Thomas A Stoffregen
Biographic Data
| ID | 3445840 |
|---|---|
| NAME | Thomas A Stoffregen |
| GIVEN NAMES | Thomas A |
| FAMILY NAME | Stoffregen |
| SIGNATURE | STOFFREGEN T A |
| AFFILIATIONS | University of Minnesota |
| ORCID | 0000-0003-1467-9168 |
| VERIFIED | Yes |
| TOTAL WORKS | 29 |
| TOTAL CITATIONS | 15 |
| WORKS AS AUTHOR | 29 |
| WORKS AS EDITOR | 0 |
| FIRST PUBLICATION YEAR | 1990 |
| LATEST PUBLICATION YEAR | 2026 |
| H-INDEX | 1 |
Perception of Affordances for Vertical and Horizontal Jumping in Child Kung-Fu Athletes
Higher order affordances
The Senses Considered as One Perceptual System
J. J. Gibson (1966) rejected many classical assumptions about perception but retained 1 that dates back to classical antiquity: the assumption of separate senses. We suggest that Gibson's retention of this assumption compromised his novel concept of perceptual systems. We argue that lawful, 1:1 specification of the animal–environment interaction, which is necessary for perception to be direct, cannot exist in individual forms of ambient energy, s…
Walking Before and During a Sea Voyage
Stationary and moving surfaces impose different constraints on walking. In this study we investigated within-participants differences between walking on a ship before (at the dock) and during (at sea) a sea voyage. Four individuals participated in the study. While on the ship they wore a tri-axial accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X+; ActiGraph LLC, Pensacola, FL) on their waists. Activity data were sampled at 30 Hz. Data were collected on the day befo…
Subjective Reports and Postural Performance Among Older Adult Passengers on a Sea Voyage
We sought to evaluate changes in subjective experience and postural performance among older adult passengers during the first 2 days of a sea voyage. On a vacation cruise, volunteer passengers gave verbal ratings of subjective bodily stability and awareness of ship motion followed by performance on the tandem Romberg test while facing fore-aft and athwartship. Data were collected when the ship was at the dock and on each of the first 2 full days …
Postural Precursors of Postboxing Motion Sickness in a Manual Aiming Task
We asked whether body sway during performance of a visual-manual task would differ between boxers who experienced post-match motion sickness and those who did not. Before and after boxing we measured standing body sway while participants performed a manual precision aiming task. After boxing, participants stated, yes/no, whether they were motion sick; they also reported motion sickness symptoms, and concussion-related symptoms. Seven of thirteen …
Effects of Visual Tasks and Conversational Partner on Personal and Interpersonal Postural Activity
The control of stance is influenced by activities that are engaged in during stance. We investigated simultaneous constraints imposed by individual-specific factors (such as the distance of visual targets) and of interpersonal factors arising from dyadic conversation. Each member of participant pairs looked at targets (drawings) that were similar to, but differed from, that of a conversational partner. Conversational partners conversed to identif…
On the Physical Origins of Inverted Optic Images
In the behavioral sciences, discussions of vision often carry an implicit assumption that the formation of inverted optic images is a result of human technology (i.e., cameras) or biological mechanisms (i.e., the chambered eye). If this assumption were true, then inverted images would be—in effect—an invention of living things, which, in turn, would have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution and psychology of vision. In th…
Control of a Virtual Avatar Influences Postural Activity and Motion Sickness
The influence of vehicular control on motion sickness has implications for theories of motion sickness etiology. We asked whether motion sickness susceptibility might also be related to the control of non-vehicular locomotion. Participants were exposed to a console video game that featured ambulatory locomotion of a virtual avatar. In a yoked control design, individuals either played the game (players) or watched another participant's recorded ga…
Postural Sway and the Amplitude of Horizontal Eye Movements
In 2 experiments, we evaluated relations between postural activity and the amplitude of visually guided eye movements. Participants shifted their gaze to follow horizontal oscillation of a visible target. The target moved with amplitude 9° or 24°. In different experiments, the frequency of target oscillation was 0.5 Hz or 1.1 Hz. In both experiments, the variability of head and torso motion was reduced (in the anterior-posterior axis) when partic…
Standing Posture on Land and at Sea
We studied the influence of ship motion on postural activity during stance, varying stance width (the distance between the feet in side-by-side stance) and the difficulty of visual tasks. Participants (experienced crewmembers) were tested on land and then on successive days on a ship at sea in mild sea states. On land, we replicated classical effects of stance width and visual task on the magnitude of postural movement. The magnitude of forces us…
Multimodal Perception of Reachability Expressed Through Locomotion
Thomas Stoffregen Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL) / University of Minnesota Twin Cities *** Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D. Lab Director 5B Cooke Hall 1900 University Ave SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 [email protected] | 612-626-1056États-Unis / http://apal.umn.edu/ *** The Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory at the University of Minnesota is part of the School of Kinesiology, in the College of Education and Human Development. The APAL is the su…
Stance Width Influences Postural Stability and Motion Sickness
We examined the influence of stance width (the distance between the feet) on postural sway and visually induced motion sickness. Stance width influences the magnitude of body sway, and changes in sway precede the subjective symptoms of motion sickness. Thus, manipulation of stance width may influence motion sickness incidence. Participants (healthy young adults) were exposed to complex, low-frequency oscillation of a moving room. Participants sto…
Movement in the Perception of an Affordance for Wheelchair Locomotion
We investigated the role of movement in the perception of a novel affordance for wheelchair locomotion. Healthy adults without prior wheelchair experience judged the lowest lintel under which they could roll in the wheelchair. Prior to judgments, some participants were given brief (~2 min) practice at self-controlled wheelchair locomotion. There were 2 main results. First, participants who had this brief practice accurately judged their own minim…
Self-Induced Motion Sickness and Body Movement During Passive Restraint
While standing on a force platform, participants were subjected to passive restraint by being strapped to a vertical surface at the head, shoulders, hips, and knees. Despite the restraint, small movements of the body were possible. During restraint, there was no imposed motion of any kind. Twenty-two percent of participants became motion sick, suggesting that passive restraint during stance may be inherently nauseogenic. Motion sickness was prece…
Length Perception by Dynamic Touch
Two experiments investigated the effects of age and experience on length perception. A total of 46 participants were asked to wield and estimate the length of unseen rods by adjusting a movable board to equal their estimate of the reachable distance of the rod. The results demonstrated that (a) participants used the haptic subsystem of dynamic touch to perceive dissimilarities in object length and (b) experience playing racquet sports was more in…
Postural Stabilization of Visually Guided Eye Movements
We studied relations between eye movements and postural control. In two experiments, participants were asked to shift gaze to follow horizontal oscillation of visual targets. Postural sway variability was reduced during target oscillation, relative to sway with a stationary target. Target displacement amplitude was within the range that normally does not elicit head rotation, and measured head rotation did not increase during target motion. Eye m…
Affordance Judgments and Nonlocomotor Body Movement
In 2 experiments, participants made judgments of their own maximum sitting height. During judgments, participants stood normally or on 10 cm blocks attached to their feet. The blocks increased participants ’ actual maximum sitting height. For many participants, judgments changed over trials, becoming more accurate, despite the ab-sence of practice at sitting, or feedback about judgment accuracy. Learning was ob-served not only when participants w…
Breadth and Limits of the Affordance Concept
Kirlik (this issue) reviews my recent (Stoffregen, 2003b) definition of affordance and suggests that it is too broad. Kirlik argues that the concept of affordance should include only things that are opportunities for action. In replying, I agree that affordance should be restricted to opportunities for action. However, I argue that action can and should include the great majority of animate behavior and possibly all of it. Finally, I argue that t…
Affordances Are Enough
Chemero, Klein, and Cordeiro (this issue) present an argument about the utility of a concept of events within the ecological approach to perception and action. They define ecological events as changes in the layout of affordances, and they distinguish this concept from earlier definitions of event, which they refer to as physical events. They argue that changes in the layout of affordances should be perceived, that is, that their perception is mo…
Affordances as Properties of the Animal-Environment System
In this article, I argue that affordances are properties of the animal-environment system, that is, that they are emergent properties that do not inhere in either the environment or the animal. I critique and review the formal definition of affordance offered by Turvey (1992). Turvey defined affordances as properties of the environment; I discuss some consequences of this and argue that Turvey's strategy of grounding the definition of affordance …
Affordances and Events
In replying to the commentaries, I focus on issues relating to theory, empirical practice (i.e., to how research on events and affordances has been conducted), and empirical research that I think is needed. I reiterate my argument that because they differ qualitatively, affordances might be perceived without prior or concurrent perception of the underlying events. I suggest that research on event perception might, in principle, inform research on…
Affordances and Events
Affordance is a fundamental concept in the ecological approach to perception and action, but it is not yet fully developed. In this article, I attempt to further the development of the concept by contrasting it with the concept of events. My specific purpose is to raise for further discussion the following question: Can a theory that predicts the perception of affordances also predict the perception of events? I argue that affordances and events …
Action and Intermodal Information Influence the Perception of Orientation
Filming the World
In this article I describe some aspects of Joseph Anderson's theory of film, and evaluate these in the context of ecological theory. My analysis of Anderson's interpretation of the work of James Gibson leads me to conclude that there are unresolved issues in Gibson's theory of depictions (still and moving pictures). I suggest that some of these issues might be clarified through a closer consideration of perception as an exploratory act and of fil…
Affordances and Events
Affordance is a fundamental concept in the ecological approach to perception and action, but it is not yet fully developed. In this article, I attempt to further the development of the concept by contrasting it with the concept of events. My specific purpose is to raise for further discussion the following question: Can a theory that predicts the perception of affordances also predict the perception of events? I argue that affordances and events …
Responses to Optical Looming in the Retinal Center and Periphery
Stoffregen (1985, 1986) found that the periphery of the retina is insensitive to radially structured optic flow specifying postural sway. This raised the issue of whether the retinal periphery is sensitive to radially structured flow per se, that is, to radial flow specifying events other than postural sway. In the experiment discussed herein we addressed this question in the context of optical looming. Computer-generated optical displays were pr…
An ecological Theory of Motion Sickness and Postural Instability
In this article we present a new theory of motion sickness. In the sensory conflict theory, changes in stimulation of perceptual systems are believed to be responsible for motion sickness. We discuss the fact that these changes in stimulation are not independent of the animal-environment interaction, but are determined by corresponding changes in the constraints operating on the control of action. Thus, provocative situations may be characterized…
An Ecological Critique of the Sensory Conflict Theory of Motion Sickness
In this article we present a critique of the sensory conflict theory of motion sickness. We discuss three forms of sensory conflict that are believed to exist: input conflict, output conflict, and expectancy violation. We argue that any concept of sensory conflict necessarily entails the violation of internal expectations and, hence, that the three forms of conflict are logically identical. In the motion sickness literature, it is implicit that t…
Visual Perception of Support-Surface Deformability From Human Body Kinematics
Riccio and Stoffregen (1988) argued that dynamical properties of a surface of support influence the control of behavior. This implies that the kinematic form of events, including the movements of a behaving animal, will be influenced by the dynamics (e.g., rigidity, tilt, friction) of the surfaces on which they occur. For any behavior in which the execution is constrained (influenced) by a surface, the kinematics of the body should provide inform…
Filming the World
In this article I describe some aspects of Joseph Anderson's theory of film, and evaluate these in the context of ecological theory. My analysis of Anderson's interpretation of the work of James Gibson leads me to conclude that there are unresolved issues in Gibson's theory of depictions (still and moving pictures). I suggest that some of these issues might be clarified through a closer consideration of perception as an exploratory act and of fil…
Action and Intermodal Information Influence the Perception of Orientation
Affordances and Events
In replying to the commentaries, I focus on issues relating to theory, empirical practice (i.e., to how research on events and affordances has been conducted), and empirical research that I think is needed. I reiterate my argument that because they differ qualitatively, affordances might be perceived without prior or concurrent perception of the underlying events. I suggest that research on event perception might, in principle, inform research on…
Affordances and Events
Affordance is a fundamental concept in the ecological approach to perception and action, but it is not yet fully developed. In this article, I attempt to further the development of the concept by contrasting it with the concept of events. My specific purpose is to raise for further discussion the following question: Can a theory that predicts the perception of affordances also predict the perception of events? I argue that affordances and events …
Affordances Are Enough
Chemero, Klein, and Cordeiro (this issue) present an argument about the utility of a concept of events within the ecological approach to perception and action. They define ecological events as changes in the layout of affordances, and they distinguish this concept from earlier definitions of event, which they refer to as physical events. They argue that changes in the layout of affordances should be perceived, that is, that their perception is mo…
Affordances as Properties of the Animal-Environment System
In this article, I argue that affordances are properties of the animal-environment system, that is, that they are emergent properties that do not inhere in either the environment or the animal. I critique and review the formal definition of affordance offered by Turvey (1992). Turvey defined affordances as properties of the environment; I discuss some consequences of this and argue that Turvey's strategy of grounding the definition of affordance …
Breadth and Limits of the Affordance Concept
Kirlik (this issue) reviews my recent (Stoffregen, 2003b) definition of affordance and suggests that it is too broad. Kirlik argues that the concept of affordance should include only things that are opportunities for action. In replying, I agree that affordance should be restricted to opportunities for action. However, I argue that action can and should include the great majority of animate behavior and possibly all of it. Finally, I argue that t…
Affordance Judgments and Nonlocomotor Body Movement
In 2 experiments, participants made judgments of their own maximum sitting height. During judgments, participants stood normally or on 10 cm blocks attached to their feet. The blocks increased participants ’ actual maximum sitting height. For many participants, judgments changed over trials, becoming more accurate, despite the ab-sence of practice at sitting, or feedback about judgment accuracy. Learning was ob-served not only when participants w…
Postural Stabilization of Visually Guided Eye Movements
We studied relations between eye movements and postural control. In two experiments, participants were asked to shift gaze to follow horizontal oscillation of visual targets. Postural sway variability was reduced during target oscillation, relative to sway with a stationary target. Target displacement amplitude was within the range that normally does not elicit head rotation, and measured head rotation did not increase during target motion. Eye m…
Self-Induced Motion Sickness and Body Movement During Passive Restraint
While standing on a force platform, participants were subjected to passive restraint by being strapped to a vertical surface at the head, shoulders, hips, and knees. Despite the restraint, small movements of the body were possible. During restraint, there was no imposed motion of any kind. Twenty-two percent of participants became motion sick, suggesting that passive restraint during stance may be inherently nauseogenic. Motion sickness was prece…
Length Perception by Dynamic Touch
Two experiments investigated the effects of age and experience on length perception. A total of 46 participants were asked to wield and estimate the length of unseen rods by adjusting a movable board to equal their estimate of the reachable distance of the rod. The results demonstrated that (a) participants used the haptic subsystem of dynamic touch to perceive dissimilarities in object length and (b) experience playing racquet sports was more in…
Movement in the Perception of an Affordance for Wheelchair Locomotion
We investigated the role of movement in the perception of a novel affordance for wheelchair locomotion. Healthy adults without prior wheelchair experience judged the lowest lintel under which they could roll in the wheelchair. Prior to judgments, some participants were given brief (~2 min) practice at self-controlled wheelchair locomotion. There were 2 main results. First, participants who had this brief practice accurately judged their own minim…
Multimodal Perception of Reachability Expressed Through Locomotion
Thomas Stoffregen Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL) / University of Minnesota Twin Cities *** Thomas Stoffregen, Ph.D. Lab Director 5B Cooke Hall 1900 University Ave SE Minneapolis, MN 55455 [email protected] | 612-626-1056États-Unis / http://apal.umn.edu/ *** The Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory at the University of Minnesota is part of the School of Kinesiology, in the College of Education and Human Development. The APAL is the su…
Stance Width Influences Postural Stability and Motion Sickness
We examined the influence of stance width (the distance between the feet) on postural sway and visually induced motion sickness. Stance width influences the magnitude of body sway, and changes in sway precede the subjective symptoms of motion sickness. Thus, manipulation of stance width may influence motion sickness incidence. Participants (healthy young adults) were exposed to complex, low-frequency oscillation of a moving room. Participants sto…
Postural Sway and the Amplitude of Horizontal Eye Movements
In 2 experiments, we evaluated relations between postural activity and the amplitude of visually guided eye movements. Participants shifted their gaze to follow horizontal oscillation of a visible target. The target moved with amplitude 9° or 24°. In different experiments, the frequency of target oscillation was 0.5 Hz or 1.1 Hz. In both experiments, the variability of head and torso motion was reduced (in the anterior-posterior axis) when partic…
Standing Posture on Land and at Sea
We studied the influence of ship motion on postural activity during stance, varying stance width (the distance between the feet in side-by-side stance) and the difficulty of visual tasks. Participants (experienced crewmembers) were tested on land and then on successive days on a ship at sea in mild sea states. On land, we replicated classical effects of stance width and visual task on the magnitude of postural movement. The magnitude of forces us…
Control of a Virtual Avatar Influences Postural Activity and Motion Sickness
The influence of vehicular control on motion sickness has implications for theories of motion sickness etiology. We asked whether motion sickness susceptibility might also be related to the control of non-vehicular locomotion. Participants were exposed to a console video game that featured ambulatory locomotion of a virtual avatar. In a yoked control design, individuals either played the game (players) or watched another participant's recorded ga…
Effects of Visual Tasks and Conversational Partner on Personal and Interpersonal Postural Activity
The control of stance is influenced by activities that are engaged in during stance. We investigated simultaneous constraints imposed by individual-specific factors (such as the distance of visual targets) and of interpersonal factors arising from dyadic conversation. Each member of participant pairs looked at targets (drawings) that were similar to, but differed from, that of a conversational partner. Conversational partners conversed to identif…
On the Physical Origins of Inverted Optic Images
In the behavioral sciences, discussions of vision often carry an implicit assumption that the formation of inverted optic images is a result of human technology (i.e., cameras) or biological mechanisms (i.e., the chambered eye). If this assumption were true, then inverted images would be—in effect—an invention of living things, which, in turn, would have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution and psychology of vision. In th…
Walking Before and During a Sea Voyage
Stationary and moving surfaces impose different constraints on walking. In this study we investigated within-participants differences between walking on a ship before (at the dock) and during (at sea) a sea voyage. Four individuals participated in the study. While on the ship they wore a tri-axial accelerometer (ActiGraph GT3X+; ActiGraph LLC, Pensacola, FL) on their waists. Activity data were sampled at 30 Hz. Data were collected on the day befo…
Subjective Reports and Postural Performance Among Older Adult Passengers on a Sea Voyage
We sought to evaluate changes in subjective experience and postural performance among older adult passengers during the first 2 days of a sea voyage. On a vacation cruise, volunteer passengers gave verbal ratings of subjective bodily stability and awareness of ship motion followed by performance on the tandem Romberg test while facing fore-aft and athwartship. Data were collected when the ship was at the dock and on each of the first 2 full days …
Psychology (26 works) · Computer Science (22 works) · Cognitive psychology (18 works) · Perception (14 works) · Medicine (11 works) · Physical medicine and rehabilitation (11 works) · Visual perception and processing mechanisms (11 works) · Action Observation and Synchronization (10 works) · Artificial Intelligence (10 works) · Affordance (9 works)