Action-specific perception, or perception-action, is a psychological theory that people perceive their environment and events within it in terms of their ability to act.
[6] Finally, the objective difficulty of the task appears to modulate size, distance, and time perception.
[7][8] In addition to walking, many other actions influence perception such as throwing, jumping, falling, reaching, grasping, kicking, hitting, blocking, and swimming.
However, a criticism would be that these action-specific effects on perception may surface only in extreme cases (e.g., professional athletes) or condition (e.g., steep hills).
Recent evidence from virtual reality, indicated that these action-specific effects are observed in both "normal" conditions and average individuals.
For example, a tall wall is a barrier to an elderly person but affords jumping-over to someone trained in parkour, or urban climbing.
[attribution needed] The fact that the same environment looks different depending on the perceiver's abilities and intentions implies that perception is not behaviorally-neutral.