In 2017, Di Paolo, Buhrmann, and Barandiarán proposed a list of criteria that post-cognitivist theories of learning should fulfill. In this article, we review the ecological theory of direct learning. We argue that this theory fulfills most of the criteria put forward by Di Paolo et al. and that its tools and concepts can be useful to other post-cognitivist theories of learning. Direct learning holds that improvements with practice are driven by information for learning that can be found in the dynamic organism-environment interaction. The theory formally describes information for learning as a vector field that spans a space with all the perception-action couplings that may be used to perform an action. Being located at a point of such a space means using a specific perception-action coupling. Changes in perception-action couplings due to learning can be represented as paths across the space, and can be explained with the vector field of information for learning. Previous research on direct learning considered actions that were best understood with single perception-action couplings. To conclude the article, and inspired by the criteria of Di Paolo et al., we discuss an extension of the theory to actions that are best understood with multiple perception-action couplings.
The main purpose of this article is to show that enactivism and ecological psychology share more aspects than is often recognized. Rather than debating about differences, commonalities between the approaches are illustrated with the example of dynamic touch. Dynamic touch is a form of touch that implies muscles and tendons and that allows the perception of hand-held objects that are wielded but not seen. Given that perceivers perform the wielding movements with effort, dynamic touch necessarily implies active exploration. The strength of dynamic touch as an example lies in the fact that it has been formalized and analyzed in detail at the level of the laws that govern the organism-environment system. The example provides empirically supported instantiations of sensorimotor contingencies, in enactivist terms, and of intentional exploration and information detection, in ecological terms. Moreover, dynamic touch is a practical example of the enactivist concepts of bringing-forth the world and sensemaking. As a second purpose, we use the example of dynamic touch to clarify key concepts of the ecological approach. Specifically, we analyze the concepts of invariance and affordance, indicating the crucial difference between perceiving and actualizing affordances, and highlighting the importance of these concepts for the dialogue between enactivism and ecological psychology.
The theory of affordances states that perception is of environmental properties that are relevant to action-capabilities of perceivers. The present study illustrates how concepts and methodological tools from the theory of affordances may help to advance research in the field of sensory substitution. The sensory substitution device (SSD) that was used consisted of two horizontal rows of 12 coin motors that each vibrated as a function of the distance to the nearest object. Sixty blindfolded participants used the SSD to explore virtual horizontal apertures with different widths. They were asked to judge the passability of the apertures. Participants with narrow shoulders judged narrower apertures as passable than participants with wide shoulders. This difference disappeared when aperture width was scaled to shoulder width, demonstrating that perception was body scaled. The actual aperture width was closely related to aspects of the exploratory movements and to aspects of the vibrotactile stimulation that was obtained with the exploratory movements. This implies that the exploratory movements themselves and the vibrotactile stimulation were both informative about the aperture width, and hence that the perception of passability may have been based on either of them or on a global variable that spans vibrotactile as well as kinaesthetic stimulation. Similar performance was observed for participants who accomplished the 7-trial familiarization phase with or without vision, meaning that practice with vision is not indispensable to learn to use the SSD.
Sensory substitution devices (SSDs) facilitate the detection of environmental information through enhancement of touch and/or hearing capabilities. Research has demonstrated that several tasks can be successfully completed using acoustic, vibrotactile, and multimodal devices. The suitability of a substituting modality is also mediated by the type of information required to perform the specific task. The present study tested the adequacy of touch and hearing in a grasping task by utilizing a sensory substitution glove. The substituting modalities inform, through increases in stimulation intensity, about the distance between the fingers and the objects. A psychophysical experiment of magnitude estimation was conducted. Forty blindfolded sighted participants discriminated equivalently the intensity of both vibrotactile and acoustic stimulation, although they experienced some difficulty with the more intense stimuli. Additionally, a grasping task involving cylindrical objects of varying diameters, distances and orientations was performed. Thirty blindfolded sighted participants were divided into vibration, sound, or multimodal groups. High performance was achieved (84% correct grasps) with equivalent success rate between groups. Movement variables showed more precision and confidence in the multimodal condition. Through a questionnaire, the multimodal group indicated their preference for using a multimodal SSD in daily life and identified vibration as their primary source of stimulation. These results demonstrate that there is an improvement in performance with specific-purpose SSDs, when the necessary information for a task is identified and coupled with the delivered stimulation. Furthermore, the results suggest that it is possible to achieve functional equivalence between substituting modalities when these previous steps are met.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.
hi@scite.ai
10624 S. Eastern Ave., Ste. A-614
Henderson, NV 89052, USA
Copyright © 2024 scite LLC. All rights reserved.
Made with 💙 for researchers
Part of the Research Solutions Family.