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The Theory of Event Coding: A Framework for Perception and Action Planning

Hommel, Bernhard, Musseler, Jochen, Aschersleben, Gisa and Prinz, Wolfgang (2001) The Theory of Event Coding: A Framework for Perception and Action Planning.

Short Abstract:

We argue that traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation and, therefore, fail to give an adequate account of the perception-action interface. The theory we propose instead assumes that perceptual contents and action goals are cognitively represented by composite codes of their distal features, that is, perceived and to-be-produced events are coded within a common representational medium. Our main assumptions are well supported by available evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains and are likely to stimulate new questions and lines of research.

Long Abstract:

Traditional approaches to human information processing tend to deal with perception and action planning in isolation, so that an adequate account of the perception-action interface is still missing. On the perceptual side, the dominant cognitive view largely underestimates, and thus fails to account for, the impact of action-related processes on both the processing of perceptual information and on perceptual learning. On the action side, most approaches available conceive of action planning as a mere continuation of stimulus processing, thus failing to account for the goal-directedness of even the simplest reaction in an experimental task. We propose a new framework for a more adequate theoretical treatment of perception and action planning, a theory postulating that perceptual contents and action plans are coded in a common representational medium by feature codes with distal reference. Accordingly, perceived events (perceptions) and to-be-produced events (actions) are equally represented by integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes--cognitive structures we call event codes. We give an overview of evidence from a wide variety of empirical domains, such as spatial stimulus-response compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, or ideomotor action, showing that our main assumptions are well supported by the data.

Keywords:	action planning, perception, perception-action interface, event coding, common coding, feature integration, binding.
Subjects:	Psychology: Applied Cognitive Psychology Psychology: Behavioral Analysis Psychology: Perceptual Cognitive Psychology
ID code:	bbs00000543
Deposited by:	Bernhard Hommel on 02 May 2001