[From Fred Nickols (980105.1800 EST)]
Richard Kennaway (980105.1340 GMT)
I've just been reading "Figments of Reality", by Jack Cohen and Ian
Stewart.
The book is about the nature of mind. PCT is not mentioned, and if they
were aware of it, they wouldn't have described, as they do, a fielder
catching a ball by extrapolating where it's going to be and putting their
hands there.
This reminds me of my posting about the sea lions and "crack-of-the-bat"
behavior, to which I've since given some more thought.
My guess is that the sea lions (to whom halibut were being tossed), weren't
necessarily heading toward where they were predicting the fish would land so
much as they were acting to reduce the perceived distance between themselves
and the fish. The predicted position of the fish might or might not have
been a factor in their behavior. Almost certainly, at least by PCT lights,
the perceived and changing distance between themselves and the fish were
factors.
By the same token, outfielders don't extrapolate where the ball is going to
be and putting their hands there, they behave in ways that reduce the
distance between themselves and the ball and then, I guess, in the closing
moments, the distance between their glove and the ball (or at least their
perception of the relative position of those two objects).
That said, it seems to me that outfielder (a.k.a. sea lion) behavior is a
form of tracking behavior.
Comments, anyone?
Regards,
Fred Nickols
The Distance Consulting Company
nickols@worldnet.att.net
http://home.att.net/~nickols/distance.html