A Perception–Action Strategy for Hummingbirds
Open accessAbstract
Many human and animal tasks are thought to be controlled with the τ informational variable. It is widely accepted that controlling the rate of change of τ (tau) during decelerative tasks, such as when braking or landing, is one common perceptual control strategy. However, many tasks require accelerating before decelerating to a goal, such as reaching. An advancement of τ theory shows how a single action formula may be used to control the full action unit from initiation to peak velocity, and to rest at the goal, with the same perceptual τ information as before and accounting for the same decelerative kinematics as before. Here, we test the theory against data from high-speed video of a hummingbird flying to its flower feeder. We find that the theory accounts for 97% of the variance in the data, and thus supports it.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
Relational environmental variables are coordinative of action.
“relational environmental variables are coordinative of action”
From Traces of thinking: a stigmergic approach to 4E cognition (2025) · cites this paper as Delafield-Butt, J. et al., 2010
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
A Theory of Visual Control of Braking Based on Information about Time-to-Collision
Lee, D. N. (1976) · Perception · doi:10.1068/p050437 · Cited by 2,094 · see citing works
Self-citationLee, D. N., Bootsma, R. J., Land, M. F., Regan, D. M., & Gray, R. (2009) · Perception · doi:10.1068/pmklee · Cited by 180 · see citing works
Self-citationAerial docking by hummingbirds
Lee, D. N., Reddish, P. E., & Rand, D. T. (1991) · Die Naturwissenschaften · doi:10.1007/bf01131406 · Cited by 132 · see citing works
Self-citationSensory and intrinsic coordination of movement
Lee, D., Craig, C., & Grealy, M. (1999) · Proceedings of the Royal Society B Biological Sciences · doi:10.1098/rspb.1999.0882 · Cited by 76 · see citing works
Self-citation
Flagged first, then by citations
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Falcons pursue prey using visual motion cues: new perspectives from animal-borne cameras
Kane, S. A., & Zamani, M. (2014) · Journal of Experimental Biology · doi:10.1242/jeb.092403 · Cited by 143 · see citing works
Sensorimotor intentionality: The origins of intentionality in prospective agent action
Delafield‐Butt, J. T., & Gangopadhyay, N. (2013) · Developmental Review · doi:10.1016/j.dr.2013.09.001 · Cited by 90 · see citing works
Self-citationDelafield‐Butt, J. T., Freer, Y., Perkins, J. D., Skulina, D., Schögler, B., & Lee, D. N. (2018) · Developmental Science · doi:10.1111/desc.12693 · Cited by 50 · see citing works
Self-citationProspective guidance in a free-swimming cell
Delafield‐Butt, J. T., Pepping, G., McCaig, C., & Lee, D. N. (2012) · Biological Cybernetics · doi:10.1007/s00422-012-0495-5 · Cited by 26 · see citing works
Self-citationGuidance of circumnutation of climbing bean stems: An ecological explorationPreprint
Calvo, P., Raja, V., & Lee, D. N. (2017) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/122358 · Cited by 18 · see citing works
Self-citationTemporal guidance of musicians’ performance movement is an acquired skill
Rodger, M. W. M., O’Modhrain, S., & Craig, C. (2013) · Experimental Brain Research · doi:10.1007/s00221-013-3427-2 · Cited by 9 · see citing works
Raja, V., Biener, Z., & Chemero, A. P. (2017) · Ecological Psychology · doi:10.1080/10407413.2017.1297186 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
Development of a Generic Time-to-Contact Pilot Guidance Model
Lu, L., Jump, M., & Padfield, G. D. (2017) · Journal of Guidance Control and Dynamics · doi:10.2514/1.g003135 · Cited by 7 · see citing works
A handbook for Rhythmic Relating in autism: supporting social timing in play, learning and therapy
Daniel, S. W., Laurie, M., & Delafield‐Butt, J. T. (2024) · Frontiers in Psychology · doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2024.1384068 · Cited by 6 · see citing works
Self-citationTraces of thinking: a stigmergic approach to 4E cognition
Sims, R. (2025) · Synthese · doi:10.1007/s11229-025-05074-8 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Prospective control of movement in the basal gangliaPreprint
Lee, D. N., Georgopoulos, A. P., & Pepping, G. (2018) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/256347 · Cited by 3 · see citing works
Self-citationHow Organisms Guide Their ActionsPreprint
Lee, D. N. (2018) · Preprints.org · doi:10.20944/preprints201805.0458.v1 · Cited by 1 · see citing works
Self-citationFunction of basal ganglia in tauG-guiding actionPreprint
Lee, D. N., Georgopoulos, A. P., & Pepping, G. (2017) · bioRxiv (Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory) · doi:10.1101/143065
Self-citation
- Authors
- Delafield-Butt, J., Galler, A., Schögler, B., & Lee, D. N.
- Affiliations
- Department of Psychology, University of Copenhagen, Østerfarimagsgade 2A, 1353 Copenhagen, Denmark
- University of Klagenfurt (AT)
- University of Edinburgh (GB)
- Corresponding author
- Lee, David N
- ORCID
- Schögler, Benjaman
- Venue
- Perception
- Publisher
- SAGE Publications
- Published
- 2010-01-01
- Volume
- 39
- Issue
- 9
- Pages
- 1172-1174
- ISSN
- 0301-0066 (ISSN-L)
- 1468-4233
- OpenAlex
- W2145131091
- Cited by
- 13
- References
- 4
- Citations by year
- 2025: 1 · 2024: 1 · 2018: 3 · 2017: 4 · 2014: 1 · 2013: 2 · 2012: 1
- FWCI
- 0.58
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- Locations
- Perception (publishedVersion)
- PubMed (publishedVersion)
- Strathprints: The University of Strathclyde institutional repository (University of Strathclyde) (acceptedVersion)
- Edinburgh Research Explorer (University of Edinburgh) (submittedVersion, other-oa)
- Topics
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Motor Control and Adaptation
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Visual perception and processing mechanisms
- Life Sciences › Neuroscience › Cognitive Neuroscience › Embodied and Extended Cognition
- Keywords
- perception-action coupling, tau theory, hummingbirds, flight kinematics, acceleration and deceleration, reaching behavior, high-speed video
- MeSH terms
- Animals, Biomechanical Phenomena, Birds, Deceleration, Flight, Animal, Motion Perception, Movement, Visual Perception
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
