61 posts · 35,912 views
Andrew D Wilson & Sabrina Golonka are two psychologists who are interested in developing a more coherent, naturalised approach to the scientific study of human behaviour. Andrew studies the perceptual control of action, with a special interest in learning. Sabrina studies similarity and categorisation. We're both interested in exploring non-representational theories in psychology, including dynamical systems and ecological psychology.
Andrew Wilson
61 posts
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- June 7, 2011
- 06:37 AM
- 564 views
Perceiving long distances in action scaled units
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
I have so many things I need to write up just now, but it's been a struggle finding the time. I hope to post on Chemero's last chapter, task-specific devices, calibration and some new coordination data soon. In the meantime, I thought I'd take advantage of the fact that I'm reading some new articles on an interesting topic, and I wanted to organise some thoughts and see if anyone had any comments!Perception is action-scaledTraditional theories of perception claim that we perceive the world in ge........ Read more »
Witt JK, Proffitt DR, & Epstein W. (2010) When and how are spatial perceptions scaled?. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 36(5), 1153-60. PMID: 20731519
- May 8, 2011
- 08:23 AM
- 386 views
Failing to Replicate Bem's Ability to Get Published in a Major Journal
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
I think Daryl Bem has done psychology an enormous favour. Possibly even two.As you probably know, Bem is the author of 'Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect', a paper with claims to have found evidence for precognition by running standard psychological experiments in reverse and demonstrating small but statistically reliable effects on behaviour of stimuli which came after the response was made. I posted briefly about it her........ Read more »
Bem, D. (2011) Feeling the future: Experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 100(3), 407-425. DOI: 10.1037/a0021524
- March 29, 2011
- 02:22 PM
- 819 views
Chemero (2009) Chapter 7: Affordances, etc (Pt 1)
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
If you want perception to be direct (no 'mental gymnastics') you must identify where the content of perceptual experience comes from; when I view a chair, for example, I don't see a meaningless or random collection of surfaces or colours, I see an object that I can interact with in some ways and not others. For traditional, indirect theories of perception, this meaning is constructed internally: mental representations perform transformations (perhaps computational ones) on sensory input to infer........ Read more »
Turvey, M. (1992) Affordances and Prospective Control: An Outline of the Ontology. Ecological Psychology, 4(3), 173-187. DOI: 10.1207/s15326969eco0403_3
Turvey, M. T., Shaw, R. E., Reed, E. S., . (1981) Ecological laws of perceiving and acting: In reply to Fodor and Pylyshyn (1981). Cognition, 9(3), 237-304. DOI: 10.1016/0010-0277(81)90002-0
- March 15, 2011
- 08:15 AM
- 957 views
Chemero (2009), Chapter 5: Guides to Discovery
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The dynamical stance laid out by Chemero in the previous chapter has a potential flaw (besides being a bit weak-ass) - it's not clear how it can serve as a guide to discovery. How do you do productive science taking this approach? Chemero is going to make two suggestions, only one of which I think works: first, he's going to suggest dynamical models such as the Haken-Kelso-Bunz (HKB) model can serve to stimulate empirical work even when they are entirely phenomenological. This approach is, I thi........ Read more »
Chemero, A. (2000) Anti-Representationalism and the Dynamical Stance. Philosophy of Science, 67(4), 625. DOI: 10.1086/392858
- February 1, 2011
- 08:33 AM
- 589 views
The Size-Weight Illusion is Functional, and It's About Throwing
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
My colleagues, Geoff Bingham and Qin Zhu, have recently published some fascinating data which has emerged from their work on the uniquely human skill, long-distance throwing. This is a novel and rich perception-action task which Bingham and Zhu (and recently, me) have been investigating for some time, with many interesting results. I'll get onto blogging about this project once I've caught up with the coordination studies and have had some time to get my head around the data I'm helping generate........ Read more »
Zhu, Q., & Bingham, G. (2011) Human readiness to throw: the size–weight illusion is not an illusion when picking the best objects to throw☆. Evolution and Human Behavior. DOI: 10.1016/j.evolhumbehav.2010.11.005
- January 25, 2011
- 02:51 PM
- 1,118 views
Identifying the Visual Information for Relative Phase
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Bingham's model predicts that the information for relative phase is the relative direction of movement. The first direct test of this hypothesis was the experiment that followed on from my learning study, in which we systematically perturbed the various candidate information variables to see which affected performance in the perceptual judgement task.I like this study a lot, if I do say so myself. It's a serious attempt to make a strong test of the model's predictions, and we invested a lot of t........ Read more »
Wilson, A. D., & Bingham, G. P. (2008) Identifying the information for the visual perception of relative phase. Perception , 70(3), 465-476. DOI: 10.3758/PP.70.3.465
- January 18, 2011
- 01:56 PM
- 874 views
Perceptual Learning Stabilises Action: A Test of the Bingham Model
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Bingham's perception-action model was initially inspired by perceptual judgement studies (using vision and proprioception). The HKB phenomena are movement phenomena, however; simply noting that the same qualitative pattern is seen in different judgement and action studies is a good first step but only suggestive, at best. We therefore next took simultaneous judgement & action measures from a movement task where we manipulated the feedback display (Wilson et al, 2005a). For instance, when the........ Read more »
Wilson, A., Snapp-Childs, W., & Bingham, G. (2010) Perceptual learning immediately yields new stable motor coordination. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 36(6), 1508-1514. DOI: 10.1037/a0020412
- January 11, 2011
- 05:21 AM
- 888 views
There's No Prospective Information About Friction, or, Why I Fell Over on the Ice
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
In which I justify why I, a healthy perceiver-actor, slipped and fell on a clearly visible icy patch, breaking my wrist for the second time, using SCIENCE.
It's been a cold, icy winter here this year, and 6 weeks ago I slipped on a patch of ice and fell entirely on my (previously broken) wrist. The ensuing physics did enough damage that I needed surgery to set the wrist with two pins, and I am only today out of the cast. These kinds of falls and injuries are very common; half of all falls i........ Read more »
Joh AS, Adolph KE, Campbell MR, & Eppler MA. (2006) Why walkers slip: shine is not a reliable cue for slippery ground. Perception , 68(3), 339-52. PMID: 16900828
Joh AS, Adolph KE, Narayanan PJ, & Dietz VA. (2007) Gauging possibilities for action based on friction underfoot. Journal of Experimental Psychology. Human Perception and Performance, 33(5), 1145-57. PMID: 17924813
- November 16, 2010
- 10:14 AM
- 858 views
A Perception/Action Model of Coordination
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
It's easy to build a model that can fit your data. It's much harder to build a model that actually reflects the perception/action mechanism for a task, but such models are critical. The only current example in the literature is Bingham's model of bimanual coordinated rhythmic movement, and this is how he made it.... Read more »
Bingham, G. (2004) A Perceptually Driven Dynamical Model of Bimanual Rhythmic Movement (and Phase Perception). Ecological Psychology, 16(1), 45-53. DOI: 10.1207/s15326969eco1601_6
- November 9, 2010
- 09:20 AM
- 908 views
Establishing the Role of Perception in Coordination: Proprioception and Action Measures
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Previous research had established that relative phase could be perceived visually: but actual actions entail proprioception. In addition, the judgement experiments are not the same as movements. ... Read more »
Wilson, A., Bingham, G., & Craig, J. (2003) Proprioceptive Perception of Phase Variability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 29(6), 1179-1190. DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.29.6.1179
Wilson, AD., Collins, D., & Bingham, GP. (2005) Perceptual coupling in rhythmic movement coordination: stable perception leads to stable action. Experimental Brain Research, 164(4), 517-528. DOI: 10.1007/s00221-005-2272-3
- October 26, 2010
- 09:49 AM
- 800 views
Visual perception of coordinated rhythmic movements
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Experiments on coordinated rhythmic movement had suggested that relative phase could be visually perceived. In a series of careful experiments, Bingham & colleagues established that not only was in perceivable, but it was perceived in a way that mirrored the movement phenomena.... Read more »
Bingham GP, Schmidt RC, & Zaal FT. (1999) Visual perception of the relative phasing of human limb movements. Perception , 61(2), 246-58. PMID: 10089759
Bingham, G., Zaal, F., Shull, J., & Collins, D. (2001) The effect of frequency on the visual perception of relative phase and phase variability of two oscillating objects. Experimental Brain Research, 136(4), 543-552. DOI: 10.1007/s002210000610
Zaal, F., Bingham, G., & Schmidt, R. (2000) Visual perception of mean relative phase and phase variability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26(3), 1209-1220. DOI: 10.1037/0096-1523.26.3.1209
- October 19, 2010
- 12:25 PM
- 1,114 views
The Ames Room and the Bower Bird
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
Research showing how bower-birds exploit perspective structure when building their bowers demonstrates why it's important to consider the role of perception when explaining how humans respond to, say, the Ames Room... Read more »
Endler, J., Endler, L., & Doerr, N. (2010) Great Bowerbirds Create Theaters with Forced Perspective When Seen by Their Audience. Current Biology, 20(18), 1679-1684. DOI: 10.1016/j.cub.2010.08.033
- October 6, 2010
- 08:09 PM
- 545 views
Runeson, the Ames Room and the Irrelevance of Equivalent Configurations
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
One of the most common objections to Gibson's ecological approach to perception is to point to illusions such as the Ames Room as evidence of how perception can be fooled, revealing the assumptions required. Gehringer & Engel (1986) put Gibson to the test against the Ames Room, but their final conclusion (that there was still a residual error, disproving Gibson) was based on a misreading of Gibson and numerous other key problems. Runeson's (1988) rebuttal stands as a model paper for an........ Read more »
Gehringer, W., & Engel, E. (1986) Effect of ecological viewing conditions on the Ames' distorted room illusion. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 12(2), 181-185. DOI: 10.1037//0096-1523.12.2.181
Runeson, S. (1988) The distorted room illusion, equivalent configurations, and the specificity of static optic arrays. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 14(2), 295-304. DOI: 10.1037//0096-1523.14.2.295
- September 14, 2010
- 09:25 AM
- 741 views
Learning a Novel Coordination; Things Get Interesting
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The dynamic pattern approach to studying coordinated rhythmic movement makes a key prediction: that learning a novel coordination close to 0° should be harder than learning one close to 180°. Two papers tested this hypothesis and found conclusive evidence against it.... Read more »
Fontaine, R., Lee, T., & Swinnen, S. (1997) Learning a new bimanual coordination pattern: Reciprocal influences of intrinsic and to-be-learned patterns. Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology/Revue canadienne de psychologie expérimentale, 51(1), 1-9. DOI: 10.1037/1196-1961.51.1.1
Wenderoth N, Bock O, & Krohn R. (2002) Learning a new bimanual coordination pattern is influenced by existing attractors. Motor control, 6(2), 166-82. PMID: 12122225
- September 12, 2010
- 07:52 PM
- 453 views
Is Cognition Extended?
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The extended mind/cognition hypothesis is that objects in our environments can literally become part of our cognition. This has numerous implications for how we should be doing psychology and neuroscience, but the argument is currently most robust in the philosophy of mind literature. Two staunch critics are Adams & Aizawa, who claim the hypothesis is grounded in a fallacy.... Read more »
Adams, F., Aizawa, K. (2001) The bounds of cognition. Philosophical Psychology, 14(1), 43-64. DOI: 10.1080/09515080120033571
- August 30, 2010
- 06:33 PM
- 686 views
"Moving Through Time" and embodied cognition
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The term 'embodied cognition' gets used in many different ways in psychology. One problematic way is to look for subtle effects of cognition on behaviour that somehow mirror what the researcher believes is the structure in the cognitive act. Case in point: "Moving Through Time".... Read more »
Miles, L., Nind, L., Macrae, C. (2010) Moving Through Time. Psychological Science, 21(2), 222-223. DOI: 10.1177/0956797609359333
- August 24, 2010
- 05:01 PM
- 1,115 views
Coordination and the Haken-Kelso-Bunz Model
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The first attempt to model coordinated rhythmic movement was the Haken-Kelso-Bunz (HKB) model. This model embodies a particular approach to modelling complex systems that has become common in perception/action research... Read more »
Haken, H., Kelso, J.A.S., Bunz, H. (1985) A theoretical model of phase transitions in human hand movements. Biological Cybernetics, 51(5), 347-356. DOI: 10.1007/BF00336922
- May 11, 2010
- 11:38 AM
- 1,040 views
Affordances, Part 2: Affordances are relations between organism and environment
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
In an attempt to formalise Gibson's (1979) concept of affordances, Turvey (1992) defined them as real, dispositional properties of the environment. Two other authors have instead characterised them as real relational properties, defined across an organism-environment system.... Read more »
Chemero, A. (2003) An Outline of a Theory of Affordances. Ecological Psychology, 15(2), 181-195. DOI: 10.1207/S15326969ECO1502_5
Stoffregen, T. (2000) Affordances and Events. Ecological Psychology, 12(1), 1-28. DOI: 10.1207/S15326969ECO1201_1
Stoffregen, T. (2003) Affordances as Properties of the Animal-Environment System. Ecological Psychology, 15(2), 115-134. DOI: 10.1207/S15326969ECO1502_2
- May 10, 2010
- 12:15 PM
- 984 views
Affordances, Part 1: Affordances are real dispositions of the environment
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
A key concept in ecological psychology is that of affordances. There is still uncertainty how to characterise these (slightly odd) properties, and the first formal attempt was by Turvey (1992).... Read more »
Turvey, M. (1992) Affordances and Prospective Control: An Outline of the Ontology. Ecological Psychology, 4(3), 173-187. DOI: 10.1207/s15326969eco0403_3
- April 18, 2010
- 07:41 PM
- 1,004 views
"Smart" perceptual mechanisms
by Andrew Wilson in Notes from Two Scientific Psychologists
The polar planimeter is a device which directly measures area, and Runeson suggests it might serve as a model for the detection of the higher-order variables proposed by Gibson... Read more »
RUNESON, S. (1977) On the possibility of "smart" perceptual mechanisms. Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 18(1), 172-179. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9450.1977.tb00274.x
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