Information space is action space: perceiving the partial lengths of rods rotated on an axle

Abstract

In a single experiment, perceivers held unseen rods at some position along their lengths and reported the two partial lengths-to the left and to the right of the hand. Wielding was mechanically limited to a vertical plane. Previous research suggested that the information exploited for this task is captured in a space created from the moment of inertia and gravitational torque. The experiment reported here attempted to replicate the relevance of that space and to ask how exploration might access it. Perceivers were given feedback on accuracy on Blocks 2 and 3 of a fourblock experiment, and their performance and position in information space were monitored. Exploratory movements were recorded. Judgments were shown to depend on inertial and gravitational torques, as expected. Analysis of exploratory movements suggested that occupying a locus in information space is equivalent to exploring at some angular acceleration. The apparent weighting of cues (gravitational and inertial torque), which might be interpreted as a cognitive process, was instead interpreted as a consequence of manner of exploration.

Stepping on Obstacles with a Sensory Substitution Device on the Lower Leg: Practice without Vision Is More Beneficial than Practice with Vision

“…Perceptual and perceptual-motor learning is often associated with a change in which informational variables are detected [28], [29]. The detection of particular informational variables, in turn, is associated with particular exploratory movements made to detect these variables [30], leading to the claim that performance improves because learners come to make better exploratory movements [31]. This reasoning indicates that changes in exploratory movements made with sensory substitution devices are consistent with the view that users improve because they come to detect more useful informational variables with the devices.…”

Beyond the blank slate: routes to learning new coordination patterns depend on the intrinsic dynamics of the learner—experimental evidence and theoretical model

“…These findings yield substantial support to growing evidence that, contrary to classic assumptions, there is no single pathway for behavioral change with learning (Ko et al, 2003; Jacobs, 2009; Stephen et al, 2010). For instance, using a perceptual learning paradigm, Jacobs et al (2000), Michaels and Isenhower (2010) showed that from the plethora of perceptual variables available, different observers pick up different variables to guide perceptual learning. During training itself, learners change the variables they use in various ways.…”

Obtaining information by dynamic (effortful) touching

“…(a) The theoretical challenge of part -whole perception The fractionation of the mass distribution, the separating of the part from the whole, is not analogous to physically cutting off the unattended part; the selective perception of the part is constrained by the mass distribution of the whole [29,30]. Experiments using a methodology somewhat more elaborate than that depicted in figure 2 reveals the theoretical challenge of understanding selective dynamic touch.…”