Comment on Open thread, 3-8 June 2014

Tue, 10 Jun 2014 01:30:46 GMT

One aspect of perceptual adaptation I do not often hear emphasized is the role of agency. I first encountered it in this passage:

The first hours were very difficult; nobody could move freely or do anything without going very slowly and trying to figure out and make sense of what he or she saw. Then something unexpected happened: Everything about their bodies and the immediate vicinity that they were touching began to look as before, but everything which could not be touched continued to be inverted. Gradually, by groping and touching while moving around to attain the satisfaction of normal needs, participants in the experiment found that objects further a field began to appear normal to the participants in the experiment. In a few weeks, everything looked the right way up, and they could all do everything without any special attention or care. At one point in the experiment snow began to fall. Kohler looked through the window and saw the flakes rising from the earth and moving upwards. He went out, stretched out his hands, palms upwards, and felt the snow falling on them. After only a few moments of feeling the snow touch his palms, he began to see the snow falling instead of rising.

There have been other experiments with inverted spectacles. One carried out in the United States involved two people, one sitting in a wheelchair and the other pushing it, both fitted with such special glasses. The one who moved around by pushing the chair began to see normally, and after a few hours, was able to find his way without groping, while the one sitting continued to see everything the wrong way.

--- Moshe Feldenkrais, "Man and World," in "Explorers of Humankind," ed Thomas Hanna

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