Action-perception cycle

Regardless of whether there is an explicit conscious processing of the senses
or the extraction of a stimulus or releaser, the agent is now directed in terms
of what it is going to perceive on the next update(s). This is a type of selective
attention or focus-of-attention. As it perceives, the agent perceptually samples
the world. If the agent actually acts in a way to gather more perception
before continuing with its primary action, then that is sometimes referred to
as active perception. Part of the sampling process is to determine the potential
for action. Lorenz and Tinbergen might think of this as the agent having
a set of releasers for a task, and now is observing whether they are present
in the world. If the perception supports an action, the agent acts. The action
modifies the environment, but it also modifies the agent’s assessment of
the situation. In the simplest case, this could be an error signal to be used
for control or a more abstract difference such as at the level of those used in
STRIPS/MEA.
In some regards, the action-perception cycle appears to bear a superficial
resemblance to the Hierarchical Paradigm of SENSE, PLAN, ACT. However,
note that 1) there is no box which contains ACT, and 2) the cycle does not
require the equivalent of planning to occur at each update. Action is implicit

in an agent; the interesting aspect of the cycle is where perception and cognition
come in. The agent may have to act to acquire more perception or to
accomplish a task. Also, the agent may or may not need to “plan” an action
on each update.