Cognition and Motor Processes

The issue of the relationship between cognition and motor processes can be - and has been - raised at different levels of analysis. At the neurophysiological level it refers to the interactions between afferent and efferent information. At the neurological and neuropsychological level it relates to the mutual dependencies between the sensory and the motor part of the brain, or, more precisely, between sensory and motor functions of various parts of the brain. In psychology, the issue under debate concerns, at a molecular level, the relationship between percep­ tion and movement or, at a more molar level, the relations between cognition and action. For the title of this book we deliberately decided to combine two terms that are taken from two of these levels ,in order to emphasize both the multilevel structure of the issues involved and the multidis­ ciplinary nature of the following contributions. Although the term "cognition" has been tremendously misused in recent years (at least in psychology), it is still the only term available to serve as a convenient collective name for all sorts of cognitive processes and functions.

Table of Contents:
I Motor Control and Action Planning.- 1 Cognitivism and Future Theories of Action: Some Basic Issues.- 2 A Distributed Processing View of Human Motor Control.- 3 The Apraxias, Purposeful Motor Behavior, and Left-Hemisphere Function.- 4 A Motor-Program Editor.- 5 Eye Movement Control During Reading: The Effect of Word Units.- II Motor Contributions to Perception and Cognition.- 6 Motor Theories of Cognitive Structure: A Historical Review.- 7 Context Effects and Efferent Factors in Perception and Cognition.- 8 Saccadic Eye Movements and Visual Stability: Preliminary Considerations Towards a Cognitive Approach.- 9 Scanning and the Distribution of Attention: The Current Status of Heron’s Sensory-Motor Theory.- 10 The Relationship Between Motor Processes and Cognition in Tactile Vision Substitution.- III Mediating Structures and Operations Between Cognition and Action.- 11 Mechanisms of Voluntary Movement.- 12 Evaluation: The Missing Link Between Cognition and Action.- 13 Modes of Linkage Between Perception and Action.- 14 The Contribution of Vision-Based Imagery to the Acquisition and Operation of a Transcription Skill.- 15 Speech Production and Comprehension: One Lexicon or Two?.- IV Attention, Cognition, and Skilled Performance.- 16 S-Oh-R: Oh Stages! Oh Resources!.- 17 Automatic Processing: A Review of Recent Findings and a Plea for an Old Theory.- 18 Motor Learning as a Process of Structural Constriction and Displacement.- V Interactions Between Cognition and Action in Development.- 19 Cognition and Action in Development: A Tutorial Discussion.- 20 Biodynamic Structures, Cognitive Correlates of Motive Sets and the Development of Motives in Infants.- 21 Discontinuity in the Development of Motor Control in Children.- Author Index.