Task-specific devices and the perceptual bottleneck☆

https://doi.org/10.1016/0167-9457(88)90013-9Get rights and content

Abstract

An approach to the problem of organization in human action is presented. The approach describes the observable forms of behavior in terms of the dynamics of task-specific devices (TSD). The properties of a TSD delineate problems for research. The properties are task specificity, smartness, determinism, soft assembly and reduction, controllability, scale specificity, assembly over properties of organism and environment, and modifiability to new purpose. Nonlinear properties of four subsystems of the human action system are described. The subsystems are the link-segment system, the musculotendon system, the circulatory system, and the nervous system. A methodological dilemma is created by the need to do justice in description to all four subsystems while at the same time not being completely overwhelmed by the extreme complexity. A strategic resolution is to describe the simpler dynamics of TSD's. This strategy holds the promise of working backwards to the complex dynamics of the subsystems from which a TSD is assembled. Finally, TSD's require perceptual access to the dynamics. The characteristics of the human perceptual system lead to the perceptual bottleneck. Information about the dynamics of actions and events must be preserved over two mappings. One mapping is from the dynamics to the kinematics of an event. This introduces the identification problem in perception. How do the qualitative properties of an event allow an observer to recognize it? The second mapping is from the ratio-scaled kinematics of an event to the nonratio-scaled structure of the optic, acoustic, and haptic arrays. This introduces the scaling problem in perception. How do the qualitative properties of an event allow an observer to judge the scale values in an event?

References (104)

  • E. Saltzman

    Levels of sensorimotor representation

    Journal of Mathematical Psychology

    (1979)
  • J.T. Stern

    Computer modelling of gross muscle dynamics

    Journal of Biomechanics

    (1974)
  • W. Abend et al.

    Human arm trajectory formation

    Brain

    (1982)
  • R. Abraham et al.

    Foundations of mechanics

    (1978)
  • S.Y. Aleshinsky

    An energy ‘sources’ and ‘fractions’ approach to the energy expenditure problem: I-V

    Journal of Biomechanics

    (1986)
  • R.M. Alexander

    Mechanics and scaling of terrestrial locomotion

  • R.M. Alexander

    Elastic energy storage in running vertibrates

    American Zoology

    (1984)
  • A.A. Amis et al.

    Muscle strenghts and geometry of the upper limb

    Engineering in Medicine

    (1979)
  • M.A. Arbib

    Brains, machines and mathematics

    (1964)
  • M.A. Arbib

    The metaphorical brain

    (1972)
  • W.R. Ashby

    Design for a brain: The origin of adaptive behavior

    (1960)
  • E. Asmussen

    Similarities and dissimilarities between static and dynamic exercise

    Circulation Research Suppliment I

    (1981)
  • P. Åstrand et al.

    Textbook of work physiology

    (1977)
  • C.G. Atkeson et al.

    Kinematic features of unrestrained arm movements

    MIT AI Laboratory Memo 790

    (1984)
  • A.E. Atwater

    Biomechanics of overarm throwing movements and of throwing injuries

  • W.E. Baker et al.

    Similarity methods in engineering dynamics: Theory and practice of scale modeling

    (1973)
  • P.J. Beek

    Exploring the dynamics of juggling/

  • A. Berthoz et al.

    Behavior of a muscular group subjected to a sinusoidal and trapezoidal variation of force

    Journal of Applied Physiology

    (1970)
  • G.P. Bingham

    Scaling and kinematic form: Further investigations on the visual perception of lifted weight

  • G.P. Bingham

    Scaling and kinematic form: Further investigations on the visual perception of lifted weight

    Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance

    (1987)
  • G.P. Bingham

    Dynamicel systems and event perception: A working paper. Parts I–III

    Perception/Action Workshop Review

    (1987)
  • Bingham, G.P., R.C. Schmidt and L.D. Rosenblum, in review. Smart perceptual mechanisms and the methodological myth of...
  • E.H. Bloch et al.

    Toward a concept of the functional unit of mammalian skeletal muscle

    American Journal of Physiology

    (1982)
  • M.F. Bobbert et al.

    Drop jumping. I. The influence of jumping technique on the biomechanics of jumping

    Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

    (1987)
  • M.F. Bobbert et al.

    Drop jumping. II. The influence of dropping height on the biomechanics of drop jumping

    Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

    (1987)
  • G.A. Cavagna

    Storage and utilization of elastic energy in skeletal muscle

  • G.A. Cavagna et al.

    Mechanical work in terrestrial locomotion: Two basic mechanisms for minimizing energy expenditure

    American Journal of Physiology

    (1977)
  • P.R. Cavanagh et al.

    Mechanical and muscular factors affecting the efficiency of human movement

    Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise

    (1985)
  • J.E. Coates et al.

    The energy expenditure and mechanical energy demand in walking

    Ergonomics

    (1960)
  • N.G. Dagalakis et al.

    Loss of control biomechanics of the human arm-elbow system

    Journal of Biomechanics

    (1987)
  • R.J. Drillis

    Folk norms and biomechanics

    Human Factors

    (1963)
  • G.H.G. Dyson

    The mechanics of athletics

    (1962/1970)
  • M.S. Feld et al.

    The physics of karate

    Scientific American

    (1979)
  • C.A. Fowler et al.

    Skill acquisition: An event approach with special reference to searching for the optimum of a function of several variables

  • I.M. Gelfand et al.

    Calculus of variations

    (1963)
  • P.H. Greene

    Why is it easy to control your arms?

    Journal of Motor Behavior

    (1982)
  • J.Y. Harrison

    The effect of various motion cycles on human power output

    Factors

    (1963)
  • Z. Hasan et al.

    The interface between biomechanics and neurophysiology in the study of movement: Some recent approaches

    Exercise and Sport Sciences Reviews

    (1985)
  • H. Hatze

    Computerized optimization of sports motions: An overview of possibilities, methods and recent developments

    Journal of Sports Sciences

    (1983)
  • J.G. Hay

    The biomechanics of sport techniques

    (1978)

    • Cited by (139)

    • Experimental validation of COMETA model of mental workload in air traffic control

      2023, Journal of Air Transport Management

    • Timberlake's behavior systems: A paradigm shift toward an ecological approach

      2019, Behavioural Processes
      Citation Excerpt :

      Defense is tuned by detecting a threatening situation or attuning aversive stimuli with options to hide, escape, or fight2 . However, the behaviors under observation are the specific activities and topographies for such an action pattern (lower box in Fig. 1), and movements employed with objects in the world (Domenici and Black, 2000) and task-specific devices (see Bingham, 1988). Henceforth, one specific behavior could be nested in different systems: for instance running (lower box) could be observed in a forager within a feeding system (black arrows) or in escaping prey (gray dashed arrows) within a defense system.

    • Transfer of a learned coordination function: Specific, individual and generalizable

      2018, Human Movement Science
      Citation Excerpt :

      This corroborates to our finding that most individuals are learning to act specific to the context: a special-purpose device, but it cannot provide how individuals would modify the intrinsic dynamics to make the change towards a specific-to-task movement pattern occur. Bingham (1988) proposed that special-purpose devices must be controllable in the sense that they can be parameterized to attend to task relevant changes in output. In addition, if tasks share dynamical properties, a device that emerged from one task might be adapted to another one.

    • Search strategies in practice: Influence of information and task constraints

      2018, Acta Psychologica
      Citation Excerpt :

      The raw data on the number of trials to task completion did not follow a normal distribution and we log transformed the data for the present analysis. The repeated measures ANOVA on the number of trials to completion showed a main effect of condition, F (Bingham, 1988; Latash, 2010) = 32.83, p < 0.001, ηp2 = 0.78, but failed to reach significance for the main effect of block (p = 0.142) and the condition by block interaction (p = 0.153). Bonferroni's post-hoc analyses showed that the SL (mean trials ± standard deviation: 4.9 ± 1.56) condition had fewer trials per block than all other conditions.

    • Towards a Grand Unified Theory of sports performance

      2017, Human Movement Science

    • Affordances and neuroscience: Steps towards a successful marriage

      2017, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews
    View all citing articles on Scopus
    ☆

    The writing of this paper was supported by a National Institute of Health Individual Fellowship Award (AM-07412).

    ∗

    Author's address: G.P. Bingham, Dept. of Psychology, Trinity College, Hartford, CT 06106, USA.

    View full text
    Copyright © 1988 Published by Elsevier B.V.