ABSTRACT
Animals control their actions to achieve specific goals. To control action, an animal must be able to detect goal-specific perceptual information, an achievement termed prospective control. Since goals, by definition, lie in the future, goal-specific information must somehow specify future states of affairs, as well as the possible consequences of actions taken. Long jumping, a task which demands precise control of gait during approach to the take-off board while maintaining maximum controllable velocity. The final few strides are crucial to achieving accurate foot placement at takeoff and have been demonstrated to be under visual control. Step length can be adjusted by regulating vertical impulse, which is controlled on the basis of ‘tau gap’, the time interval between two targets. The simulation was terminated after the 9th iteration, when “contact” was made between the point of observation and the object. At that point the image had expanded infinitely.
