Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory (APAL)
The Affordance Perception-Action Laboratory at the University of Minnesota is part of the School of Kinesiology, in the College of Education and Human Development. The APAL is the successor to the Human Factors Research Laboratory.
The perceptual guidance of action, and the use of motor activity to obtain perceptual information are two of the central aspects of animate behavior. Even one-celled organisms perceive to move, and move to perceive. Research on relations between perception and action is relatively recent in the behavioral sciences, and APAL is a leader in quantitative research in this area. Our focus is on the integration of perception and action in the context of meaningful behaviors. Relations between properties of the environment and properties of the organism have consequences for behavior. These relations, known as affordances, are directly relevant to the success of our interactions with the environment and, accordingly, perception and action should be concentrated on learning about affordances and on the use of affordances to achieve behavioral goals. Our focus on affordance perception-action is inspired by the Ecological Approach to Perception and Action.
In the APAL, our study of relations between affordances and perception-action straddles the boundary between basic and applied science. That is, our research on “basic” issues commonly has implications for the design and use of human-machine systems, and our research on “applied” issues commonly has implications for general theories of affordance perception-action. Our applied work relates primarily to the Human Factors of perception and action in virtual environments, and is inspired by the Ecological Approach to Human-Machine Systems.
APAL's research on motion sickness was featured recently on the University of Minnesota's eNews and on WCCO-TV. It was also featured in the News Scan section of the April 2009 issue of Scientific American.
APAL's research on ships at sea was featured in a recent podcast as a "University of Minnesota Moment".
Special News
- From January 18 - 31, Dr. Stoffregen led an international team of researchers conducting the first-ever studies of how novices adapt body movement to life at sea. Our experiments were conducted on the M/V Explorer, cruising from the Bahamas to Brazil. From left to right: Cristina Alcantara (Univ. Sao Paulo, Brazil), Professor Kidd Chen (Pingtung University, Taiwan), Dr. Manuel Varlet and Professor Benoit Bardy (University of Montpellier-1, France), and Dr. Stoffregen.
Photo by Alexandra Hope
- APAL members attended the Progress in Motor Control VII in Cincinnati, in July 2011.
From left: Yi-Chou (Chris) Chen, Fu-Chen (Kidd) Chen, Yawen Yu, Professor Stoffregen, Professor Wade, Azizah Jordan, Sam Haag.- Xiao (Jason) Dong, former graduate student researcher in APAL, has accepted a position at Microsoft in Seattle. Jason will conduct research on customer interactions with Microsoft online advertising services and related UX platforms (Bing, MSN, Xbox, etc.). Congratulations, Jason!
- Yawen Yu, Ph.D., who successfully defended her doctoral dissertation on August 18, has accepted a post-doctoral fellowship at the University of Nebraska-Omaha. She will work in the Nebraska Core Biomechanics Facility, under the direction of Professor Nick Stergiou. Dr. Stergiou is one of the top international researchers on the dynamics of human movement in clinical populations, and post-doc positions in his lab are highly sought after and very prestigious.
- Yawen Yu, doctoral candidate in APAL, has been named by the American Kinesiology Association as a Graduate Scholar Award winner for 2011.
- Tony Mayo, doctoral candidate in APAL, has been named by the American Kinesiology Association as a Student Writing Award winner for 2011.
- APAL undergraduate research assistants Lauren Hemingway and Stephanie Motiff received UROP awards that support their research projects in 2010-2011. Since 2006, APAL research assistants have received 12 UROP awards.
- APAL members attended the Progress in Motor Control VII in Cincinnati, in July 2011.