Action Boundary in 2D-Cyberspace: A Critical Review of the Action Boundary Perception Tasks

In everyday life, adaptive behavior depends on the ability to perceive action possibilities. The field of research on affordances has addressed how individuals perceive action possibilities through the coupling between the perceiver's capacity and environmental features. However, with the increasing digitalization of our environment, people usually need to perceive action boundaries in a 2D-cyberspace. Consequently, researchers need new tasks to operationalize action boundary perception in 2D-cyberspace. The current article aims to propose a critical review of two action boundary perception tasks: the Perception-Action Coupling Task and the Action Boundary Perception Online Task, as assessment tools of the virtual action-boundary perception in digital environment. First, we present the historical background and context of the emergence of these tasks. Then, we review the studies that have employed these tasks. Finally, we conclude by discussing the potential of these tasks, as well as providing a critical description of the limitations that future research will need to address.