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Research The Mission of the Perception/Action Lab The approach in the Perception/Action Lab is based on a number of principles: (1) Perception and action are synergistic and mutually constraining or determining. There is no perception without action and there is no action without perception. (2) Perception requires information: in light for vision; in sound for audition, in movement for proprioception. Because perception and action are inexorably linked, information is found in spatial-temporal patterns. Movement is an essential part of the game. (3) Information is based on natural law and dynamics. Physical dynamics constrain and determine the forms of motions in events including human actions. Those forms project to the forms in information carrying media (e.g. light and sound). Research in the lab is focused on visual, proprioceptive and haptic perception and then, human actions performed with the upper limbs: reaching-to-grasp, overarm throwing, and rhythmic limb movements, as well as the coordinate looking movements. We study action, but our primary focus and commitment is to the study of perception as the foundation for all actions. Visually Guided Reaches-to-Grasp Visually guided reach-to-grasp abilities underwrite the tremendous success humans have had in adapting to terrestrial environments and molding them to human needs and purposes. As one might expect, the ability is complex. Reaches are initiated under largely feedforward or open loop control. Halfway through a reach, however, feedback or closed loop control becomes paramount, and is especially important for accurate grasping. We have investigated the essential forms of movement exhibited by reaches-to-grasp and the ways they vary with task. We have studied the feedforward control of reaching and how visual information about the surrounding layout of objects is used to guide reaches. (See also research on Calibration.) The information used to guide a reach includes visual perception of object distance, size and shape. The latter is particularly problematic. (See research on Shape Perception.) We have shown that problems in shape perception make the online guidance of the final stages of a reach-to-grasp essential for fact and accurate performance. The question is what information is used to guide this portion of a reach-to-grasp? We have studied and rejected various candidate information variables and are currently involved in extensive research investigating our prime candidate: Tau (roughly, 'time-to-contact') defined to control binocular disparity matching. Related Publications Iberall, T., Bingham, G.P., and Arbib, M.A. (1986). Opposition space as a structuring concept for the analysis of skilled hand movements. Experimental Brain Research Series, 15. Heidelberg: Springer-Verlag. Bingham, G.P. & Zaal, F.T.J.M. (2004). Why it is probably not used to guide reaches. In H. Hecht & G.J.P. Savelsbergh (Eds.) Theories of Time-to-Contact. Boston: MIT Press. Mon-Williams, M., Coats, R., & Bingham, G. P. (2004). Reaching with feeling. Journal of Vision, 4(8), 411a. Bingham, G., Hughes, K., & Mon-Williams, M. (in press). Grasping coordination with both hands: Information demands asynchronous timing. Experimental Brain Research. Mon-Williams, M. & Bingham, G.P. (submitted). Slam, stop, and fly-through: The coordinative timing and structure of reach-to-grasp movements varies with task. Experimental Brain Research. Space Perception and the Calibration of Reach-To-Grasp Actions Successful reaches-to-grasp require visual guidance and this, in turn, entails perception of the distance, direction, size and shape of objects to guide the early, feedforward portion of a reach. All the traditional questions and problems of space perception (the oldest area in the study of perception) apply. What is the information used to see each of these properties? How accurately and reliably can they be perceived? In this context especially, perception is essentially a (physical) dynamically constrained relationship between the perceiver/actor and the surroundings. As such, its stability is at issue. It's a measurement system that is subject to drift and thus, it must be calibrated. Perceptual units must be stably related to the units of action. We have shown the form and importance of the calibration dynamic in visually guided reach-to-grasp actions and its role in each of the forms of information needed to guide a reach-to-grasp. This way of thinking about perception and visually guided actions is new and different and thus, controversial. A lot of evidence will have to amassed before this way of thinking becomes well established. Related Publications Bingham, G.P. & Stassen, M.G. (1994). Monocular egocentric distance information generated by head movement. Ecological Psychology, 6(3), 219-238. Bingham, G.P. & Pagano, C.C. (1998). The necessity of a perception/action approach to definite distance perception: Monocular distance perception to guide reaching. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 24 , 145-168. Pagano, C.C. & Bingham, G.P. (1998). Comparing measures of monocular distance perception: Verbal and reaching errors are not correlated. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 24 (4), 1037-1051. Bingham, G.P. & Romack, J.L. (1999). The rate of adaptation to displacement prisms remains constant despite acquisition of rapid calibration. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 25(5), 1331-1346. Wickelgren, E.A., McConnell, D. & Bingham, G.P. (2000). Reaching measures of monocular distance perception: Forward vs side-to-side head movements and haptic feedback. Perception & Psychophysics, 62 (5), 1051-1059. Bingham, G.P. (2005). Allometry and space perception: Compression of optical ground texture yields decreasing ability to resolve differences in spatial scale. Ecological Psychology, 17(3&4), 193-204. Bingham, G.P., Coats, R. & Mon-Williams, M. (2007). Unnatural prehension to virtual objects is not inevitable if calibration is allowed. Neuropsychologia, 45, 288-294. Mon-Williams, M. & Bingham, G.P. (in press). Calibrating reach distance to visual targets. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance Coats, R., Bingham, G.P. & Mon-Williams, M. (in press). Reaching with feeling: somatosensory feedback calibrates reaching and grasping. Experimental Brain Research. Reaching in Virtual Environments versus Actual Environments Virtual environments (VE) provide a potentially wonderful tool for the perception/action lab. In a VE, its possible to manipulate visual information and its directly geared relation to action. But this is at a cost. VE are not the same as Actual Environments (AE). Visual perception does not normally entail the looking at an image, but it does in a VE. A VE perturbs vision and actions guided by vision. We have studied and described the exact nature of such perturbations, especially in the case of visually guided reaching. Related Publications Bingham, G.P., Bradley, A., Bailey, M., Vinner, R. (2001). Accommodation, occlusion and disparity matching are used to guide reaching: A comparison of actual versus virtual environments. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 27(6), 1314-1344. Reaching-To-Grasp and Metric Shape Perception from Stereovision and Structure-from-Motion We (and many others in the literature) have shown that the perception of metric shape is shockingly bad. In fact, we have found that metric space perception is generally poor, except in the context of relevant actions where calibration of the relation between perception and action can yield accurate and stable perceptually guided performance. Unfortunately, this does not help in the case of shape perception. We showed that position perception (distance and direction of objects) is independent of shape perception and the latter cannot be calibrated. (See also research on Calibration.) Athough we have recently found that good perception of metric shape is possible under certain conditions, it has become clear that continuous online guidance of the final phases of a reach-to-grasp is necessary for reliably accurate performance. (See research on reach-to-grasp actions.) As if the perception of 3D object shapes were not challenging enough, we are now studying whether visualization methods are effective in allowing users to perceive the shapes of 4D objects. We are investigating the best training methods to allow users to learn to see 4D objects and their properties. Related Publications Bingham, G.P., Zaal, F., Robin, D. & Shull, J.A. (2000). Distortions in definite distance and shape perception as measured by reaching without and with haptic feedback. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26 (4), 1436-1460. Lind, M., Bingham, G.P. & Forsell, C. (2002). The illusion of perceived 3D metric structure. Proceedings of the IEEE InfoVis Conference 2002. Bingham, G.P., Crowell, J.A. & Todd, J.T. (2004). Distortions of distance and shape are not produced by a single continuous transformation of reach space. Perception & Psychophysics, 66(1), 152-169. Bingham, G.P. & Lind, M. (submitted). Large continuous perspective transformations are necessary and sufficient for accurate perception of metric shape. Perception & Psychophysics. Lee, Y.L., Norman, F., & Bingham, G.P. (submitted). Poor shape perception is the reason that reaches-to- grasp are visually guided online. Perception & Psychophysics. Perceiving the Shape of 4D Objects As if the perception of 3D object shapes were not challenging enough, we are now studying whether visualization methods are effective in allowing users to perceive the shapes of 4D objects. We are investigating the best training methods to allow users to learn to see 4D objects and their properties. This is a major new project in the lab. Related Publications Thakur, S., Hanson, A. & Bingham, G.P. (2006). Active visualization methods enable perception of sturcture from motion in higher dimensional spaces: Comparing active and passive perception of the rigidity of 3D and 4D objects. Journal of Vision, 6(6), 864a. Nonlinear Dynamics, Self-Organization and Bimanual Coordination Bimanual coordination (it ain't just the hands) is fundamental to human action. It is required when ever two limbs are moved at the same time to perform some action, walking, running, hopping, bicycling, typing, drumming, playing nearly any instrument, so on and so forth. Merely moving two joints in different limbs (e.g. moving the wrists or the elbows or two fingers in different hands) in a rhythmic or oscillatory fashion reveals complex structure in the kinematics (i.e. measured movements) that is a signature of self-organizational nonlinear dynamics. Its coupled oscillators, but what is the nature of the coupling. We have shown that its perceptual. We began with visual judgment studies, then continued with proprioceptive judgment studies and finally, perception/action studies that enabled us to manipulate the visual information independently of the movements to show that the stability of the behavior was a function of the perceptual information. Most recently, we have shown that new coordinations can be acquired by learning to perceive new information which can then be used immediately to guide the new behavior. We are currently developing this work for applications in the study of stroke. Related Publications Bingham, G.P. (1995). The role of perception in timing: Feedback control in motor programming and task dynamics. In E. Covey, H. Hawkins, T. McMullen & R. Port (Eds.) Neural Representation of Temporal Patterns , pp. 129-157. New York: Plenum Press. Bingham, G.P., Schmidt, R.C. & Zaal, F. (1999). Visual perception of the relative phasing of human limb movements. Perception & Psychophysics, 61(2), 246-258. Zaal, F., Bingham, G.P. & Schmidt, R.C. (2000). Visual perception of relative phase and phase variability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 26(3), 1209- 1220. Bingham, G.P., Zaal, F.T.J.M., Shull, J.A. and Collins, D.R. (2001). The effect of frequency on visual perception of relative phase and phase variability. Experimental Brain Research, 136, 543-552. Bingham, G.P. (2001). A perceptually driven dynamical model of rhythmic limb movement and bimanual coordination. Proceedings of the 23rd Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society, (pp. 75-79). Hillsdale, N.J., LEA Publishers. Wilson , A., Craig, J.C. & Bingham, G.P. (2003). Haptic perception of phase variability. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 29, 1179-1190. Bingham, G.P. (2004). A perceptually driven dynamical model of bimanual rhythmic movement (and phase perception). Ecological Psychology, 16(1),45-53. Bingham, G.P. (2004). Another timing variable composed of state variables: Phase perception and phase driven oscillators. In H. Hecht & G.J.P. Savelsbergh (Eds.) Theories of Time-to-Contact. Boston: MIT Press. Wilson, A., Collins, D.R. & Bingham, G.P. (2005). Perceptual coupling in rhythmic movement coordination stable perception leads to stable action. Experimental Brain Research, 164, 517-528. Wilson, A., Collins, D.R. & Bingham, G.P. (2005). Human movement coordination implicates relative direction as the information for relative phase. Experimental Brain Research, 165, 351-361. Wilson, A. & Bingham, G.P. (submitted). A Perception/Action Approach to Rhythmic Movement Coordination I: Improved Perception Leads (Eventually) to Improved Movement Stability. Experimental Brain Research. Wilson, A. & Bingham, G.P. (submitted). A Perception/Action Approach to Rhythmic Movement Coordination II: Perturbations of Relative Position, Speed and Direction to Perturb Phase Perception.Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Affordances and Maximum Distance Overarm Throwing Visually guided reaching is certainly an essential part of the human condition Maximum distance overarm throwing is an extension of reaching abilities and it arguably made the survival of the human species, especially during the ice ages, possible. The skill is not ubiquitous among people, although its potential is. The skill, when acquired, is accompanied by the ability to perceive affordances for throwing in objects that are potential projectiles. Some are better than others for maximum distance throws and people can perceive this by hefting objects. There is an optimum weight in each size object. How do people do this? We have hypothesized that its through a Smart Perceptual Mechanism (SPM), that is, a shared dynamic between throwing and hefting. This SPM is fundamental to the ability to learn to perceive the affordance. Ongoing research on learning to throw is showing how the perception and the skill are coupled by the SPM. Related Publications Bingham, G.P., Schmidt, R.C., & Rosenblum, L.D. (1989). Hefting for a maximum distance throw: A smart perceptual mechanism. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 15(3), 507-528. Zhu, Q. & Bingham, G.P. (In Press). Is hefting to perceive affordances for throwing a smart perceptual mechanism? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance. Visual Event Perception What is the visual information used to recognize events like a person walking with a limp or a bouncing ball that splashes into water? We have hypothesized that events are spatial-temporal objects, and like objects, are recognized through their forms. A trajectory form consists of the shape of a path of motion and of the speed profile along that path. We have found that these forms can be discriminated by 8-month old infants and adults alike and used to recognize events seen from different 3D perspectives. Related Publications Wickelgren, E. & Bingham, G.P. (2001). Infant sensitivity to trajectory forms. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 27 (4), 942-952. Muchisky, M.M. & Bingham, G.P. (2002). Trajectory forms as a source of information about events.Perception & Psychophysics, 64(1), 15-31. Wickelgren, E.A. & Bingham, G.P. (2004). Perspective distortion of trajectory forms and perceptual constancy in visual event identification. Perception & Psychophysics, 66, 629-641. Wickelgren, E. & Bingham, G.P. (in press). Trajectory forms as information for visual event recognition: 3D perspectives on path shape and speed profile. Perception & Psychophysics. Bingham, G.P. & Wickelgren, E.A. (in press). Events and Actions as dynamically molded spatial-temporal objects: A critique of the motor theory of biological motion perception. In T. Shipley & J. Zacks (Eds.)Event Perception, Oxford University Press: Oxford, UK. What makes trajectory forms so informative? The underlying physical dynamics of events molds the trajectories into the specific forms that uniquely correspond to given events. Event dynamics also relate the timing and spatial character of events. Because of this, timing can be used to perceive the spatial scale of events, that is, the size of objects in events and how far away they are. Related Publications Bingham, G.P. (1995). Dynamics and the problem of visual event recognition. In Port, R. & T. van Gelder (eds.), Mind as Motion: Dynamics, Behavior and Cognition, (pp403-448). Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. Bingham, G.P., Rosenblum, L.D. & Schmidt, R.C. (1995). Dynamics and the orientation of kinematic forms in visual event recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance , 21(6), 1473-1493. McConnell, D.S., Muchisky, M.M. & Bingham, G.P. (1998). The use of time and trajectory forms as visual information about spatial scale in events. Perception & Psychophysics, 60 (7), 1175-1187. Twardy, C. & Bingham, G.P. (2002). Causation, causal perception and conservation laws. Perception & Psychophysics, 64 (6). 956-968. Many questions remain. How do trajectory forms combine with relative phase information to provide information about complex events like those that involve multiple human actions as observed during a football game or dance competition, a wrestling match or a basketball game? How does the human visual system detect and use such information that entails both a large number of degrees of freedom (that is, lots of parts moving in different ways) and such significantly time extended behavior?

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