Visual perception guides the action required to navigate safely through an environment and the action in turn alters perception. The objective of this work was to determine how well perception and action are coupled when approaching and walking through moving doors with dynamically changing apertures. My first two studies found that the two dominant action control parameters observed were a change in approach velocity and a change in shoulder rotation. My third study found that visual fixation patterns and action parameters were similar when the location of the aperture was predictable and unpredictable, suggesting that vision only tightly couples action when a specific action is required and the threat of a collision increases. My last study was designed to determine if we go where we are looking. Here I found that action does follow vision but is only loosely correlated. The most important and common finding from all the studies is that at 2 seconds prior to crossing moving doors, vision seems to have the most profound effect on action. My findings help to understand how individuals use vision to modify actions in order to avoid colliding with other people or other moving objects.

I completed my Ph.D. in Kinesiology from the University of Waterloo in 2006 and then completed a two-year post-doctoral fellowship at Brown University in Cognitive Science. In 2008 I began my tenure-track faculty position and I am currently an Associate Professor at Wilfrid Laurier University in the Department of Kinesiology and Physical Education.

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