About hens and eggs - Perception and action, ecology and neuroscience: A reply to Michaels (2000)

Michaels (2000) suggested that vision for perception can and should be sepa rated from vision for action. Methodological, logical, and empirical ground s for this conclusion are critically discussed. Data are presented that per ception and action are not 2 different entities, and therefore, they can ne ither follow each other (the view that Michaels rejects) nor run in paralle l (the view she appears to accept). They are 2 aspects of the same reality of behavioral control. Telling about perception is not perception it self; brains disconnected from an efficient speech apparatus may be able to extra ct environmental information. What is often referred to as dissociation be tween perception and action is not a fiction; rather, such cases indicate i mportant distinctions between different classes of behavioral control. All classes, however, involve both perception and action.