I am the Director of the Perception-Action Lab where we investigate how the perceptual systems enable the performance of everyday (and not so everyday) behaviors. Our approach to these problems is firmly rooted in the theoretical foundation of ecological psychology, initially developed by James Gibson. In this approach, perception and action are treated as continuous processes that put a perceiver into direct awareness of the environment.
Perception of Affordances
From the perspective of ecological psychology, the purpose of perception is for the control of everyday behaviors. To be useful in this capacity, a person must be able to perceive whether, when, and how to perform such behaviors. Such possibilities depend on the fit between a person’s action capabilities and features of the environment and are known as affordances. We are interested in the factors that influence perception of affordances. In the photo in the upper right, the person to the right is attempting to perceive whether he could walk across the lab, step on the stepstool, and reach the small suspended object. In the photo on the lower right, a dog chooses whether to reach for a treat with its head only or by rearing.
Dynamic Touch and Tool Use
People can perceive a wide variety of functional and geometric properties of hefted or wielded objects even if they are unable to see those objects. We are interested in what factors influence perception by touch, how people choose to grasp objects, and how they use those objects. Not only can people perceive properties of wielded objects, they can also perceive properties by means of wielded objects. In the photo in the upper right is a person using the wooden rod to perceive whether he could stand on the inclined surface. In the photo in the lower right a participant is attempting to perceive the length of a ‘fish’ attached to a ‘fishing pole.’
Perceptual Learning
Perceptual skill improves with practice, a phenomenon known as perceptual learning. We are interested in exactly what kinds of practice are necessary and/or sufficient for such improvements in perception to occur. The picture to the left is a graph showing movement in “information space” for two different phases of an experiment on auditory perceptual learning.
Spring 2023 Students
- Tyler Duffrin, Graduate Student , Department of Psychology, Illinois State University
- Maisha Orthy, Graduate Student, Department of Psychology, Illinois State University
- Elena Jankulovska, Undergraduate Student Department of Psychology, Illinois State University
- Samantha Pociecha, Undergraduate Student Department of Psychology, Illinois State University
Lab Alumni
- Stephanie Hartling, PhD Student, St Louis University
- Alex Dayer, PhD Student, Cognitive Science, UC Merced
- Brian M. Day, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Butler University
- Drew H. Abney, Assistant Professor, University of Georgia
- Kona (Taylor) Jones, Director of Online Learning Richland Community College
- Brandon J. Thomas, Assistant Professor, Department of Psychology, Universtiy of Wisconsin
- Eric Malek, Tringling, Inc
- Jiuyang Bai, PhD Student, Cognitive Lingustic, & Psychological Sciences, Brown University
- Matt Langely, PhD Student, Department of Psychology, Arizona State University
Collaborators
- Julia Blau, Department of Psychology, Central Connecticut State University
- Tony Chemero, Departments of Philosophy and Psychology, University of Cincinnati
- Val Farmer-Dougan, Departments of Biology and Psychology, Illinois State University
- Alen Hajnal Department of Psychology, University of Southern Mississippi
- Takahiro Higuchi, Department of Health Promotion Sciences, Tokyo Metropolitan University
- Madhur Mangalam, Department of Psychology, Northeastern University
- Dawn McBride, Department of Psychology, Illinois State University
- David Rosenbaum, Department of Psychology, UC Riverside
- Peter Smith, School of Kinesiology and Recreation, Illinois State University
- Thomas Stoffregen, School of Kinesiology, University of Minnesota