An enactive approach to perception-action and skill acquisition in virtual reality environments

We describe in this chapter basic principles underlying human skill acquisition, and envisage how virtual environment technology can be used to shorten the route toward expertise. The emphasis is put on coordination - between segments, muscles, sensory modalities, and between the agent and the environment - and on enaction, a form a knowledge that is gained by doing, i.e., through the active interaction between action and perception, in real or virtual environments. Examples are taken from the SKILLS FP6 european integrated project.