ABSTRACT
I have known David Lee for over 30 years and our ideas about perception and
action have created a very interesting interaction between us. Although David
originally focused on the theoretical relationship between optical variables and
action, my departure point was in my empirical studies of motion perception and
how very well young infants are able to deal with motion and change (see, e.g.,
Von Hofsten, 1980). From these two different standpoints, we came to very
similar conclusions. Our elaborate discussions about various topics in perception
and action have resulted in three essays in the form of discussions between us
(Lee, Von Hofsten, & Cotton, 1997; Von Hofsten & Lee, 1982, 1994). They
outline our basic ideas that movements are goal directed actions and not
reactions, that perception and action are parts of a continuous process in which
perception and action are mutually dependent of each other, and that the
information that guides action is prospective. These ideas are nicely expressed in
the beginning of a dialogue that we wrote after a hike in the Big Basin
Redwoods south of San Francisco in 1989 (unpublished):
C. Dave, look at those hummingbirds over there. They seem to be floating in the
air like gravity did not exist.
