The actualization of action possibilities (i.e., affordances) can often be accomplished in numerous ways. For instance, an individual could walk over to a rubbish bin to drop an item in or throw the piece of rubbish into the bin from some distance away. The aim of the current study was to investigate the action dynamics that emerge from such under-constrained task or action spaces using an object transportation task. Participants were instructed to transport balls between a starting location and a large wooden box located 9 meters away. The temporal interval between the sequential presentation of balls was manipulated as a control parameter and was expected to influence the distance participants moved prior to throwing or dropping the ball into the target box. A two-parameter state space derived from the Cusp Catastrophe Model was employed to illustrate how behavioral variability emerged as a consequence of the under-constrained task context. Two follow-up experiments demonstrated direct correspondence between model predictions and observed action dynamics as a function of increasing task constraints. Implications for modelling, the theory of affordances, and empirical studies more generally are discussed.

中文翻译：

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任务约束对动作动力学的影响

行动可能性（即可供性）的实现通常可以通过多种方式完成。例如，一个人可以走到垃圾桶前将物品放入垃圾桶或从一定距离外将垃圾扔进垃圾桶。当前研究的目的是使用对象运输任务调查从这种约束不足的任务或动作空间中出现的动作动力学。参与者被要求在起点和 9 米外的一个大木箱之间运送球。连续呈现球之间的时间间隔被用作控制参数，预计会影响参与者在将球扔进或落入目标箱之前移动的距离。使用从 Cusp Catastrophe 模型导出的双参数状态空间来说明行为可变性如何作为约束不足的任务上下文的结果而出现。两个后续实验证明了模型预测与观察到的动作动态之间的直接对应关系，作为增加任务约束的函数。更广泛地讨论了建模、可供性理论和实证研究的含义。