Abstract
Getting around the environment and doing things requires precise timing of body movements. Moreover, there is often little time available to pick up the visual information to organize the action. Consider, for instance, a batsman hitting a fast bowler or a bird alighting on a twig swaying in the wind. The visual and motor systems evidently work in close harmony, vision rapidly and directly providing the information for controlling the action. Here, we present evidence in support of a theory to explain how actions are visually tuned. The evidence derives from a film analysis of the spectacular plunge dive of one of Britain's largest seabirds, the gannet (Sula bassana).
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References
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Nelson, B. The Gannet (Poyser, Berkhamsted, 1978).
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Lee, D., Reddish, P. Plummeting gannets: a paradigm of ecological optics. Nature 293, 293–294 (1981). https://doi.org/10.1038/293293a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/293293a0
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