Perception and action: Alternative views

A traditional view of perception and action makes two assumptions: that the causal flow between perception and action is primarily linear or one-way, and that they are merely instrumentally related to each other, so that each is a means to the other. Either or both of these assumptions can be reject ed. Behaviorism rejects the instrumental but not the one-way aspect of the traditional view, thus leaving itself open to charges of verificationism. E cological views reject the one-way aspect but not the instrumental aspect o f the traditional view, so that perception and action are seen as instrumen tally interdependent. It is argued here that a better alternative is to rej ect both assumptions, resulting in a two-level interdependence view in whic h perception and action co-depend on dynamically circular subpersonal relat ions and as a result may be more than merely instrumentally interdependent. This is illustrated by reference to motor theories of perception and contr ol theories of action.