Affordances for Throwing

The challenge

How do we perceive our environments? And how can we use that perception to control our actions? These questions have implications for how we study cognition and behaviour.

This research takes an ecological approach to the study of perception and action. This approach, developed initially by James J Gibson, has become a central part of modern theories of embodied cognition. The central hypothesis is that perception is direct (not mediated by mental representations) and that we perceive the world primarily in terms of affordances (opportunities for action).

Our approach

This project uses targeted long-distance throwing as a model behaviour to study. We use simulations of humans throwing to quantify the affordances of the target (what defines its 'hit-ability'?). We then measured people throwing, using the motion capture facilities at the Carnegie School of Sport Biomechanics Lab. Markers are placed on every joint, and we are able to record the details of how the body moves during each throw (the movement kinematics).

We then ran an experiment in which people threw to hit a 4ft x 4ft target from 3 different distances (5m, 10m, 15m) and we recorded their kinematics. We then used an analysis approach called the Uncontrolled Manifold analysis to measure exactly how the kinematics were controlled by the perceived affordances of the target.

Our impact

This work connects to a long history of using throwing to study affordances, and connects this work in new ways to research developed using the Uncontrolled Manifold approach. This has led to a new framework for understanding how skilled movements are controlled. This work has already been used to test hypotheses about prehistoric tool use.

The current work is focused on the science; but in the future, this work will be the foundation for tackling many applied questions. Movement control and skill acquisition feature heavily in sports training, rehabilitation following a stroke or injury, and in understanding disorders such as dyspraxia.

Next steps

Future work needs to develop and expand the analysis toolkit, and to then use that toolkit to investigate more applied questions.

Research outputs and references

Key papers:

• Bennett, T., Thomas, L., & Wilson, A. D. (2024). Affordances for Throwing: An Uncontrolled Manifold Analysis. PLoS ONE 19(4): e0301320
• Wilson, A. D. (2026). Affordances Constrain Motor Abundance: A Hypothesis and A Research Programme. Ecological Psychology, 1–20

Related papers:

• Wilson, A. D., Weightman, A., Bingham, G. P., & Zhu, Q. (2016). Using task dynamics to quantify the affordances of throwing for long distance and accuracy. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 42(7), 965-981
• Wilson, A. D., Zhu, Q., Barham, L., Stanistreet, I., & Bingham, G. P. (2016). A dynamical analysis of the suitability of prehistoric spheroids from the Cave of Hearths as thrown projectiles. Scientific Reports, 6, 30614; doi: 10.1038/srep30614