June 20 Applied Complexity Lecture: Nia and Eric Amazeen

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***FRIAM Group Applied Complexity lecture: Friday, June 20, 2003, 12:00 -
2:00pm***

Location: Santa Fe Institute Medium Conference Room

Titles: "The Ecology of Perceiving" and "The Dynamics of Rhythmic
Coordination"
Speakers: Eric and Polemnia Amazeen
Affiliation: Cognitive Science, Arizona State University

(Open lecture to all SFI researchers and the public. Break to bring in lunch
12:55-1:05pm)

Applied Complexity researchers and developers are often tasked to model an
organization of one type or another. How an organization couples to and
coordinates with its environment tends to be of central importance to the
model designer. The research program of Ecological Psychology, a
sub-discipline within Cognitive Science, may provide inspiration as it seeks
to make explicit the informational properties of the agent-environment
interaction. FriamGroup will host Nia and Eric Amazeen, two prominent
researchers in the field of Ecological Psychology, for a dual lecture to
introduce research in the field.


Talk I: 12-1pm
Title: The Ecology of Perceiving
Speaker: Eric Amazeen
                Cognitive Science
                Arizona State University

ABSTRACT: A traditional assumption in the psychology of perception is that
the information on our senses is impoverished and that computational
mechanisms are necessary to construct a perception of our environment. Such
an assumption, though, distances the perceptual experience from the
environment. This interferes with the psychologist's ability to understand
the meaningful connections between an individual's behavior and environment.
An alternate approach, the Ecological Approach of James J. Gibson, will be
presented. According to this approach, there is an abundance of information
available on the senses and so the perceiver is in constant direct contact
with their environment. The goal of the psychologist is to identify this
information. This approach will be illustrated with research on the
perception of heaviness.



Talk II: 1-2pm
Title: The Dynamics of Rhythmic Coordination
Speaker: Polemnia Amazeen
                Cognitive Science
                Arizona State University

ABSTRACT: Coordination is a multi-level, multi-agent, and naturally
important phenomenon. An emphasis on behavior over physical composition
allows for the examination of structurally-different coordination phenomena
in a single, unified model. This talk will include an overview of both motor
coordination and locomotor-respiratory coupling, or the support of motor
coordination by respiration. Whether the component subsystems are limbs or
entire physiological subsystems, their coordination may be characterized in
terms of phase-locking and frequency-locking. Two classes of dynamical
models will be presented that accommodate both phase-locked and
frequency-locked coordination. In either case, the dynamical model is
defined according to natural coordination tendencies and is parameterized by
environmental factors, psychological influences, and experience.
Universalities, applications, and future directions will be discussed.

*******************************************************


-Steve



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