken words]] we sense that they are made of auditory [[sound]]s. The motor theory of speech perception argues that behind the sounds we hear are the intended movements of the [[vocal tract]] that [[pronunciation|pronounces]] them.The motor theory of speech...
, 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.