Perception-action relationships reconsidered in light of spatial display instruments

Spatial display instruments convey information about both the identity and the location of objects in order to assist surgeons, astronauts, pilots, blind individuals, and others in identification, remote manipulations, navigation, and obstacle avoidance. Scientists believe that these instruments have not reached their full potential and that progress toward new applications, including the possibility of restoring sight to the blind, will be accelerated by advancing the understanding of perceptual processes. This stimulating challenge to basic researchers was advanced by Paul Bach-Y-Rita (1972) and by the National Academy of Science (1986) report on Electronic Aids for the Blind. Although progress has been made, new applications of spatial display instruments in medicine, space, aviation, and rehabilitation await improved theoretical and empirical foundations

A commentary on perception-action relationships in spatial display instruments

Transfer of information across disciplines is promoted, while basic and applied researchers are cautioned about the danger of assuming simple relationships between stimulus information, perceptual impressions, and performance including pattern recognition and sensorimotor skills. A theoretical and empirical foundation was developed predicting those relationships

Perception, Action, and Roelofs Effect: A Mere Illusion of Dissociation

A prominent and influential hypothesis of vision suggests the existence of two separate visual systems within the brain, one creating our perception of the world and another guiding our actions within it. The induced Roelofs effect has been described as providing strong evidence for this perception/action dissociation: When a small visual target is surrounded by a large frame positioned so that the frame's center is offset from the observer's midline, the perceived location of the target is shifted in the direction opposite the frame's offset. In spite of this perceptual mislocalization, however, the observer can accurately guide movements to the target location. Thus, perception is prone to the illusion while actions seem immune. Here we demonstrate that the Roelofs illusion is caused by a frame-induced transient distortion of the observer's apparent midline. We further demonstrate that actions guided to targets within this same distorted egocentric reference frame are fully expected to be accurate, since the errors of target localization will exactly cancel the errors of motor guidance. These findings provide a mechanistic explanation for the various perceptual and motor effects of the induced Roelofs illusion without requiring the existence of separate neural systems for perception and action. Given this, the behavioral dissociation that accompanies the Roelofs effect cannot be considered evidence of a dissociation of perception and action. This indicates a general need to re-evaluate the broad class of evidence purported to support this hypothesized dissociation

A Proposal to Reduce Unsafe Aviation Maintenance Task Handovers with a Virtual Training Solution

Safety researchers have documented maintenance errors happen when outgoing crews inadequately communicate to incoming crews at task/shift handover. Poor task handovers are especially likely for low-frequency problems, when complacency is present, or with new technicians. Highly experienced maintenance personnel may have prevented the poor handover. Backup safety procedures catch most errors, but correcting the remaining increases risks to safety, such as those not caught until after the plane is rolled out of the hanger. The cumulative effect of handover errors increases the exposure to additional threats and errors during reworks and replacement of aircraft on the line among others. This poster introduces a virtual training solution adapted to reduce aviation maintenance handover errors. The solution pairs experienced personnel with less experienced personnel. It also increases virtual handover frequency for infrequent problems so that less experienced personnel are prepared to make successful handovers even for problems they have never experienced on the job

Depth of Processing and the Dynamics of Interpersonal Evaluations

Program year: 1990/1991Digitized from print original stored in HDREffects of schema and level of processing on women's impressions of men's attractiveness were examined. Photographs of highly attractive men were paired with negative, neutral, or positive schemas, and 105 undergraduate women were randomly assigned to think about the men after the pictures and schemas were presented, or to do the Shipley-Hartford test, which blocked thinking about the men. Two main effects and no interactions were observed. Negative and positive schemas lowered and raised attractiveness to the same extent for both thought conditions, and women rated men as less attractive when they thought about them. The lack of an interaction was contrary to two theories regarding thought about a topic or person in the presence of a schema. Tesser predicts that evaluations should become more extreme; Linville predicts that evaluations should become more moderate when given mixed information. Reasons for the contrary results are discussed