A major hallmark in the adaptive control of voluntary action is the ability to anticipate short and long term future events. Anticipation in its various forms is an important prerequisite for (higher order) cognitive abilities such as planning, reasoning and the pursuit of both immediate goals and long-term goals that may even stand in opposition to immediate desires and needs (e.g., to invest in pension funds). Therefore, it is not surprising that diverse and rather independent research lines have evolved, all somehow targeting various anticipatory capacities that are involved in the control of voluntary action and thus, contribute to the uniqueness of human goal-directed behavior. For example, prediction of the incentive value of action outcomes drives goal-directed instrumental behavior (e.g., Dickinson & Balleine, 2000; Rushworth & Behrens, 2008). Similarly, the Ideo-Motor Principle assumes that actions are selected and activated by the mere anticipation of the sensory experience they produce (e.g., James, 1890; Prinz, 1990). Furthermore, the degree of match between intended, anticipated and actual action effects has been proposed to be a major determinant of motor programming and online action corrections (Jeannerod, 1981), motor learning (e.g., Wolpert, Diedrichsen, & Flanagan, 2011), and the subjective sense of causing and controlling an action and its effects (Sense of Agency; e.g., Abell, Happé, & Frith, 2000). The role of anticipation in the control of voluntary action, however, goes far beyond the anticipation of immediate action effects and desired goals. For instance, pre-cues and alerting signals are used for advance preparation of what to do (e.g., Meiran, 1996), when to act or expect an event onset (e.g., Callejas, Lupianez, & Tudela, 2004; Los & van der Heuvel, 2001; Nobre & Coull, 2010) and to anticipate conflict (e.g., Correa, Rao, & Nobre, 2009). Voluntary action is influenced by the anticipation and prediction of mental effort in task processing (e.g., Song & Schwarz, 2008). In addition, the anticipation of long-term future social consequences (e.g., expected aloneness) has been shown to affect cognitive mechanisms involved in logic and reasoning (e.g., Baumeister, Twenge, & Nuss, 2002). Last but not least, learning of statistical contingencies (e.g., conflict frequency) leads to the anticipation and prediction of context-specific executive control requirements (e.g., Crump, Gong, & Milliken, 2006, Dreisbach & Haider, 2006). The aim of the present Research Topic is to provide a platform that offers the possibility of cross-fertilization and enhanced visibility among to date rather segregated research lines.

The interdisciplinary topic of anticipation, attracting attention fromnbsp;computer scientists, psychologists, philosophers, neuroscientists, and biologists is a rather new and often misunderstood matter of research. This book attempts to establish anticipation as a research topic and encourage further research and development work. First, the book presents philosophical thoughts and concepts to stimulate the reader's concern about the topic. Fundamental cognitive psychology experiments then confirm the existence of anticipatory behavior in animals and humans and outline a first framework of anticipatory learning and behavior. Next, several distinctions and frameworks of anticipatory processes are discussed, including first implementations of these concepts. Finally, several anticipatory systems and studies on anticipatory behavior are presented.

Anticipatory behavior in adaptive learning systems continues attracting attention of researchers in many areas, including cognitive systems, neuroscience, psychology, and machine learning. This book constitutes the thoroughly refereed post-workshop proceedings of the 4th International Workshop on Anticipatory Behavior in Adaptive Learning Systems, ABiALS 2008, held in Munich, Germany, in June 2008, in collaboration with the six-monthly Meeting of euCognition 'The Role of Anticipation in Cognition'. The 18 revised full papers presented were carefully selected during two rounds of reviewing and improvement for inclusion in the book. The introductory chapter of this state-of-the-art survey not only provides an overview of the contributions included in this volume but also revisits the current available terminology on anticipatory behavior and relates it to the available system approaches. The papers are organized in topical sections on anticipation in psychology with focus on the ideomotor view, conceptualizations, anticipation and dynamical systems, computational modeling of psychological processes in the individual and social domains, behavioral and cognitive capabilities based on anticipation, and computational frameworks and algorithms for anticipation, and their evaluation.

Never before was anticipation more relevant to the life and activity of humankind than it is today. “It is no overstatement to suggest that humanity’s future will be shaped by its capacity to anticipate....” (Research Agenda for the 21st Century, National Science Foundation). The sciences and the humanities can no longer risk explaining away the complexity and interactivity that lie at the foundation of life and living. The perspective of the world that anticipation opens justifies the descriptor “the post-Cartesian Revolution.” If anticipation is a valid research domain, what practical relevance can we await? Indeed, anticipation is more than just the latest catch-word in marketing the apps developed by the digital technology industry. Due to spectacular advances in the study of the living, anticipation can claim a legitimate place in current investigations and applications in the sciences and the humanities. Biology, genetics, medicine, as well as politics and cognitive, behavioral, and social sciences, provide rich evidence of anticipatory processes at work. Readers seeking a foundation for an ticipation will find in these pages recent outcomes pertinent to plant life, political anticipation, cognitive science, architecture, computation. The authors contributing to this volume frame experimental data in language that can be shared among experts from all fields of endeavor. The major characteristic is the inference from the richness of data to principles and practical consequences.

In this book, practicing physicians and experts in anticipation present arguments for a new understanding of medicine. Their contributions make it clear that medicine is the decisive test for anticipation. The reader is presented with a provocative hypothesis: If medicine will align itself with the anticipatory condition of life, it can prompt the most important revolution in our time. To this end, all stakeholders—medical practitioners, patients, scientists, and technology developers—will have to engage in the conversation. The book makes the case for the transition from expensive, and only marginally effective, reactive treatment through “spare parts” (joint replacements, organ transplants) and reliance on pharmaceuticals (antibiotics, opiates) to anticipation-informed healthcare. Readers will understand why the current premise of treating various behavioral conditions (attention deficit disorder, hyperactivity, schizophrenia) through drugs has to be re-evaluated from the perspective of anticipation. In the manner practiced today, medicine generates dependence and long-lasting damage to those it is paid to help. As we better understand the nature of the living, the proactive view of healthcare, within which the science and art of healing fuse, becomes a social and political mandate.

Aims to bring together some of the important research on the Bereitschaftspotential and other movement-related cortical potentials. This volume also seeks to highlight and address some of the pertinent questions relating to the Bereitschaftspotential and to identify the key issues for future investigation in this field.

Creativity is an essential component of sport performance. The player who can make decisions that are both unexpected – and therefore less easily predicted by his/her opponent – and appropriate is the player who is likely to be successful. In this ground-breaking new book Daniel Memmert explores the concept of tactical creativity, introducing a new theoretical framework based on extensive empirical research. He argues for the importance of encouraging divergent thinking abilities at an early age, and explains how tactical creativity sits alongside conventional approaches to 'teaching games for understanding'. The book outlines essential rules for environmental and training conditions, and suggests a wide range of game forms for teaching and coaching tactical creativity to children and young people. This is important to all students, researchers, coaches and teachers working in physical education, sports coaching, sport psychology or skill acquisition.