The dynamics of simple prediction: Judging reachability

Abstract

This study addresses the dynamical nature of a `representation hungry' cognitive task. Participants were asked to judge whether or not they thought they could reach a distant object with a hand-held rod. The dynamical effects observed in this study support a two-attractor model designed by Tuller, Case, Ding, & Kelso (1994). The results suggest that predictive judgments regarding the (im)possibility of an action may be better understood in terms of dynamically evolving basins of attraction rather than as depending on stable representational structures.