The control of movements based on information about future events. It is thus the anticipation of what needs to be done in order to achieve an outcome based on perceptual information, and which in terms of an action to be performed to achieve this outcome such as prehension requiring a postural ‘set’ or preparation. It applies not only to actions such as prehension, but also to actions during communication (i.e., the ability to anticipate the actions of others so as to produce an action that communicates something meaningful to others). The question is how can we know when an action is prospectively controlled?
See Affordance, Efference copy ((or corollary discharge), Feedforward, Closed-loop and open-loop control, Information, Kinetic occlusion, Perception-action coupling, Prospective control (neurophysiology)