All Perception Engages the Tensegrity-Based Haptic Medium

Structurally, bodies of organisms can be described as tensegrity systems, fractally self-similar from whole-body to cellular levels. Sensory receptors embedded within such somatic tensegrity systems comprise haptic perceptual systems. Because the elements of the organismic tensegrity system are all interconnected, that system becomes the medium for haptic perception. Forces acting on any element of a somatic tensegrity system radiate throughout the entire system and thereby affect the entire haptic medium. All perception, in the ecological view, requires active sampling of stimulus arrays. Such active perception always involves overt body movements, orienting responses, and sensory organ adjustments (e.g., eye movements). Any and all movements occasioned in active perception affect the organismic tensegrity system, and therefore the haptic medium. A surprising consequence is that all active perception necessarily entails tensegrity-based haptic medium involvement, with implications for perceptual research.     

Neurobiological tensegrity: The basis for understanding inter-individual variations in task performance?

Bernstein's (1996) levels of movement organization includes tonus, the muscular-contraction level that primes individual movement systems for (re)organizing coordination patterns. The hypothesis advanced is that the tonus architecture is a multi-fractal tensegrity system, deeply reliant on haptic perception for regulating movement of an individual actor in a specific environment. Further arguments have been proposed that the tensegrity-haptic system is implied in all neurobiological perception and -action. In this position statement we consider whether the musculoskeletal system can be conceptualized as a neurobiological tensegrity system, supporting each individual in co-adapting to many varied contexts of dynamic performance. Evidence for this position, revealed in investigations of judgments of object properties, perceived during manual hefting, is based on each participant's tensegrity. The implication is that the background organizational state of every individual is unique, given that no neurobiological architecture (musculo-skeletal components) is identical. The unique tensegrity of every organism is intimately related to individual differences, channeling individualized adaptations to constraints (task, environment, organismic), which change over different timescales. This neurobiological property assists transitions from one stable state of coordination to another which is needed in skill adaptation during performance. We conclude by discussing how tensegrity changes over time according to skill acquisition and learning.     

Human Odometry with a Two-Legged Hopping Gait: A Test of the Gait Symmetry Theory

Abstract

Biological odometry refers to the capacity for perceptually measuring distances traveled during locomotion. In the case of haptic odometry, information about distance traversed is generated from the movements of the legs, with coordinated leg motions (i.e., gait patterns) producing patterns of tissue deformation detectable by the haptic perceptual system. The gait symmetry theory of haptic odometry classifies gaits based upon the symmetry of muscle activation patterns. This classification identifies candidate higher-order variables of haptic odometry and provides a promising basis for understanding the associated patterns of tissue deformation detected by the haptic perceptual system. The theory successfully predicts biases (i.e., underestimations/overestimations) resulting from the manipulation of the gait patterns used in the outbound and return phases of homing tasks. We test gait symmetry theory by considering a previously unexamined key prediction. Two-legged hopping and walking have the same symmetry group classification, therefore, a homing task completed using any combination of two-legged hopping and walking as the outbound/return gaits should produce no systematic biases. Contrary to this prediction we observed systematic biases. We discuss the possibilities for modifying gait symmetry theory to account for our findings, and we present a new alternative theory based upon spatial reference frames.     

Individual differences in athletes' perception of expressive body movements

ObjectivesUnderstanding others' actions depends on the observer's individual characteristics and sensorimotor experience. Motor performance domains, such as sports and the performing arts, provide optimal situations to investigate the determinants of action perception. We investigated athletes' perceptual identification of expression intensity in body movements.DesignA within-subjects design was used.MethodParticipants watched point-light displays (1000 ms long) depicting expressive and inexpressive dance movements. The task was to identify the dancer's intended expression intensity.ResultsThe results indicate that expressive body movements can be reliably identified, with judgement accuracy correlating with self-report empathy indices, intuitive/deliberate decision-making preferences, and indices of sports training. Only years of sports training could predict perceptual identification accuracy.ConclusionsWe discuss the findings in relation to motor and cognitive–emotional contributions to action simulation. The potential of cross-domain transfer of motor expertise for boosting perceptual judgements and a hierarchical role of factors eliciting action simulation are also outlined.     

Gendered Training: Men and Men's Issues in Marriage and Family Therapy Programs

Few studies examine men's experiences in becoming a therapist. Only a modicum of attention appears to be paid to men's professional training needs in MFT training programs as expressed in the family therapy literature. Five recommendations, based on the author's experiences and male student voices, are provided for how to best meet the needs of male students in MFT training programs. These recommendations are (1) be aware of men's experiences and don't assume silence means disinterest, (2) develop depth in clinical training on men's issues, (3) incorporate theories of masculinity into curriculum, (4) engage male students in the training process, and (5) provide support to male students through mentorship and support groups.     

The reproduction of vertical and oblique orientations in the visual, haptic, and somatovestibular systems

This study investigates whether the vertical orientation may be predominantly used as an amodal reference norm by the visual, haptic, and somato-vestibular perceptual systems to define oblique orientations. We examined this question by asking the same sighted adult subjects to reproduce, in the frontal (roll) plane, the vertical (0°) and six oblique orientations in three tasks involving different perceptual systems. In the visual task, the subjects adjusted a moveable rod so that it reproduced the orientation of a visual rod seen previously in a dark room. In the haptic task, the blindfolded sighted subjects scanned an oriented rod with one hand and reproduced its orientation, with the same hand, on a moveable response rod. In the somato-vestibular task, the blindfolded sighted subjects, sitting in a rotating chair, adjusted this chair in order to reproduce the tested orientation of their own body. The results showed that similar oblique effects (unsigned angular error difference between six oblique orientations and vertical orientation) were observed across the three tasks. However, there were no positive correlations between the visual, haptic,     

Where you look can influence haptic object recognition

We investigated whether the relative position of objects and the body would influence haptic recognition. People felt objects on the right or left side of their body midline, using their right hand. Their head was turned towards or away from the object, and they could not see their hands or the object. People were better at naming 2-D raised line drawings and 3-D small-scale models of objects and also real, everyday objects when they looked towards them. However, this head-towards benefit was reliable only when their right hand crossed their body midline to feel objects on their left side. Thus, haptic object recognition was influenced by people's head position, although vision of their hand and the object was blocked. This benefit of turning the head towards the object being explored suggests that proprioceptive and haptic inputs are remapped into an external coordinate system and that this remapping is harder when the body is in an unusual position (with the hand crossing the body midline and the head turned away from the hand). The results indicate that haptic processes align sensory inputs from the hand and head even though either hand-centered or object-centered coordinate systems should suffice for haptic object recognition.     

The Senses Considered as One Perceptual System

ABSTRACT

J. J. Gibson (1966) rejected many classical assumptions about perception but retained 1 that dates back to classical antiquity: the assumption of separate senses. We suggest that Gibson's retention of this assumption compromised his novel concept of perceptual systems. We argue that lawful, 1:1 specification of the animal–environment interaction, which is necessary for perception to be direct, cannot exist in individual forms of ambient energy, such as light, or sound. We argue that specification exists exclusively in emergent, higher order patterns that extend across different forms of ambient energy. These emergent, higher order patterns constitute the global array. If specification exists exclusively in the global array, then direct perception cannot be based upon detection of patterns that are confined to individual forms of ambient energy and, therefore, Gibson's argument for the existence of several distinct perceptual systems cannot be correct. We argue that the senses function as a single, irreducible perceptual system that is sensitive exclusively to patterns in the global array. That is, rather than distinct perceptual systems there exists only 1 perceptual system.     

Perceptually Equivalent Judgments Made Visually and via Haptic Sensory-Substitution Devices

ABSTRACT

According to the ecological theory of perception–action, perception is primarily of affordances, which are directly perceivable opportunities for behavior. The current study evaluated participants’ ability to use vision and haptic sensory-substitution devices to support perceptual judgments of affordances involving the task of passing through apertures. Sighted participants made perceptual judgments about whether they could walk through apertures of various widths and their level of confidence in each judgment, using unrestricted vision and, when blindfolded, using two haptic sensory-substitution instruments: a cane-like wooden rod and the Enactive Torch, a device that converts distance information into vibrotactile stimuli. The boundary between aperture widths that were judged as pass-through-able versus non-pass-through-able was statistically equivalent across sensory modalities. However, participants were not as confident in their judgments using the rod or Enactive Torch as they were using vision. Additionally, participants’ judgments with the haptic instruments were significantly more accurate than with vision. The results underscore the need to assess sensory-substitution devices in the context of functional behaviors.     

Multifractality in postural sway supports quiet eye training in aiming tasks: A study of golf putting

The ‘quiet eye’ (QE) approach to visually-guided aiming behavior invests fully in perceptual information's potential to organize coordinated action. Sports psychologists refer to QE as the stillness of the eyes during aiming tasks and increasingly into self- and externally-paced tasks. Amidst the ‘noisy’ fluctuations of the athlete's body, quiet eyes might leave fewer saccadic interruptions to the coupling between postural sway and optic flow. Postural sway exhibits fluctuations whose multifractal structure serves as a robust predictor of visual and haptic perceptual responses. Postural sway generates optic flow centered on an individual's eye height. We predicted that perturbing the eye height by attaching wooden blocks below the feet would perturb the putting more so in QE-trained participants than participants trained technically. We also predicted that QE's efficacy and responses to perturbation would depend on multifractality in postural sway. Specifically, we predicted that less multifractality would predict more adaptive responses to the perturbation and higher putting accuracy. Results showed that lower multifractality led to more accurate putts, and the perturbation of eye height led to less accurate putts, particularly for QE-trained participants. Models of radial error (i.e., the distance between the ball's final position and the hole) indicated that lower estimates of multifractality due to nonlinearity coincided with a more adaptive response to the perturbation. These results suggest that reduced multifractality may act in a context-sensitive manner to restrain motoric degrees of freedom to achieve the task goal.     

On haptic and motor incorporation of tools and other objects

This article presents a conceptual discussion on the phenomenon of incorporation of tools and other objects in the light of Maine de Biran’s philosophy of the relation between the body and the motor will. Drawing on Maine de Biran’s view of the body as that portion of the material world which directly obeys one’s motor will, as well as on his view (supported by studies in contemporary cognitive science) of active touch as the perceptual modality that is sensitive to objects as fields of forces resisting the perceiver’s movements, we discuss the phenomena of motor incorporation and haptic incorporation, as well as the relation between them. Motor incorporation occurs when something is integrated into the motor system, i.e. when practice enables one to animate an object as directly, effortlessly and fluently as one is able to animate one’s own body. The subject then has the experience of acting there, where the object is located, not at the body–object interface. In order to better understand the phenomenon of motor incorporation, we highlight the phenomenological difference between directly and indirectly moving something. Haptic incorporation occurs when something is integrated into the haptic system, i.e. when an object is used as an instrument for the haptic perception of other objects. Finally, we seek to shed light on the phenomenon of transparency, understanding the transparency acquired by the incorporated object as both a relational property and a matter of degrees.     

1966 and All That: James Gibson and Bottom-Down Theory

ABSTRACT

The “later” James Gibson is widely misrepresented as an extreme stimulus–response theorist. In fact, Gibson's 1966 book presents a radical alternative to stimulus–response theory. “Perceptual systems” are not passive and receptive but “organs of active attention” (1966/1968, p. 58). Perceivers “reach out” into the world. This commentary examines some of the implications of Gibson's systems-cum-functionalist-cum-ecological approach, including the relations between the senses; the concept of “sensationless” perception; and most fundamentally, the nature of perceptual systems as extending beyond the body. I conclude that an adequate understanding of perception cannot be limited to the already severely limited domain of psychology. If Gibson is right, “ecological psychology” is a contradiction in terms.     

Touching for knowing in infancy: The development of manual abilities in very young infants

This aim of this paper was twofold: (1) to display the various competencies of the infant's hands for processing information about the shape of objects; and (2) to show that the infant's haptic mode shares some common mechanisms with the visual mode. Several experiments on infants from birth and up to five months of age using a habituation/dishabituation procedure, intermodal transfer task between touch and vision, and various cognitive tasks revealed that infants may perceive and understand the physical world through their hands without visual control. From birth, infants can habituate to shape and detect discrepancies between shapes. But information exchanges between vision and touch are partial in cross-modal transfer tasks. Plausibly, modal specificities such as discrepancies in information gathering between the two modalities and the different functions of the hands (perceptual and instrumental) limit the links between the visual and haptic modes. In contrast, when infants abstract information from an event not totally felt or seen, amodal mechanisms underlie haptic and visual knowledge in early infancy. Despite various discrepancies between the sensory modes, conceiving the world is possible with hands as with eyes.     

Structural Family Therapy and Autism Spectrum Disorder: Bridging the Disciplinary Divide

ABSTRACT

Applied Behavior Analysis (ABA) is an evidence-based practice approach for the treatment of individuals with autism. The systemic effects of autism suggest that family therapy would considerably enhance the treatment of individuals with autism. Marriage and family therapy (MFT) training does not routinely include exposure to autism beyond the associated diagnostic criteria. Structural Family Therapy (SFT) is a systemic model that is familiar to those trained in family therapy and appropriate for the needs of families affected by autism. Therefore, the authors have used SFT as a foundation for supervising MFT trainees working in an autism treatment setting.     

Asking About Ambivalence: A Different Kind of Therapist Neutrality

Recent articulations of systems theory emphasize the self-organiza-tion and autonomy of systems. From this perspective it was previously seen that symptomatic behavior reflects the conservation of an ambivalent autonomy embodying the system's striving for an ideal way of living and the simultaneous failure of this quest. Treatment typically opposes the symptom and allies itself with the idealistic pole of the ambivalence, thereby discounting the system's ambivalent autonomy. This often strengthens symptomatic efforts to conserve the ambivalence. Careful questioning can be used to circumvent this dilemma and this paper illustrates this type of therapist neutrality by means of a case example.     

Bodywide fluctuations support manual exploration: Fractal fluctuations in posture predict perception of heaviness and length via effortful touch by the hand

The human haptic perceptual system respects a bodywide organization that responds to local stimulation through full-bodied coordination of nested tensions and compressions across multiple nonoverlapping scales. Under such an organization, the suprapostural task of manually hefting objects to perceive their heaviness and length should depend on roots extending into the postural control for maintaining upright balance on the ground surface. Postural sway of the whole body should thus carry signatures predicting what the hand can extract by hefting an object. We found that fractal fluctuations in Euclidean displacement in the participants' center of pressure (CoP) contributed to perceptual judgments by moderating how the participants' hand picked up the informational variable of the moment of inertia. The role of fractality in CoP displacement in supporting heaviness and length judgments increased across trials, indicating that the participants progressively implicate their fractal scaling in their perception of heaviness and length. Traditionally, we had to measure fractality in hand movements to predict perceptual judgments by manual hefting. However, our findings suggest that we can observe what is happening at hand in the relatively distant-from-hand measure of CoP. Our findings reveal the complex relationship through which posture supports manual exploration, entailing perception of the intended properties of hefted objects (heaviness or length) putatively through the redistribution of forces throughout the body.     

Affordances and the Nature of Perceptual Content

Abstract

According to John McDowell, representational perceptual content is conceptual through and through. This paper criticizes this view by claiming that there is a certain kind of representational and non‐conceptual perceptual content that is sensitive to bodily skills. After a brief introduction to McDowell’s position, Merleau‐Ponty’s notion of body schema and Gibson’s notion of affordance are presented. It is argued that affordances are constitutive of representational perceptual content, and that at least some affordances, the so‐called ‘conditional affordances’, are essentially related to the body schema. This means that the perceptual content depends upon the nature of the body schema. Since the body schema does not pertain to the domain that our conceptual faculties operate upon, it is argued that this kind of perceptual content cannot be conceptual. At least some of that content is representational, yet it cannot feature as non‐demonstrative conceptual content. It is argued that if it features as demonstrative conceptual content, it has to be captured by private concepts. Since McDowell’s theory does not allow for the existence of a private language, it is concluded that at least some representational perceptual content is non‐conceptual.     

Influence of Visual and Haptic Cues on Podokinetic After-Rotation

ABSTRACT

Active countercircling on a rotating platform for 15 min causes individuals to involuntarily circle in the same direction when they step in place on firm ground. This is referred to as podokinetic after-rotation (PKAR). It is unclear how interjecting brief periods of visual or haptic inputs for a stable orientation reference affects PKAR. The authors studied this issue in 16 healthy individuals who participated in three sessions each. Following active countercircling, participants attempted to step in place for 30 min on firm ground. In two of three sessions, participants received full visual input or made fingertip contact with a stationary object for 30 s during 30 min of ongoing PKAR. All participants slowed or stopped rotating during the presence of visual or haptic inputs and resumed PKAR after removal of these inputs. Exponential functions fitted to angular trunk velocity versus time plots revealed no significant differences across conditions (p > .05). The preservation of PKAR after brief exposure to a visual or haptic reference is consistent with a slowly decaying velocity storage that is not reset or dumped after exposure to conflicting visual or haptic cues.     

Taking Access to the Community: An Ecological Systems Framework for In‐Home Counseling With Older Adults

Bronfenbrenner's (1977) ecological systems theory is a holistic framework placing an individual in a system's context to address their concerns. This article offers a case study demonstrating use of the theory with older adults and the in‐home setting. Implications for the counseling field and future research needs are discussed.     

Dual-Task Training Reduces Impact of Cognitive Task on Postural Sway

Given the flexible organization of locomotion evidenced in the many ways the limbs can be coordinated, the authors explored the potentially correspondingly flexible organization of nonvisual (kinesthetic) distance perception. As kinesthetic distance perception is known to be affected by how the limbs are coordinated, the authors probed the potential perceptual contribution of the arms during locomotion by manipulating arm–leg coordination patterns in blind-walked distance-matching tasks. Whereas manipulation of arm–leg coordination for walking with free-swinging arms had no observable perceptual consequences, comparable manipulation for walking with hiking poles did affect distance matching. These results suggest that under conditions in which the arms act to propel the body (e.g., crawling or stair-climbing) a person's nonvisual sense of movement is conveyed in the coordinated actions of all four limbs.