The direct perception hypothesis: perceiving the intention of another’s action hinders its precise imitation

We argue that imitation is a learning response to unintelligible actions, especially to social conventions. Various strands of evidence are converging on this conclusion, but further progress has been hampered by an outdated theory of perceptual experience. Comparative psychology continues to be premised on the doctrine that humans and nonhuman primates only perceive others’ physical ‘surface behavior’, while mental states are perceptually inaccessible. However, a growing consensus in social cognition research accepts the Direct Perception Hypothesis: primarily we see what others aim to do; we do not infer it from their motions. Indeed, physical details are overlooked – unless the action is unintelligible. On this basis we hypothesize that apes’ propensity to copy the goal of an action, rather than its precise means, is largely dependent on its perceived intelligibility. Conversely, children copy means more often than adults and apes because, uniquely, much adult human behavior is completely unintelligible to unenculturated observers due to the pervasiveness of arbitrary social conventions, as exemplified by customs, rituals, and languages. We expect the propensity to imitate to be inversely correlated with the familiarity of cultural practices, as indexed by age and/or socio-cultural competence. The Direct Perception Hypothesis thereby helps to parsimoniously explain the most important findings of imitation research, including children’s over-imitation and other species-typical and age-related variations

Emergence of collective behaviour. How Individual Regulation Matters in Elaborating Team Patterns in Football

This project analysed processes leading to the emergence of collective behaviour patterns. Collective behaviour, considered as self-organized, emerges from individual activities that interplay as the activity unfolds. One aim of this project was to explore how individuals regulate their activity to participate to the elaboration of collective behaviour. Sport science literature did not consider the individual regulation as a main focus to understand team behaviour. The regulation has been assumed rather than investigated. To this end, we described the variety of informational resources used by team members during a football game. We adopted an epistemological approach that was respectful of how humans regulate their agent-environment coupling, which was the enactive approach. From this approach, sense-making is assumed to be central in delineating the dynamics of the agent-environment coupling, and the phenomenological experience of the agent was seriously considered in the study designs. The results identified various informational resources, which we ranked along a continuum from local resources to global resources. The subsequent goal was to understand the relationship between individual regulation and its consequences in the collective behaviour. Grounded in the use of a computer simulation tool, the project simulated the spatiotemporal collective behaviour of a multi-agent system built to capture the essentials of football team behaviours and to evaluate how the dynamical outcomes (i.e., the collective behaviour patterns) depend on individual adjustment modalities. These adjustment modalities were implemented in the simulation. More specifically, the simulation study generated a large amount of spatiotemporal data that are hard to capture in ecological situation with natural setting, in order to test to what extent the collective behaviour dynamical outcomes were changed when a single players changed their adjustments. The collective behaviour was characterised through metrics accounting for team spatiotemporal properties such as surface area and team stretching. The results showed a condensed behaviour associated with the local adjustment modality and a deployed behaviour associated with global adjustment modalities. A complementary study investigated the possibilities of controlling human regulation through interaction rules. The results showed that various interaction rules involved different informational resources and adjustment modality. Moreover, the results demonstrated that a local informational resource did not necessarily involve a local adjustment which describe the complexity of the regulation processes

Complementary Actions

Human beings come into the world wired for social interaction. At the fourteenth week of gestation, twin fetuses already display interactive movements specifically directed towards their co- twin. Readiness for social interaction is also clearly expressed by the newborn who imitate facial gestures, suggesting that there is a common representation mediating action observation and execution. While actions that are observed and those that are planned seem to be functionally equivalent, it is unclear if the visual representation of an observed action inevitably leads to its motor representation. This is particularly true with regard to complementary actions (from the Latin complementum ; i.e. that fills up), a specific class of movements which differ, while interacting, with observed ones. In geometry, angles are defined as complementary if they form a right angle. In art and design, complementary colors are color pairs that, when combined in the right proportions, produce white or black. As a working definition, complementary actions refer here to any form of social interaction wherein two (or more) individuals complete each other\u2019s actions in a balanced way. Successful complementary interactions are founded on the abilities:\ua0 (1)\ua0 to simulate another person\u2019s movements; (2)\ua0 to predict another person\u2019s future action/ s; (3)\ua0to produce an appropriate congruent/ incongruent response that completes the other person\u2019s action/ s; and (4)\ua0to integrate the predicted effects of one\u2019s own and another person\u2019s actions. It is the neurophysiological mechanism that underlies this process which forms the main theme of this chapte

'Making up' the middle-class child: families, activities and class dispositions

In this paper we draw on data collected from a recent qualitative project to highlight the enthusiasm of middle class parents for enrolling their under-5s in ‘enrichment’ activities (extra-curricular creative and sporting classes). We seek to identify the part activities play in parental strategies for class reproduction. We first consider the broader issue of children and consumption, drawing out the way in which consumption and leisure activities are highly classed, and focusing on notions of taste and distinction. Then using examples from the data, we emphasise the sense of urgency and responsibility parents felt concerning their child’s development and the classed and gendered involvement of parents. We conclude that enrichment activities are one response to the anxiety and sense of responsibility experienced by middle class parents as they attempt to ‘make up’ a middle class child in a social context where reproduction appears uncertain

Coordinated action, communication and creativity in basketball in superdiversity

This paper examines the complex social space of basketball training sessions at a sports centre in superdiverse inner-city Leeds, contextualising the site in relation to stigmatising discourses that suggest disorderliness and a lack of social cohesion. The microanalysis of video data from the training sessions counteracts these discourses by showing how social orderliness, cooperation, and creativity unfold in the details of interaction. The significance of its contribution lies in its analysis of communication that bridges across semiotic modes, extending the concept of translanguaging to encompass embodied practice. This practice contributes to constituting a small culture within the basketball club

Paralympic VR: an immersive experience

Paralympic VR: an immersive experience is based on exploratory research and consists in the production of a 360 video-prototype that aims to give special access to the wheelchair basketball training universe, bringing the users close to Paralympic athletes without the need to hide the impairment or hyper focus on the stories behind the disability. Media coverage of Paralympic sports and the representation of disabled athletes have been changing, but still present a medicalised framing, a narrative where the athletes are commonly portrayed as heroes due to the overcoming of difficulties related to the impairment and not to the sports results. This present project work considers immersive journalism and the use of virtual reality technologies as the means by which an alternative approach and a better representation of Paralympians are possible. The project presents the description of the workflow process, detailing conceptualization decisions, technical aspects and, mainly, the challenges and lessons learned. A user study combining focus groups and online survey was also conducted in order to have insights about the experience of watching the video with the headset Samsung Gear VR. Feedback provided by participants indicated that the prototype accomplished its aim. Recommendations to improve future work were also gathered.Paralympic VR: an immersive experience baseia-se em investigação exploratória e consiste na produção de um vídeo 360 graus que visa dar acesso especial ao universo de treino do basquete em cadeira de rodas, aproximando os utilizadores dos atletas paralímpicos sem a necessidade de ocultar a deficiência ou dar grande enfoque às histórias por detrás da deficiência. A cobertura do desporto paralímpico nos media e a representação dos atletas com deficiência está a transformar-se, mas ainda apresenta uma abordagem medicalizada, uma narrativa em que os atletas são comumente retratados como heróis devido à superação de dificuldades relacionadas à deficiência e não em virtude aos resultados desportivos. O jornalismo imersivo e o uso de tecnologias de realidade virtual são considerados no presente trabalho de projeto os meios pelos quais é possível uma abordagem alternativa e uma melhor representação dos atletas paralímpicos. O projeto apresenta a descrição de todo o processo de produção do vídeo-protótipo, detalhando decisões de conceito, aspectos técnicos e, principalmente, os desafios e lições aprendidas. Um estudo com utilizadores combinando grupos de foco e questionário on-line também foi conduzido para a recolha de perceções sobre a experiência de assistir ao vídeo com o headset Samsung Gear VR. Os comentários fornecidos pelos participantes indicaram que o protótipo atingiu seu objetivo. Importantes recomendações para a melhoria de futuras experiências também foram reunidas

MY BODY GOES NUMB A LOT OF THE TIME : EXAMINING HIGH SCHOOL STUDENT-ATHLETE EXPERIENCES USING YOUTH PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH AND EMBODIED CULTURALLY RELEVANT PEDAGOGY

For many students, the classroom represents a place of oppression, stress, and routine, in which their voices are silenced and they are expected to sit still, listen, take notes, and regurgitate the arbitrary information their teachers share (Freire, 1970/2000; Robinson & Aronica, 2015). Conversely, for many youth, sports are a source of joy, self-expression, creativity, and empowerment that naturally capture their interest and engagement (Duncan-Andrade, 2010; Spooner, 2002). Unfortunately, our education system fails to utilize the passion student-athletes demonstrate for sports to motivate them in the classroom. The purpose of this study is to explore the experiences of high school student-athletes in both academics and athletics, specifically focusing on their engagement in each setting. I enacted a youth participatory action research (YPAR) project at a rural high school in Northern California, in which I worked directly with student-athletes as co-researchers from July to December 2021. As a team, we developed a protocol for semi-structured one-on-one interviews and focus groups with their student-athlete peers to center their voices in the research and accurately document their experiences and ideas for change. Through the lens of embodied culturally relevant pedagogy, this project provided a space for student-athletes to envision and voice their ideas for a pedagogy that would more deeply engage the student-athlete population in school. The findings support that embodied culturally relevant pedagogy would serve to improve student-athlete behavioral, emotional, and cognitive engagement in the learning process. This study also calls attention to the potential for YPAR to be utilized to jumpstart student engagement, as this methodology embodies the pedagogical practices that student-athletes in this study requested for their education. Lessons for future applications of YPAR and the need for structural, systemic change are discussed

The coaching process in professional youth football: An ethnography of practice

This thesis was submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy and awarded by Brunel University, 06/12/2001.Coaching and the coaching process are characterised by a number of complex interactions between the coach, the player and the club environment. Yet understanding of the coaching process as a complex, holistic process remains limited. There are 'gaps' in our existing knowledge, particularly in comprehending the dynamic relationship between the coach, player and club environment, and in understanding the implications of these interactions for practice and the coaching process. This research sought to examine and represent the complexity of the coach-player-club environment interface, and to understand some of the ways that they interact to construct and impinge upon the coaching process. The research was conducted on the premise that a sound understanding of the complexity of the coaching process drawing upon empirical research, rather than idealistic 'models', can inform the future development of coaching practice and coach education. Within the framework of ethnography, the research took place over one season and used participant observation, unstructured interviews, semi-structured interviews and group interviews in one Football Association, Premier League Academy. The aim was to explore the coaching process and practical coaching context, as played out in the day-to-day experiences of coaches and youth team players. In addition to the main case-study club, semi-structured interviews were conducted with five coaches working with youth teams at other clubs. The research used concepts from grounded theory and also the work of Pierre Bourdieu to analyse and present the data. In its findings, the study depicts a coaching process that is interdependent and interrelated and highlights complexity in each of the following elements: the club, sessions and games, players and coaches, relationships, and 'attitude'. The dynamism within and between each of these elements is illustrated in the ways that each can facilitate, constrain or even prevent 'effective' practice and the operation of the coaching process. Moreover, the research demonstrates the powerful nature of tradition and culture, highlighting their pervasive influence upon the coaching process and coaching practice. Life at the case study club was characterised by authoritarianism and pressure, and was relentlessly directed towards winning. This backdrop strongly influenced the relationship between coaches and players, and impacted upon the coaching process. Importantly, the research presents evidence to suggest that coach education may be a relatively 'low impact' endeavour in comparison to the coaches' other experiences which are presented as a significant force shaping both coaches' development and practice. To harness this experience and develop coach education, this research suggests that the governing body could consider embracing mentoring as part of coach education and, as part of this, coaches should be encouraged to engage in critical reflection in order to understand how cultural and other forces shape their practice. However, for mentoring to succeed, it must be grounded in a thorough understanding of the culture of football clubs, and the ways coaches draw upon their life experiences in football to direct their own practice and judge the practices and 'worth' of others. Importantly, this research begins to answer some of the criticisms levelled at previous research by examining interaction and complexity within the coaching process in-situ. It highlights the problematic, interrelated and interdependent nature of relationships that construct and influence the coaching process and coaching practice. Importantly, it highlights the important and under-researched link between coaching practice, the coaching process and the immediate and wider social context of football

World model learning and inference

Understanding information processing in the brain-and creating general-purpose artificial intelligence-are long-standing aspirations of scientists and engineers worldwide. The distinctive features of human intelligence are high-level cognition and control in various interactions with the world including the self, which are not defined in advance and are vary over time. The challenge of building human-like intelligent machines, as well as progress in brain science and behavioural analyses, robotics, and their associated theoretical formalisations, speaks to the importance of the world-model learning and inference. In this article, after briefly surveying the history and challenges of internal model learning and probabilistic learning, we introduce the free energy principle, which provides a useful framework within which to consider neuronal computation and probabilistic world models. Next, we showcase examples of human behaviour and cognition explained under that principle. We then describe symbol emergence in the context of probabilistic modelling, as a topic at the frontiers of cognitive robotics. Lastly, we review recent progress in creating human-like intelligence by using novel probabilistic programming languages. The striking consensus that emerges from these studies is that probabilistic descriptions of learning and inference are powerful and effective ways to create human-like artificial intelligent machines and to understand intelligence in the context of how humans interact with their world