Sequencing and Timing in Skilled Perception and Action: An Overview

摘要

The chapters in this book section are concerned with sequencing and timing in the production and perception of language. Besides giving an overview of each contribution and relating them to some common themes, the present chapter goes a bit further. It is speculated that not only are processes in common to the various manifestations of language-reading, writing, speaking, and listening-but there may be even more general processes that encompass other tasks as well. These general processes include a certain mode of sequence representation, one of which is hierarchic in nature, and a general timing mechanism. Hierarchic sequence representation may be the fundamental human achievement in evolution that allows such a remarkable capability to learn new skills and flexibility alter them. Another growing body of literature is beginning to suggest that a timing mechanism, a clock, is in common to diverse motor and perceptual systems. Some of this latter work has been conducted in the present author's laboratory and is summarized in the chapter. (Author)