A. Scott Kelso and Peter N. Kugler introduced the physical language of complex systems to the understanding of perception and action.
Working with Georgije Lukatela and other colleagues at Haskins Laboratories, he exploited the dual nature of the Serbo-Croatian orthography to help understand word recognition.
Turvey also won the 2004 Ig Nobel Prize in Physics along with Professor Ramesh Balasubramaniam of Cognitive & Information Sciences at the University of California, Merced, for exploring and explaining the dynamics of hula-hooping.
(Reference: "Coordination Modes in the Multisegmental Dynamics of Hula Hooping," Ramesh Balasubramaniam and Michael T. Turvey, Biological Cybernetics, vol.
He received a PhD (1967) in Experimental and Physiological Psychology from the Ohio State University under Delos Wickens, with thesis The nature of information loss in the visual preperceptual system.