An approach in psychology now firmly associated with James J. Gibson’s ecological optics and his theory of perceiving and acting as contained in his concept of affordance. It roots can be traced back to Kurt Lewin (1890-1947) and his topological theory of human behavior, and the theory of perception devised by Egon Brunswick (1903-1955). In Gibson’s version, originally influenced by the Gestalt psychology of Kurt Koffka (1896-1941), the notion of organism-environment mutualism or complimentarily plays a central role (i.e., there are mutual constraints between the organism and its environment such that perception of the environment is also perception of self). Other defining features of Gibson‚was distinctive approach to (visual) perception are:
- perception begins with the ambient optical array, not with the retinal image,
- perception involves the direct ‘pick-up’ of the invariant properties in the optical array and thus the appropriate level of description is ecology, not the physics and geometry of space,
- perception is an act, not the passive sensation of the retinal image and thus there is a circular causality between perception and action,
- perception is not mediated by computational processes, but by the direct perception of invariant properties in the optical array.
Through the work of Eleanor J. Gibson (1910-2003) and co-workers, Gibson’s ideas have had a major impact on developmental psychology and especially with regard to the role of exploration in infant development.
See Affordance, Circular causality, Direct realist account, Ecology, Exploration, Kinetic occlusion, Mental image, Organism-environment mutualism, Overt attention, Perception, Perception-action coupling, Perceptual development, Psychology, Symmetry breaking (and preservation)