Dr. Steven Harrison

Associate Director, Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action

Steven J. Harrison, PhD, is an Assistant Professor in the Doctoral Physical Therapy (DPT) Program at the University of Connecticut, Storrs campus, and is the Coordinator of the DPT Student Capstone Research. He is the Associate Director of the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA) and holds a joint appointment in the Department of Psychological Sciences. Prior to joining UConn, Dr. Harrison was previously a Research Fellow at the Center for Research in Human Movement Variability at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, and the Center for Cognition, Action & Perception (CAP) at the University of Cincinnati. Dr. Harrison conducts experimental studies that explore the role of perception, action, and cognition in supporting our ability to effectively perform actions such as balance, coordinated movement, interpersonal coordination and communication, gait, navigation, and tool use. Much of this work explores the role of the haptic perceptual system in the control of action, and perception of action-relevant information. His basic science research is influenced by Ecological Psychology of James Gibson, and the writings of Nicholai Bernstein. Many of Dr. Harrison’s studies use modeling approaches and analyses drawn from the fields of Complexity Science and Dynamical Systems Theory. Most of this research is conducted in the Perception-Action Research Laboratory (PARL) located in the Center for Ecological Study of Perception and Action.