Toward a theory of perception: Participation as a function of body-flexibility

The main purpose of this study was to present a tentative statement of a theory of perception in which the role of the body was emphasized. The relationship of the body to the perceived world was conceptualized in terms of a dynamic body-schema, the extent and flexibility of which was termed body-flexibility. This hypothetical construct, i.e., body-flexibility was’ seen as emerging in ontogenesis along a developmental continuum from immature to mature. The immature perceiver was conceptualized as embedded in a world, with minimal polarization of his body and his world, with minimal consciousness of his body-as-subject and body-as-object of experience.
The mature perceiver was conceptualized as having the ability to distantiate, i.e., as conscious of his subjective and objective poles of being in relation to the phenomena of experience. The ability to distantiate was conceptualized in terms of degree of body-flexibility. The language and constructs of this statement were mostly distilled from the works of Church, Merleau-Ponty, Piaget, Schachtel, Schmidt, and Werner.