The Modern Legacy of Gibson's Affordances for the Sciences of Organisms: (Resources for Ecological Psychology Series)

This edited collection provides a comprehensive and empirically informed discussion on affordances and their role in studying goal-directed behavior, covering philosophical, experimental psychological, neuroscientific, and applied perspectives. Showcasing the work of expert contributors from different backgrounds, the book inspires new directions for future research in affordances. Chapters address questions relating to the definition and perception of affordances, their advantages over stimuli, the relationship between affordances and behavior, and how systems engage with affordances in different tasks and intentions. This question-based format provides a distinctive perspective that allows for a thorough exploration of the expansive field of affordance research. This book serves as a crucial resource for seasoned scientists, researchers, and undergraduate and graduate students in the fields of ecological psychology, sensation and perception, cognition, and the philosophy of cognitive science, as well as non-academic individuals interested in mind sciences broadly construed. It provides valuable insights and knowledge in these fields, making it an essential reference for those seeking to deepen their understanding in the areas of perception and cognition. Chapter 5 of this book is freely available as a downloadable Open Access PDF at http://www.taylorfrancis.com under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives (CC-BY-NC-ND) 4.0 license

Table of Contents:
PART I: Ontology and Epistemology of Affordances 1. Why It Matters That Affordances Are Relations 2. The Sociomaterial Theory of Affordances 3. When It Comes to Affordances, What Do Animals Know and How Do They Know It? 4. Mental Action and the Scope of Affordance Perception 5. An Affordance-Based Approach to the Origins of Concepts 6. Toward an Ecological Theory of Time PART II: The Role of Exploratory Activity and Scale in Perception of Affordances 7. The Dynamics of Affordance Emergence and Perception 8. Description of the World That Agential Systems Fit Into 9. The Role of Exploratory Activity in Affordance Perception 10. Scaling Up: Lawfulness of Affordances Requires Independence From Any Single “Scale of Behavior” PART III: Affordances Through the Lens of Neuroscience 11. Affordance Switching in Self-Organizing Brain-Body-Environment Systems 12. What Is NExT for Affordances? Taking Brains Seriously in Organism-Environment Systems 13. Affordance and Tool Use: A Neurocognitive Approach 14. From Turing to Gibson: Implications of Affordances for the Sciences of Organisms PART IV: Applications of the Ecological Theory of Affordances 15. Understanding Skilled Adaptive Behavior: The Role of Action, Perception and Cognition in an Ecological Dynamics Perspective 16. Disability Through the Lens of Affordances: A Promising Pathway for Transforming Physical Therapy Practice 17. “I Got All I Need to Know About Affordances From Norman”: What Engineers, Designers, and Architects Need to Know About Affordances 18. Perception of Affordances in Interaction With Autonomous Systems 19. On Affordances and Their Entailment for Autonomous Robotic Systems

About the Author :
Madhur Mangalam is Assistant Professor in the Department of Biomechanics at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, USA. His research interests include nonlinear dynamical principles governing perception-action and embodied/embedded cognition and the development of nonlinear analytical methods that can aid in discovering these principles. Alen Hajnal is Professor of Experimental Psychology at the University of Southern Mississippi, USA. Dr. Hajnal studies the interaction between body movements and perception in relation to the ecological theory of affordances. Damian G. Kelty-Stephen is Faculty Member at the Psychology Department at the State University of New York at New Paltz, USA. His research interests include perception-action relationships, embodied/embedded cognition, and the nonlinear dynamics that link them together.

Review :
“The word 'affordance' is widely used, but many are not aware of its deep theoretical and philosophical roots. The unique editorial approach of Mangalam, Hajnal, and Kelty-Stephen aligns this volume’s diverse chapters along these roots. This strategy interconnects the entire volume in a manner both accessible to newcomers and stimulating to experts.” Rick Dale, Professor, University of California Los Angeles, USA “Embark on a mind-expanding expedition into the science of affordances with this illuminating book. Seamlessly merging philosophy, theory, and real-world applications, it navigates the fascinating terrain of how we perceive and interact with our surroundings. A thought-provoking read that reshapes our understanding of human-environment dynamics.” Benoît G. Bardy, Professor, Montpellier University, France "This wonderful book brings together many of the prominent scholars within ecological psychology to thoroughly discuss and reflect on what affordances afford organisms as well as researchers nowadays. A must-read for anyone who is interested in learning about why people, animals, brains, robots and/or other systems do what they do in the environment that they live in." Lisette de Jonge-Hoekstra, Assistant Professor, University of Groningen, The Netherlands “This edited book provides a broad ranging set of chapters (philosophy, perceptual psychology, neuroscience, applications) that takes stock of the contemporary theoretical and experimental work inspired by Gibson’s theory of affordances. Integration is harnessed by each paper addressing the same set of questions on affordances producing a unique resource on Gibson’s still evolving influence.” Karl M. Newell, Professor Emeritus, The Pennsylvania State University, USA “A diverse group of scholars describes an extraordinary palette of research and innovation spawned by an antireductionistic theory once considered radically heterodox. These extant perspectives reflect the exponential growth and transdisciplinary breadth of the theory’s scientific and technical influence. Such interpretations and applications are sure to inspire, challenge, and proliferate.” Gary Riccio, Ph.D., Nascent Science & Technology LLC, USA