Between Perception and Action

by Bence Nanay

What mediates between sensory input and motor output? This is probably the most basic question one can ask about the mind. There is stimulation on your retina, something happens in your skull and then you hand reaches out to grab the apple in front of you. What is it that happens in between? What representations make it possible for you to grab this apple?Bence Nanay calls these representations that make it possible for you to grab the apple 'pragmatic representations'. In Between Perception and Action he argues that pragmatic representations whose function is to mediate between sensory input and motor output play an immensely important role in our mental life. And they help us to explain why the vast majority of what goes on in our mind is very similar to the simple mental processes of animals.The human mind, like the mind of non-human animals, has been selected for allowing us to perform actions successfully. And the vast majority of our actions, like the actions of non-human animals, could not be performed without perceptual guidance. And what provides the perceptual guidance for performing actions are pragmatic representations.If we accept this framework, many classic questions in philosophy of perception and of action will look very different. The aim of this book is to trace the various consequences of this way of thinking about the mind in a number of branches of philosophy as well as in psychology and cognitive science.

Genres: Psychology

219 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2013

About the author

University of Antwerp, Belgium

Reviews

[batuhan_a_kocak · Rating 3 out of 5]

(Türkçe yorum aşağıda )

The book introduces the concept of a "pragmatic representation" which is a bundle of action-related features belonging to an object. With a conative component which motivates one to act, they are the immediate mental antecedents of action.

The author claims that his pragmatic representation is different than dorsal stream processing in section 3.4 but his arguments are based on misunderstandings and contradictions. A pragmatic representation is mostly made up of features like distance, size, shape, etc. which are processed in the dorsal pathway and some task-relevant or task-associated semantic or ventral-stream features. This interaction is allowed, and even required under the dual pathway theory since the earliest publications on the topic. So, I don't think pragmatic representations bring anything new to the table. I was more interested in the conative component but the book did not discuss this component.

Overall, I don't think the book provided any new perspective into sensorimotor interactions.

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Kitap hareketle ilgili nesne özelliklerinden oluşan "pragmatik temsil" konseptini tanıtıyor. Çabayla ilgili bileşen ile beraber hareketin dolaysız zihinsel öncüllerini oluştururlar.

Yazar bölüm 3.4'te pragmatik temsillerin, dorsal yolak süreçlerinden farklı olduğunu öne sürüyor ama argümanları yanlış anlamalar ve çelişkiler üzerine kurulu. Bir pragmatik temsil özellikle mesafe, şekil, boyut gibi dorsal yolakta işlenen özellikler ve görev için önemli veya görevle ilişkili vwntral yolak özelliklerini içerir. Bu, iki yolak teorisiyle ilgili ilk yayınlardan itibaren izin verilen hatta gereken bir etkileşimdir. Bu yüzden pragmatik temsillerin bir yenilik getirdiğini düşünmüyorum. Çabayla ilgili bileşene daha çok ilgi duymuştum ama kitapta bu bileşen tartışılmadı.

Özetle, kitabın algı-eylem etkileşimlerine yeni bir bakış açısı sağladığını düşünmüyorum.