Chapter 3 Space perception and intended action

Intended actions are movements that are planned and executed for the very purpose of producing a specific effect, namely, the movement's outcome. This chapter discusses the close relationship between space perception and the intentional control of action. Proceeding from the assumption that intended actions are controlled by the anticipation of their effects, it is argued that intentional control demands three preconditions: (1) The relationship between the movement and its outcomes has to be systematic. (2) The visual system must be able to experience and recognize the systematicity of this relationship. (3) Information about which effects actually can be produced at that moment must be available. The discussion of these preconditions leads to the conclusion that intentional control of action requires a representation of all possible changes of the proximal stimulation (i.e., the reafferences) that can be produced by active movements. Saccadic eye movements are used as an example, to show that the perceptual space meets that demand, because it can be conceived as the entirety of all sensory changes (reafferences) that can be produced by saccades at that moment. This description is based on a view of retinal change as a temporal rather than a spatial variation. It is argued that every momentary stimulus situation is represented perceptually by nothing other than by how it can be changed by active movements. The possible changes are what Gibson has termed affordances. The underlying invariance is the law by which the sensory state can be changed by intentions. Some consequences of this account are considered.

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