Embodied gestalts: Unstable visual phenomena become stable when they are stimuli for competitive action selection

An animal's environment is rich with affordances. Different possible actions are specified by visual information while competing for dominance over neural dynamics. Affordance competition models account for this in terms of winner-takes-all cross-inhibition dynamics. Multistable phenomena also reveal how the visual system deals with ambiguity. Their key property is spontaneous instability, in forms such as alternating dominance in binocular rivalry. Theoretical models of self-inhibition or self-organized instability posit that the instability is tied to some kind of neural adaptation and that its functional significance is to enable flexible perceptual transitions. We hypothesized that the two perspectives are interlinked. Spontaneous instability is an intrinsic property of perceptual systems, but it is revealed when they are stripped from the constraints of possibilities for action. To test this, we compared a multistable gestalt phenomenon against its embodied version and estimated the neural adaptation and competition parameters of an affordance transition dynamic model. Wertheimer's (Zeitschrift fur Psychologie 61, 161-265, 1912) optimal (β) and pure (φ) forms of apparent motion from a stroboscopic point-light display were endowed with action relevance by embedding the display in a visual object-tracking task. Thus, each mode was complemented by its action, because each perceptual mode uniquely enabled different ways of tracking the target. Perceptual judgment of the traditional apparent motion exhibited spontaneous instabilities, in the form of earlier switching when the frame rate was changed stepwise. In contrast, the embodied version exhibited hysteresis, consistent with affordance transition studies. Consistent with our predictions, the parameter for competition between modes in the affordance transition model increased, and the parameter for self-inhibition vanished.

Age-related differences in the perception of gap affordances: Impact of standardized action capabilities on road-crossing judgements

Recent road-crossing literature has found that older adults show performance differences between estimation and perception-action tasks suggesting an age-related difficulty in accurately calibrating the information picked up from the surrounding environment to their action capabilities (Lobjois and Cavallo, 2009). The present study investigated whether participants could accurately perceive gap affordances via information that specifies the time-to-arrival of the approaching cars. To ensure the opportunities for action were the same across different age groups, independent of the actor's action capabilities, the action of crossing the road was standardised. A total of 45 participants (15 children, aged 10-12, 15 adults aged 19-39, 15 older adults aged 65+) were asked to judge, by pressing a button in a head-mounted display, whether the gap between oncoming cars afforded crossing. When the participant pressed the button, they moved across the road at a fixed speed. Adherence to a time-based variable (namely tau) explained 85% and 84% of the variance in both the children and adults' choices, respectively. Older adults tuned less into the time-based variable (tau) with it only accounting for 59% of the variance in road-crossing decisions. These findings suggest that, the ability to use tau information which specifies whether a gap affords crossing or not, deteriorates with age.

Optimizing brain performance: Identifying mechanisms of adaptive neurobiological plasticity

Although neuroscience research has debunked the late 19^th century claims suggesting that large portions of the brain are typically unused, recent evidence indicates that an enhanced understanding of neural plasticity may lead to greater insights related to the functional capacity of brains. Continuous and real-time neural modifications in concert with dynamic environmental contexts provide opportunities for targeted interventions for maintaining healthy brain functions throughout the lifespan. Neural design, however, is far from simplistic, requiring close consideration of context-specific and other relevant variables from both species and individual perspectives to determine the functional gains from increased and decreased markers of neuroplasticity. Caution must be taken in the interpretation of any measurable change in neurobiological responses or behavioral outcomes, as definitions of optimal functions are extremely complex. Even so, current behavioral neuroscience approaches offer unique opportunities to evaluate adaptive functions of various neural responses in an attempt to enhance the functional capacity of neural systems.

Efficient search under constraints and not working memory resources supports creative action emergence in a convergent motor task

Creative (original and functional) solutions to problems can be facilitated by guiding search behavior. According to cognitive models, when solving convergent tasks (tasks with few solutions), high available working memory (WM) resources and capacity can guide creative solution emergence via repeated (persistent) search within a solution subcategory. However, no clear associations have been found of WM capacity on creative outcomes when tasks require the individual to enact solutions in divergent doing tasks. This study further tested constraints on WM resources on search behavior and creative outcomes in a convergent doing task. Novices to combat sports were asked to repeatedly strike a target with the intent to achieve an individualized target force. In order to manipulate available WM resources, every ten strikes, participants were asked to recall and then retain a sequence of 5 digits (high load group: n = 21) or 2 digits (low load group: n = 21). The task constraints favored the functionality (or appropriateness) of a qualitatively distinct, non-obvious solution. Functionality was assessed using the force registered for each strike. Originality was assessed in terms of how infrequently actions occurred. Finally, search behavior was quantified based on changes in which limb was used and changes in which part of the limb was used from one strike to the next. There were no significant effects of WM load on creativity outcomes, solution search, or task success. Rather, task success was related to efficient search and creativity. Future research should focus on constraints (other than WM resources) that promote efficient search.

Tool and object affordances: An ecological eye-tracking study

In the present eye-tracking study, we analysed the visuo-spatial attentional patterns of participants looking at 3D images depicting single tools and object-tool pairs. The object-tool pairs could be thematically consistent, thematically inconsistent or spatially inconsistent. During the first 500 ms of visual exploration, tools were fixated longer on their functional area in all experimental conditions. However, extending the time-window of analysis to 1750 ms, the visual scene was encoded in a faster and more suited-for-action way in the thematically consistent condition (e.g., hammer-nail). Most important, the visual exploration of the thematically consistent pairs focused on the manipulation area of the tool (e.g., the handle of the hammer) more than on its functional area (e.g., the head of the hammer). Finally, when single tools were shown and the entire time-window of analysis was considered (1750 ms), fixation focused on the tool's manipulation area. These results are discussed within the reasoning-based framework of tool use. They highlight the relative role of the visuo-perceptual context in affordance perception and suggest a novel interpretation of the cognitive mechanisms underlying the processing of tools and object-tool pairs in terms of action reappraisal (i.e., a re-functionalization process when the action possibility is mined by the visuo-perceptual context).

A pantomiming priming study on the grasp and functional use actions of tools

It has previously been demonstrated that tool recognition is facilitated by the repeated visual presentation of object features affording actions, such as those related to grasping and their functional use. It is unclear, however, if this can also facilitate pantomiming. Participants were presented with an image of a prime followed by a target tool and were required to pantomime the appropriate action for each one. The grasp and functional use attributes of the target tool were either the same or different to the prime. Contrary to expectations, participants were slower at pantomiming the target tool relative to the prime regardless of whether the grasp and function of the tool were the same or different-except when the prime and target tools consisted of identical images of the same exemplar. We also found a decrease in accuracy of performing functional use actions for the target tool relative to the prime when the two differed in functional use but not grasp. We reconcile differences between our findings and those that have performed priming studies on tool recognition with differences in task demands and known differences in how the brain recognises tools and performs actions to make use of them.

A meta-analysis of the object-based compatibility effect

The object-based compatibility effect (CE) describes, in the context of two-choice keypress tasks, the facilitation of response times (RTs) by the correspondence between participants' response hand and the task-irrelevant orientation of a viewed object's handle. Object-based CEs are often attributed to affordance perception. Although the object-based CE paradigm is the major RT task used to study affordances, failures to replicate the effect have raised questions about its robustness. Moreover, it remains unclear whether the object-based CE is indeed indicative of affordances, or whether it is merely an example of spatial CEs brought about by the object's protruding handle. We present a meta-analysis of object-based CEs to (1) obtain a point estimate of the overall effect and (2) test for moderation consistent with either affordance or spatial compatibility accounts. From 88 independent effects (computed on 2359 participants), we estimated a small but significant compatibility effect (ES = 0.106, z = 5.44, p < .001 95% CI:[0.068, 0.145]), although evidence of publication bias suggests that the true effect is smaller in magnitude. Further, we found significant heterogeneity in effect sizes, indicating between-study variation beyond sampling variability. Moderator analyses indicated that CEs were larger when (1) task-relevant decisions were not about the function of objects, (2) when stimuli were silhouettes as opposed to photographs, and (3) when objects were centered on-screen according to their base or pixel distribution. Response mode (within vs between-hand) did not moderate CEs, nor did the critical interaction between stimulus type (photograph vs silhouette/illustration) and response mode. In all, results are mostly consistent with a spatial compatibility account of object-based CEs. Finally, analyses revealed moderation by trial and task structure, providing implications for study design.

Development of affordance perception and recalibration in children and adults

Changes in the body over developmental time (e.g., physical growth) as well as over shorter timescales (e.g., wearing a backpack, carrying a large object) alter possibilities for motor action. How well can children recalibrate their perception of action possibilities to account for sudden changes to body size? The current study compared younger children (4-7 years), older children (8-11 years), and adults as they decided whether they could squeeze through doorways of varying widths. To test for age-related changes in recalibration to modified abilities versus perception of unmodified abilities, half of the participants wore a backpack while making judgments and squeezing through doorways and half did not. Results indicated that judgment accuracy improved with age but that participants had more difficulty when recalibrating to modified abilities. Bias in decision making also changed with age; whereas younger children made riskier decisions by attempting to fit through impossibly small doorways, older children were more cautious. Some particularly cautious participants never generated practice feedback by attempting (and failing) to fit through smaller doorways, which prevented them from recalibrating. Taken together with previous literature, the results of the current study suggest that the development of perception for unmodified versus modified ability proceeds at different rates and depends on the particular motor task.

Lifting, tasting, and carrying: The interaction of magnitude and valence effects in time perception

Magnitude effects (e.g., heavier or faster is longer) and valence effects (e.g., negative > positive) are widely observed in time perception studies, but not well understood. In four experiments, we explored how different action contexts (e.g., tasting, lifting) affected magnitude and valence effects. In two experiments a valence effect occurred: Tasting a sweet food (watermelon) led to temporal underestimations relative to a neutral stimulus, while sour and bitter foods led to overestimations. However, when the same foods were presented in a lifting context a magnitude effect occurred: Reproduced times for the heavier food (watermelon) were overestimated relative to the lighter foods. In a fourth experiment magnitude and valence interacted: Imagining tasting increasing amounts of lemon or carrying increasing loads of lemon, both negative, yielded magnitude effects; however, imagining carrying lemons to feed malnourished people, which was positive, did not. Results present challenges for several common theoretical approaches (e.g., arousal, attention, common magnitude theory) but provide support for affordance theory and perceptual salience theory. Timing depends on action relevance and is jointly shaped by valence and magnitude.

Perception of another person's maximum reach-with-jump height from walking kinematics

Humans can perceive affordances (possibilities for action) for themselves and others, including the maximum overhead height reachable by jumping (reach-with-jump height, RWJ). While observers can accurately perceive maximum RWJ for another person without previously seeing the person jump, estimates improve after viewing the person walk, suggesting there is structure in walking kinematics that is informative about the ability to produce vertical force for jumping. We used principal component analysis (PCA) to identify patterns in human walking kinematics that specify another person's maximum RWJ ability, and to determine whether athletes are more sensitive than non-athletes to these patterns. Kinematic data during treadmill walking were collected and submitted to PCA to obtain loading values for the kinematic time series variables on the first principal component. Kinematic data were also used to create point-light (PL) displays, in which the movement kinematics of PL walkers were manipulated using the obtained PCA loading values to determine how changes in body-segment movements impacted perception of maximum RWJ height. While manipulating individual segmental loadings in the PL displays did not substantially affect RWJ estimates, PL displays created by replacing the PCA loadings of a high-jumper with those of a low-jumper, and vice versa, resulted in corresponding reversals of participants' RWJ estimates, suggesting that the global structure of walking kinematics carries information about another's maximum RWJ height. Athletes exhibited greater sensitivity than controls to the kinematic manipulations, indicating that they are better attuned to useful kinematic information as a result of their sport experience.

The Impact of Home Motor Affordances on Motor, Cognitive and Social Development of Young Children

OBJECTIVE

The present study evaluated the influence of home motor affordances on motor, cognitive, and social development of young children.

MATERIALS & METHODS

The sample consisted of 49 Iranian children, aged 24-42 months. This study was conducted in Qouchan, Khorasan, Iran in 2015. They was randomly selected by multi-stage cluster sampling from a single community. Participant's homes were assessed using the Affordances in the Home Environment for Motor Development (AHEMD). The motor behavior of young child was measured with the Denver Developmental Screening Test, aspects of cognitive development (Total cognitive, Verbal IQ, and non-verbal IQ) were assessed using the Stanford-Binet scale, and finally, social development measured by the Vineland Adaptive Behavior Scale.

RESULTS

Although no statistically significant correlations were found between Total AHEMD scores and motor development, there were significant and positive correlations (P=0.04) for Total AHEMD with total cognitive development (r=0.29), verbal IQ (r=0.29), social development (r=0.33) and (P=0.019), SES (r=0.51) with (P=0.000). There was a significant relationship between the Play Materials subscale of the AHEMD with total cognitive development (r=0.32) with (P=0.024), verbal IQ (r=0.31) and (P=0.029), and social development (r=0.35) with (P=0.012). In addition, there were significant differences between total AHEMD score with parents who had an academic education.

CONCLUSION

Motor affordances in the home can have a significant positive influence on a young child's cognitive and social development.

Decoding Brain States for Planning Functional Grasps of Tools: A Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging Multivoxel Pattern Analysis Study

OBJECTIVES

We used multivoxel pattern analysis (MVPA) to investigate neural selectivity for grasp planning within the left-lateralized temporo-parieto-frontal network of areas (praxis representation network, PRN) typically associated with tool-related actions, as studied with traditional neuroimaging contrasts.

METHODS

We used data from 20 participants whose task was to plan functional grasps of tools, with either right or left hands. Region of interest and whole-brain searchlight analyses were performed to show task-related neural patterns.

RESULTS

MVPA revealed significant contributions to functional grasp planning from the anterior intraparietal sulcus (aIPS) and its immediate vicinities, supplemented by inputs from posterior subdivisions of IPS, and the ventral lateral occipital complex (vLOC). Moreover, greater local selectivity was demonstrated in areas near the superior parieto-occipital cortex and dorsal premotor cortex, putatively forming the dorso-dorsal stream.

CONCLUSIONS

A contribution from aIPS, consistent with its role in prospective grasp formation and/or encoding of relevant tool properties (e.g., potential graspable parts), is likely to accompany the retrieval of manipulation and/or mechanical knowledge subserved by the supramarginal gyrus for achieving action goals. An involvement of vLOC indicates that MVPA is particularly sensitive to coding of object properties, their identities and even functions, for a support of grip formation. Finally, the engagement of the superior parieto-frontal regions as revealed by MVPA is consistent with their selectivity for transient features of tools (i.e., variable affordances) for anticipatory hand postures. These outcomes support the notion that, compared to traditional approaches, MVPA can reveal more fine-grained patterns of neural activity. (JINS, 2018, 24, 1013-1025).

Visual detection of affordances for aperture negotiation in people with Parkinson disease

BACKGROUND

An essential requirement for the guidance of action in cluttered environments is that people can accurately perceive what actions are afforded by particular surroundings given the person's action capabilities. Research has shown that healthy young individuals turn their shoulders when walking through a doorway when the aperture is less than a certain percentage of their shoulder width and that they are able to detect this critical width with visual inspection. These findings imply that movements are constrained by perception of the environment in body-scaled unit.

OBJECTIVES

The present work examined whether the visual affordance of doorway passability is altered in people with Parkinson disease (PD).

METHODS

People with PD, healthy age-matched controls, and young adults (16 participants per group) walked through a series of apertures scaled to shoulder width. Participants also had to visually judge a series of apertures to determine if they could walk through the gap with their normal gait pattern. Finally, participants had to estimate their eye height.

RESULTS

Statistical analysis revealed that people with PD initiated shoulder turning to go through the doorway at larger apertures (A) relative to their shoulder (S) width (A/S = 1.61) in comparison to healthy age-matched participants (A/S = 1.41) and young adults (A/S = 1.26). In comparison to healthy participants, People with PD also judged wider apertures as impassable. Individuals with PD were less accurate in their estimation of eye height (Error = 10.1%) than the healthy older (Error = 6.29%) and younger adults (Error = 4.79%).

CONCLUSIONS

PD significantly impacted the affordances for aperture negotiation. Such altered perceptual affordances may contribute to gait pattern changes in people with PD when walking through doorways. These findings suggest that some of the motor symptoms in PD might have a perceptual underpinning.

Affordances-in-practice: An ethnographic critique of social media logic and context collapse

Drawing on data gathered during ethnographic fieldwork in Mardin, a medium-sized town in southeast Turkey, this article shows that social media users actively appropriate online platforms and change privacy settings in order to keep different social spheres and social groups apart. Keeping different online social contexts distinct from each other is taken for granted as a way of using social media in Mardin. By contrast, social media scholars have extensively discussed the effects of social media in terms of context collapse. The article highlights how context collapse is the result of patterns of usage within Anglo-American contexts and not the consequence of a platform's architecture or social media logic. It then suggests a theoretical refinement of affordances, and proposes the concept of affordances-in-practice.

Functional fixedness and body-part-as-object production in pantomime

In pantomiming the use of tools, it is possible to use a body part as the object (BPO) or imagine the object (IO). The present four studies test how conceptualizing the functions of objects may underlie BPO production in a non-clinical adult population. We showed that familiar vs. unfamiliar tools (Study 1) and visual experience only vs. visual + motor experience with novel tools (Study 2) made no difference in BPO production. In Study 3, participants showed a trend for higher BPO production for tools presented in two-dimensional pictures rather than in reality. In Study 4, participants' functional fixedness was experimentally manipulated: participants were told unfamiliar tools had either five functions or only one function. Participants produced significantly more BPOs in the one-function condition. These results suggest that conceptualizing objects as having a fixed function is a predictor of BPO production.

Electrophysiological study of action-affordance priming between object names

If our central representation of an object is defined through embodied experience, we might expect access to action affordances to be privileged over more abstract concepts. We used event-related potentials to examine the relative time course of access to affordances. Written object names were primed with the name of an object sharing the same affordance as the target (e.g. precision-grip: "grape" primed by "tweezers") or the same taxonomic category (e.g. fruit: "grape" primed by "apple"). N200 latencies, related to go/nogo semantic category decisions on target words, revealed no difference in facilitation provided by affordance and semantic priming. However, separate analyses of ERPs for go and nogo trials showed that semantic priming led to earlier activation during go trials (around 430 ms), and affordance priming led to earlier activation during nogo trials (around 180 ms). While affordances appear to be peripheral to the conceptual representation of objects, they do lead to direct motor preparation.

Children's perception of action boundaries and how it affects their climbing behavior

There are some concerns that children today may be less calibrated to their action capabilities because of the "risk-free" culture that has proliferated during recent decades. This study investigated the extent to which judgments of reaching affordances presented in different directions (i.e., overhead, diagonal, and horizontal) are related to children's climbing behavior on a climbing wall. A sample of 30 schoolchildren from 6 to 11years old (20 boys and 10 girls) estimated maximum reach and grasp distances and subsequently attempted to climb across an indoor climbing wall. Children who perceived the extents of their reach more accurately completed the climb more often and more quickly. Judgments in the primary directions of climbing locomotion (horizontal and diagonal) were better predictors of success than vertical judgments. Judgments about whether objects are reachable and graspable are complex and influenced by various dynamic factors (including perceptual-motor calibration), and as such different levels of accuracy are likely in different reaching directions. It appears that young children are relatively sensitive to their action boundaries for climbing and, therefore, may be able to make informed decisions themselves about whether a surface is climbable.

Parkour as a Donor Sport for Athletic Development in Youth Team Sports: Insights Through an Ecological Dynamics Lens

Analyses of talent development in sport have identified that skill can be enhanced through early and continued involvement in donor sports which share affordances (opportunities for action) with a performer’s main target sport. Aligning key ideas of the Athletic Skills Model and ecological dynamics theory, we propose how the sport of parkour could provide a representative and adaptive platform for developing athletic skill (e.g. coordination, timing, balance, agility, spatial awareness and muscular strength). We discuss how youth sport development programmes could be (re) designed to include parkour-style activities, in order to develop general athletic skills in affordance-rich environments. It is proposed that team sports development programmes could particularly benefit from parkour-style training since it is exploratory and adaptive nature shapes utilisation of affordances for innovative and autonomous performance by athletes. Early introduction to varied, relevant activities for development of athleticism and skill, in a diversified training programme, would provide impetus for a fundamental shift away from the early specialisation approach favoured by traditional theories of skill acquisition and expertise in sport.

Physical Growth, Body Scale, and Perceptual-Motor Development

In this chapter we consider from the theoretical framework of the ecological approach to perception and action, the relations between physical growth and body scale in the context of children's perceptual-motor development. Body scale and the timescale of its change through growth are shown to relate to the emergence and dissolution of the fundamental skills in infancy, the perception of what an environment affords functionally for action, together with the emergent pattern of movement coordination. A central issue in typical and atypical motor development is the mapping of the timescale of adaptive change in the acquisition of perceptual-motor skill to the accompanying timescale of change in physical growth.

Rate of recalibration to changing affordances for squeezing through doorways reveals the role of feedback

Recalibration of affordance perception in response to changing motor abilities can only occur if observers detect appropriate perceptual information. Recent work suggests that although many affordances can be recalibrated without practicing the specific action to gather outcome feedback-information about whether the attempted action succeeded or failed-calibration of other affordances might depend on outcome feedback (Franchak, Attent Percept Psychophys 79:1816-1829, 2017). However, past work could not rule out the possibility that practicing the action produced perceptual-motor feedback besides outcome feedback that facilitated recalibration. The results of two experiments support the hypothesis that recalibration in a doorway squeezing task depends on outcome feedback as opposed to perceptual-motor feedback. After putting on a backpack that changed participants' doorway squeezing ability, affordance judgments were uncalibrated and remained so even after making repeated judgments. However, after practicing the action, which produced outcome feedback, judgments rapidly calibrated. Moreover, the order of feedback information directly impacted participants' judgments: Participants did not recalibrate if they received only success experience or only failure experience. Recalibration only occurred after participants received both types of feedback experiences, suggesting that outcome feedback is necessary for recalibration in the doorway squeezing task. More generally, the results of the current study support a key tenet of ecological psychology-that affordance perception depends on action-specific information about body-environment relations.

Agents necessitating effects in newtonian time and space: from power and opportunity to effectivity

We extend stit logic by adding a spatial dimension. This enables us to distinguish between powers and opportunities of agents. Powers are agent-specific and do not depend on an agent's location. Opportunities do depend on locations, and are the same for every agent. The central idea is to define the real possibility to see to the truth of a condition in space and time as the combination of the power and the opportunity to do so. The focus on agent-relative powers and space-relative opportunities firmly roots effectivity of an autonomous choice making agent in a space-time picture. Our space-time view will be classically Newtonian, since we will assume relativistic phenomena do not play a role in agentive effectivity. We show how our semantics naturally distinguishes between different kinds of histories; histories that reflect real (factual) possibilities and histories that reflect counterfactual possibilities (of a particular hypothetical kind). Furthermore, we discuss how the spatial picture sheds light on conceptual problems plaguing the central stit property of 'independence of agency'. At several points in the article we will emphasise and defend the differences with Belnap's theory of agency in relativistic branching space-times.

Exploratory behaviors and recalibration: What processes are shared between functionally similar affordances?

Recalibration of affordance perception allows observers to adapt to changes in the body's size or abilities that alter possibilities for action. Of key interest is understanding how exploratory behaviors lead to successful recalibration. The present study was designed to test a novel hypothesis-that the same processes of exploration and recalibration should generalize between affordances that share a similar function. Most affordances for fitting the body through openings are recalibrated without feedback from practicing the action; locomotion exploration is sufficient. The present study used a different fitting task, squeezing through doorways, to determine whether locomotor experience was sufficient for recalibrating to changes in body size that altered affordances. Participants were unable to recalibrate from locomotor experience, demonstrating that exploratory behaviors do not necessarily generalize between functionally similar affordances. Participants only recalibrated following action practice or after receiving feedback about judgment accuracy, suggesting that the informational requirements of the squeezing task may differ from those of other fitting tasks. Implications for affordance theory are discussed.

General ecological information supports engagement with affordances for 'higher' cognition

In this paper, we address the question of how an agent can guide its behavior with respect to aspects of the sociomaterial environment that are not sensorily present. A simple example is how an animal can relate to a food source while only sensing a pheromone, or how an agent can relate to beer, while only the refrigerator is directly sensorily present. Certain cases in which something is absent have been characterized by others as requiring 'higher' cognition. An example of this is how during the design process architects can let themselves be guided by the future behavior of visitors to an exhibit they are planning. The main question is what the sociomaterial environment and the skilled agent are like, such that they can relate to each other in these ways. We argue that this requires an account of the regularities in the environment. Introducing the notion of general ecological information, we will give an account of these regularities in terms of constraints, information and the form of life or ecological niche. In the first part of the paper, we will introduce the skilled intentionality framework as conceptualizing a special case of an animal's informational coupling with the environment namely skilled action. We will show how skilled agents can pick up on the regularities in the environment and let their behavior be guided by the practices in the form of life. This conceptual framework is important for radical embodied and enactive cognitive science, because it allows these increasingly influential paradigms to extend their reach to forms of 'higher' cognition such as long-term planning and imagination.

The anticipating brain is not a scientist: the free-energy principle from an ecological-enactive perspective

In this paper, we argue for a theoretical separation of the free-energy principle from Helmholtzian accounts of the predictive brain. The free-energy principle is a theoretical framework capturing the imperative for biological self-organization in information-theoretic terms. The free-energy principle has typically been connected with a Bayesian theory of predictive coding, and the latter is often taken to support a Helmholtzian theory of perception as unconscious inference. If our interpretation is right, however, a Helmholtzian view of perception is incompatible with Bayesian predictive coding under the free-energy principle. We argue that the free energy principle and the ecological and enactive approach to mind and life make for a much happier marriage of ideas. We make our argument based on three points. First we argue that the free energy principle applies to the whole animal-environment system, and not only to the brain. Second, we show that active inference, as understood by the free-energy principle, is incompatible with unconscious inference understood as analagous to scientific hypothesis-testing, the main tenet of a Helmholtzian view of perception. Third, we argue that the notion of inference at work in Bayesian predictive coding under the free-energy principle is too weak to support a Helmholtzian theory of perception. Taken together these points imply that the free energy principle is best understood in ecological and enactive terms set out in this paper.

Constraints representing a meta-stable régime facilitate exploration during practice and transfer of learning in a complex multi-articular task

Previous investigations have shown that inducing meta-stability in behavior can be achieved by overlapping affordances through constraint manipulation, allowing cooperative and competitive tendencies to functionally coexist. The purpose of this paper was to test a number of conditions applying these design principles on performance during skills practice and transfer. Of additional interest, was whether the existing skill level interacted with the environmental properties of the experimental tasks (varying indoor climbing routes). Two skill groups practised on three routes per session over four separate sessions. At the end of the final session, climbers undertook a transfer test. Routes, matched for difficulty, were manipulated in terms of hand-hold design. Route-1 and Route-2 were designed with holds with a single graspable edge, aligned entirely parallel or perpendicular to the ground plane respectively. Route-3 had at each hold, two graspable edges (one parallel and one perpendicular to the ground plane). Behavioral exploration at the hip and hands were largest under the metastable condition (Route-3). Skill level also interacted with route properties during practice and influenced transfer. Data suggest meta-stability induces exploratory behaviors. Less skilled individuals explore both hand and hip levels, whereas, more experienced climbers explore at the hip level.