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Emergent information for multimodal
perception and control |
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The perception and control of action are
influenced by stimulation of multiple perceptual systems. These
include vision, audition, haptics/kinesthetics, and the vestibular
system. Behavior causes simultaneous changes in multiple forms of
ambient energy, including kinematics of inertial forces (i.e.,
changing pressures), of light (i.e., the optic array), and of sound
(i.e., the acoustic array). Considered at the level of individual
forms of ambient energy, different types of multisensory stimulation
differ qualitiatively. In part for this reason, the influence of
multisensory stimulation has been interpreted in terms of internal
integration based on unconscious inference. We offer an alternative
interpretation, in which multisensory stimulation is not integrated
through any psychological process. We acknowledge that light and
sound (for example) differ qualitatively. However, there is no
requirement to confine enquiry to this level of analysis. We note the existence of the Global Array, which consists of higher-order (emergent) relations between or across different forms of ambient energy (Stoffregen & Bardy, 2001). Behavior structures individual forms of ambient energy. However, behavior also structures relations between different types of ambient energy; that is, behavior structures the global array. Patterns in the global array (that is, patterns that extend across different forms of ambient energy) are emergent, in the sense that they do not exist in (and cannot be derived from) patterns in individual forms of ambient energy. |
Information in the global array exists
outside the perceiver, in the same sense that optic flow (for
example) exists outside the perceiver. Patterns in the global array
are lawfully related to the dynamics of the animal-environment
system. In principle, if we could detect patterns in the global
array, we would have accurate information about behavior without the
need for any internal, inferential process. Claims about the existence of perceptual information in the global array are claims about ecological physics, just as claims about the existence of perceptual information in the optic array are claims about ecological physics. We discuss some of the underlying physics of specification, and we give examples of structures in the global array that have been derived analytically (e.g., Bingham & Stassen, 1994; Peper, Bootsma, Mestre, & Bakker, 1994). Finally, we discuss some implications of the Global Array for our understanding of perceptual-motor learning of complex skills. Bingham, G. P. & Stassen, M. G. (1994). Monocular egocentric distance information generated by head movement. Ecological Psychology, 6, 219-238. Peper, L., Bootsma, R. J., Mestre, D. R. & Bakker, F. C. (1994). Catching balls: How to get the hand to the right place at the right time. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception & Performance, 20, 591-612. Stoffregen, T.A. & Bardy, B.G. (2001). On specification and the senses. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 195-261 |
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