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The Theory of Event Coding (TEC): a framework for perception and action planning.
B Hommel1, J Müsseler, G Aschersleben
1Section of Experimental and Theoretical Psychology, University of Leiden, 2300 RB Leiden, The Netherlands. hommel@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
The Behavioral and Brain Sciences
|September 21, 2002
Summary
This study introduces a unified framework for perception and action planning, proposing "event codes" to represent both. This approach better explains how actions influence perception and vice versa.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Human Information Processing
- Neuroscience
Background:
- Traditional models isolate perception and action planning, neglecting their interface.
- Cognitive views underestimate action's impact on perception and learning.
- Action planning is often seen as stimulus continuation, ignoring goal-directedness.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a new theoretical framework for perception and action planning.
- To integrate perception and action planning through a common representational medium.
- To provide empirical support for the proposed framework.
Main Methods:
- Literature review of traditional approaches.
- Development of a novel theoretical framework using "event codes".
- Analysis of empirical evidence from various domains.
Main Results:
- Perceptual content and action plans are represented by feature codes with distal reference.
- Integrated, task-tuned networks of feature codes, termed "event codes", represent perceived and to-be-produced events.
- Empirical data support the main assumptions of the proposed framework.
Conclusions:
- The proposed framework offers a more adequate theoretical treatment of the perception-action interface.
- Event codes provide a unified representational medium for perception and action.
- This integrated approach is supported by evidence from spatial compatibility, sensorimotor synchronization, and ideomotor action studies.
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