Forward-Looking Aspects of Perception–Action Coupling as a Basis for Embodied Communication

Abstract

Recent research on perception–action coupling indicates the following: (a) Actions are planned in terms of the distal effects they are to produce and, (b) planning and perception share common neural resources. An immediate implication of such dual functionality is that perception entails forward-looking (i.e., intentional) content. This article presents research that indicates that this anticipatory aspect of perception–action coupling contextualizes the perceptual space of an individual. Further research indicates this anticipation-laden, effect-relative (vs. effector-relative) context is a medium that affords cooperative actions among multiple agents. Developing such intentional contexts, however, requires that both individuals and groups have access to the spatiotemporal relations between actions and their effects. For individuals acting alone, knowledge about action–effect relations can be internal because the effectors generating the effects belong to 1 agent. For groups acting cooperatively, however, action options are distributed across different agents. Thus, action–effect information must be externalized. The article concludes with a discussion regarding the extent to which this externalized aspect of cooperative group action constitutes a rudimentary, yet fundamental, basis for embodied communication.