Accurate motion-produced distance and direction under systematically distorted perception

Abstract:  We report the visually directed actions of soccer players. After perceiving the location of a target on their left side at the starting point and traveling toward the ball without seeing the target, the players could kick the ball accurately (Experiment 2). In contrast, if they were verbally asked the direction of the target in a similar situation, the perceived direction was systematically distorted (Experiment 3). Our major concern in explaining the distorted perception was whether the egocentric distance before locomotion was perceived accurately or not, and whether the updating of the target location during locomotion was accurate or not. Combining these two possibilities, there should be four hypotheses, each of which assumes either: (1) accurate egocentric distance and accurate updating, (2) inaccurate egocentric distance and accurate updating, (3) accurate egocentric distance and inaccurate updating, or (4) inaccurate egocentric distance and inaccurate updating. Based on these hypotheses, we conducted four simulations, which revealed that the combination of the perception of the accurate egocentric distance and the distorted updating that substituted the constant function for the sine function produced not only a good r ², but also three kinds of interactions obtained in Experiment 3. Why did the players, based on their distorted perception, perform accurately? We would like to suggest that through perceptual learning they might acquire a perceptual-motor relation as the inverse function of the physical-perceptual relation.     

Transfer from “edible” categorization training to feeding behavior in pigeons (Columba livia)1

Abstract: We investigated a transfer from an operant experimental situation to a feeding situation in pigeons using real objects as stimuli. Four pigeons were trained in an operant box to categorize familiar edible items as positives and inedible items as negatives with a go/no‐go procedure. Next, two pairs of unfamiliar edible items were added as stimuli. One of the paired stimuli was arbitrarily assigned as positive and the other as negative. We tested the subjects in their home cages to see whether they would feed on the items they were trained to categorize as positives. In three of the six cases in which categorization training was successful, they continued to peck the positive items. This result suggests that the pigeons transfer what they learned in the operant training situation to the feeding situation.     

UNIVERSITY WITH CONDITIONS: A DECONSTRUCTIVE READING OF DERRIDA'S “THE UNIVERSITY WITHOUT CONDITION”

The possibility of a Derridian theory of the university lies not in the discussion of the “as if” in “The University without Condition” but, rather, in a theoretical crack that Derrida's book promised to elucidate—between the “as if” and the “perhaps,” the performative and the event, transcendence and immanence. Moreover, we see a kind of rupture between this book and numerous texts from the 1970s and 80s, which are collected and published under the title of Right to Philosophy. Here lies a real philosophical stake. We see between the early Derrida and the later Derrida not only an ethico‐political turn but also, so to speak, a radical transition from the problematic of institution or case law (jurisprudence) to the axiomatic of law (loi) by aggravation of the transcendental.     

Nine‐ to 11‐month‐old infants' reasoning about causality in anomalous human movements1

Two habituation experiments investigated 9–11‐month‐old infants' reasoning about causality in anomalous human movements. During habituation, infants saw an event in which a person walked toward a stationary person behind an occluder who fell down after an interval. Then, the infants were tested with two events without the occluder: the contact event in which the first person pushed the second one to fall down and the no‐contact event in which the second person fell down without any contact. In Experiment 1, in which the persons were face‐to‐back, infants looked at the no‐contact event for a longer time, whereas in Experiment 2, in which the persons were face‐to‐face, they looked at both the events for equal duration. Thus, infants considered it unnatural when a person fell down without external force in the absence of any action from a distance (e.g. communication). Infants seem to apply the physical contact principles to human movements in certain cases.     

What factors influence prospective memory for elderly people in a naturalistic setting?1

Previous studies comparing prospective memory between the elderly and young adults have shown that elderly adults perform better in naturalistic settings, while young adults perform better in laboratory settings. The purpose of this study was to examine what factors influence prospective memory in naturalistic settings, and we specifically focused on age, the complexity of the prospective memory task, self‐evaluation and knowledge of memory function, retrospective memory, external memory aids, and internal memory strategies as potential influential factors. Eighty‐six healthy, elderly participants were enrolled (44 women and 42 men, mean age = 68.56 years, SD = 4.53). The results showed that the use of external memory aids increased in complex prospective memory tasks that depended on output monitoring, while other factors did not influence prospective memory performance. These results suggest that elderly adults can perform tasks adequately by using external memory aids that compensate for age‐related memory declines in naturalistic settings.