Asymmetries Between Perception and Action

Abstract

The present book has so far concentrated mainly on symmetries or similarities in the structures and processes for perception and production. Mental nodes represent the main structural symmetry, and these shared theoretical components for perception and action contribute to empirical symmetries such as the Freudian error symmetry (see also Chapter 2). The Freudian error symmetry refers to the virtual indistinguishability of Freudian misperceptions versus misproductions. Compare these examples: carcinoma substituted for Barcelona by someone preoccupied with the disease, and battle scared general substituted for battle scarred general by a speaker believing the general to be scared of battle (see Chapter 4). One error is a misperception, and the other is a misproduction, but it would be difficult for an otherwise uninformed observer to tell which was which.

Many psychologists, including the present authors, have been disturbed by a theoretical vacuum between perception and action. The present volume is largely the record of prolonged—and frequently violent—conversations about how that vacuum might be filled.

(Miller et al., 1960, p. 11)

Roughly speaking, the listener has to reverse the process of speaking.

(Bierwisch, 1966/1985, p. 123)