The actualization of affordances can often be accomplished in
numerous, equifinal ways. For instance, an individual could
discard an item in a rubbish bin by walking over and dropping
it, or by throwing it from a distance. The aim of the current
study was to investigate the behavioral dynamics associated
with such metastability using a ball-to-bin transportation task.
Using time-interval between sequential ball-presentation as a
control parameter, participants transported balls from a
pickup location to a drop-off bin 9m away. A high degree of
variability in task-actualization was expected and found, and
the Cusp Catatrophe model was used to understand how this
behavioral variability emerged as a function of hard (time
interval) and soft (e.g. motivation) task dynamic constraints.
Simulations demonstrated that this two parameter state
manifold could capture the wide range of participant
behaviors, and explain how these behaviors naturally emerge
in an under-constrained task context.