Conference: A Natural-Physical Perspective on Perception-Action-Cognition

人们显然可以轻松地在杂乱的地形中导航，绕过障碍物，找到最省力的路线。来自春天解冻的水也穿过杂乱的地形，沿着最不费力的路线绕过障碍物，沿着山坡往下走。第一个例子中的行为是由信息引导的故意行为；第二个例子中的行为是由物理规律引导的环境中产生的。虽然日常行为很容易被认为是大脑控制的特殊心理能力的产物，但相当复杂的行为是许多没有大脑控制它们的物理系统的特征。许多科学家认为，人类行为可以从被视为物理问题中受益。拟议中的会议旨在让一群不同的科学家讨论与感知、行动和认知方面的心理学和物理学之间的界面有关的问题。会议组织者希望这次会议能为科学家提供一个场所，让他们考虑通过研究支配复杂物理系统的原理，可以从哪些方面了解人类的行为。这次会议将汇集物理学家和研究记忆、语言、知觉和协调运动的心理学家；研究平衡、技能和运动障碍的运动学家；以及研究糖尿病引起的脑瘫、中风和感觉障碍的物理治疗师。它将集中在五个研究领域：1)协调动力学，2)触觉感知，3)光学和声学，4)语言，5)记忆。总体目标是培养对物理视角对人类认知和行为的普遍程度的更深层次的理解。对支配人类流畅行为的物理原理的理解，也将对我们如何学习新行为和补救行为障碍产生影响。

People navigate through cluttered terrain with apparent ease, steering around obstacles to find the least effortful route. Water from the Spring thaw also negotiates cluttered terrain, finding its way down the hillside, around obstacles following the least effortful route. Behavior in the first example is an intentional act guided by information; behavior in the second example emerges from circumstances guided by physical law. While it is easy to consider everyday behavior as the product of special psychological abilities controlled by the brain, fairly complicated behaviors are characteristic of many physical systems that don't have brains to control them. Many scientists believe that human behavior can benefit from being treated as a problem of physics.The proposed conference aims at bringing a diverse group of scientists to discuss issues related to the interface between psychology and physics with respect to perception, action, and cognition. The conference organizers hope that the meeting will provide a venue where scientists consider what can be learned about human behavior by studying the principles that govern complex physical systems. The conference will bring physicists together with psychologists who study memory, language, perception, and coordinated movement; kinesiologists who study balance, skill, and movement disorders; and physical therapists who study cerebral palsy, stroke, and sensory deficits due to diabetes. It will focus on five research areas: 1) Coordination Dynamics, 2) Haptic Perception, 3) Optics and Acoustics, 4) Language, and 5) Memory. The overall goal is to foster a deeper appreciation of how general the physical perspective can be for human cognition and behavior. The understanding of physical principles that govern fluent human behavior will also have consequences for how we approach the learning of new behaviors and the remediation of behavioral disorders.