TO DISPLAY VIA PROJECTOR

1
ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY PSYC 450 / APSY 609 D
ean Owen 3 June 2005 The ecological unit
of analysis. Ecological models. The commitment
to realism.
2
UNIT FOR ADAPTIVE THINKING

• I view the mind in relation to its environment.
• This book is about rethinking rationality as
  adaptive thinking to understand how minds cope
  with specific environments, ecological and
  social.
• Human thinking from scientific creativity to
  simply understanding what a positive HIV test
  means happens partly outside the
  mind. contd

3
ADAPTIVE THINKING contd

• For instance, new laboratory instruments can
  inspire scientists to create new metaphors and
  theories, and new ways of representing
  uncertainties can either cloud or facilitate
  physicians understandings of risks.
• In this sense, insight can come from outside the
  mind. Gigerenzer, 2000

4
ADAPTIVE THINKING contd

• The program of ecological rationality studies the
  mind in relation to its environment, past and
  present.
  
• Bounded rationality stresses that sound reasoning
  can be achieved by simple heurisitics that do not
  follow the prescriptions of logic and
  probability.
• Social rationality is a form of ecological
  rationality in which the environment consists of
  conspecifics and that highlights the importance
  of domain-specific behavior and cognition in
  social environments. Gigerenzer,
  2000

5
THE ECOLOGICALUNIT OF ANALYSIS

• Happiness, similarly, may be conceptualized more
  correctly as an interactional product of a
  persons stable pattern of proactions and
  reactions to life experiences than as either a
  result of personality or events alone.
• Accordingly, we believe that the reciprocal
  nature between personality and life events
  warrants more attention in future subjective
  well-being research. Suh, Diener,
  Fujita (1996)

6
THE ECOLOGICAL UNIT OF ANALYSIS

• If you are a sex offender, you know you dont get
  left alone in a room with a young child,
  especially if youre feeling sad and alone.
  
• You ring adult friends or a buddy.
• Its dealing with the whole situation of
  offending, not just whats going on in their
  heads. Steve Hudson

7
Does an adult

• insist on hugging, touching, kissing, tickling,
  wrestling with or holding a child even when the
  child doesnt want this affection?
  
• manage to get time alone or insists on time alone
  with a child with no interruptions?
  
• spend most of his or her spare time with children
  and has little interest in spending time with
  someone their own age?
  
• regularly offer to baby-sit many different
  children for free or take children on overnight
  outings alone?
  
• frequently walk in on children or teens in the
  bathroom?

8
DEPRESSING ENVIRONMENT

• What a dreadful room you have, Rodya, just like
  a coffin, said Pulkeria Alexandrovna, breaking
  the oppressive silence.
  
• Im sure it is responsible for at least half
  your depression.
  
• Room? said he absently. Yes, the room has
  made a big contribution. Ive thought of that
  too. Dostoevsky, 1965
  Crime and Punishment

9
DEPRESSING ENVIRONMENT

• Caroline Malings three children have all been
  through Otago University.
  
• She says in the seven years her son has been
  there she has ventured into one of his flats only
  once.
  
• I didnt want to look inside.
• They made me feel utterly depressed and
  physically sick, she recalls.

10
THE ECOLOGICAL SELF(Neisser, 1993)

• A self is not a special part of a person (or of
  a brain) it is a whole person considered from a
  particular point of view.
  
• The ecological self is the individual considered
  as an active agent in the immediate environment.
  
• The interpersonal self is the same individual
  considered from a different point of view
  namely, as engaging in face-to-face interaction
  with others.

11
REFERENT OF MEMORY

• The best part of our memories, lies outside
  ourselves, in a rainy breath, in the smell of a
  closed-up room or the smell of the first blaze of
  a fire. Proust

12
REFERENT OF MOTIVATION(Reed, 1996)

• Ecological psychology sees motivation as
  functional, not as an (internal) mechanism.
  
• From an ecological perspective, motivation is
  constituted by the kinds of efforts animals tend
  to make to obtain values and meanings from the
  environment.
• These efforts may be influenced by internal
  mechanisms, but not reduced to them.

13
PSYCHOLOGY IN CONTEXT

• Psychological phenomena cannot be explained in
  terms of psychological activities alone, e.g,
  attending, learning, thinking, i.e., by mental
  events or processes with a brain locus.
• The referential context (task demands of,
  environmental support for, event referred to,
  situation confronted with) must be taken into
  account.

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THE PROBLEM ADDRESSED SCIENTIFICALLY

• Concerned about the impact of alcohol on
  behavior, an Iroquois chief proposed that half of
  his braves drink alcoholic spirits and half drink
  water.
• He predicted that the group drinking alcohol
  would soon make fools of themselves.

16
ALCOHOLISM FROM AN ECOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE

• The ecological approach offers an alternative way
  to look at alcoholism.
  
• More than the biopsychosocial perspective, the
  ecological approach focuses on dynamic processes,
  adjustment to environment, and development.
  
• According to the ecological perspective, the
  context surrounding an individual is essential to
  adequately understand a behaviour. contd

17
ALCOHOLISM contd

• This perspective includes globally all the
  physical, cultural, political, economic, and
  social factors that can directly or indirectly
  affect behaviours.
• Individual characteristics and environmental
  factors are equally important not as disparate
  elements, but rather as bidirectional exchanges.
  
• The quality of the adjustment lays on this
  individual/environment harmonization.

18
ALCOHOLISM contd

• Consequently, the developmental ecological
  perspective appears as a particularly well-suited
  framework to integrate the imputed protective and
  risk factors for alcoholism into a comprehensive
  etiologic model.

19
An etiological model of alcoholism from a
developmental ecological perspective.
Simoneau Bergeron, 2000
20
Vision without action is a daydream.Action
without vision is a nightmare.

• Ian Shaw
• Pro Vice-Chancellor
• College of Science
• University of Canterbury

21
ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY OF RESEARCH(Hoc, 2001)

• Ecological validity enables researchers to
  transfer findings from artificial experimental
  situations to real work (natural, including
  cultural) situations.
• Knowing the strong link between action goals and
  cognitive processes in natural situations,
  particular attention should be devoted to the
  perception-action loop in every artificial
  situation.

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The Perceptual Cycle (Neisser, 1976)
Information
Modifies
Samples
Exploration
Schema
Directs
24
Connolly Wagners (1988) perceptual cycle.
25
Connolly Wagners (1988) goal / value cycle.
26
Connolly Wagners (1988) two-cycles model.
27
The coimplicative relations among perceiving,
acting, and the enviromental niche.Michaels
Carello, 1981
28
FLOW FIELD
ACTION (high-energy coupling)
PERCEPTION (low-energy coupling)
FORCE FIELD
(Kugler Turvey, 1987)
29
Warrens (1988) conceptualization of
theperception-action cycle
forces
laws of control
laws of physics
laws of ecological optics
30
The two-cycles model of decision
making.Connolly Wagner (1988)
31
DECISION CYCLES Orasanu Connolly,1993

• In everyday decisions, everyday decisions are
  embedded in larger tasks that the decision maker
  is trying to accomplish.
  

32
DECISION CYCLES contd

• Decisions are embedded in task cycles that
  consist of
  
• defining what the problem is,
• understanding what a reasonable solution would
  look like,
  
• taking action to reach that goal, and
• evaluating the effects of that action.

33
DECISION MAKING PHASESCarroll Johnson, 1990

• 1. Recognition that a decision needs to be made.
• 2. Formulation of the problem.
• 3. Consideration of alternatives.
• 4. Information search.
• 5. Judgement or choice.
• 6. Implementation of decision
• 7. Evaluation of the outcome.

34
PROBLEM SOLVING CYCLE

• Sir Joe Bennett (October 17) can apply a
  problem-solving model to help with his concerns
  over poor literacy
  
• Identify the problem, think of as many
  solutions as possible, choose one, implement
  it, and evaluate it.
  
• If necessary, return to the start so the cycle
  can continue until the problem is solved.
  
• It is time to start applying the model, with
  spelling reform as a solution.
  
• Chrissy Parker
• Simplified Spelling Society
• October 24, 2001

35
THE MOTIVATION - ABILITY - OPPORTUNITY -
BEHAVIOUR MODEL
(Ölander Thøgersen, 1995)
Motivation
Evaluations of outcomes
Ability Habit Task Knowledge
Attitude towards the behaviour
Intention
Behaviour
Opportunity Overall situational conditions
Social norm
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Evaluate
KNOWLEDGE-BASED
WORKSPACE
Interpret Consequences
Identify State of System
Define Task
DYNAMIC WORLD MODEL
RULE-BASED
Observe Information Data
Formulate Procedure
Stimulus
Execution
Activation
Response
SKILL-BASED
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STRESSORS(Stressful Events)
PERCEPTIONOF THREAT
CATASTROPHICMISINTERPRETATION
EMOTIONAL REACTION(e.g. Anxiety, Anger)
BODILY CHANGES
(Anon.)
38

• ENDED 3 JUNE 2005

39
THE WORLD
GoalsWhat wewant to happen
EvaluationComparing what happenedwith what
wewanted to happen
ExecutionWhat we doto the world
40
THE WORLD
Goals
An intention to act so as to achieve the goal
The actual sequence of actions that we plan to do
The physical execution of that action sequence
41
THE WORLD
Goals
Evaluation of the interpretations withwhat we
expected to happen
Interpreting the perception according to our
expectations
Perceiving the state of the world
42
THE WORLD
Goals
Evaluation of interpretations
Intention to act
Sequence of actions
Interpreting the perception
Execution ofthe action sequence
Perceiving the stateof the world
43
EVALUATION
44
THE WORLD

• Goals
• Controlling the discrepancy
• between the state of the world
• and the desired state

45
THE WORLD
Goals
Perceiving the discrepancybetween the state of
the worldand the desired state
46
THE WORLD
THE ECOLOGICAL CYCLE
GOALS
Controlling the discrepancy between the state of
the world and the desired state

Perceiving thediscrepancy between the state of
the worldand the desired state

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REALISM DEFINED

• Material objects exist apart from awareness of
  them.
  
• The real world exists and can be known, at least
  in part.
  
• How do we come to know about it?

49
SOCIALIST REALISM

• A life-size statue of Lenin with the head of
  Mickey Mouse is to go on display in Moscow.
  
• The 1.6-m statue is the work of Russian artist
  Alexander Kosolapov.
  
• He says it celebrates the heritage of socialist
  realism.

50
NAÏVE REALISM

• The illusion of naïve realism, according to
  which things are as they are perceived by us
  through our senses, dominates the daily life of
  men and animals. Albert
  Einstein,1944

51
NAÏVE REALISM Bertrand Russell, 1940
We think that grass is green, that stones are har
d,
and that snow is cold.

• But physics assures us that the greenness of
  grass, the hardness of stones, and the coldness
  of snow are not the greenness, hardness and
  coldness that we know in our own experience.
• The observer, when he seems to himself to be
  observing a stone, is really observing the
  effects of the stone upon himself.

52
ECOLOGICAL REALISM

• Shaw, R. E., Turvey, M. T., Mace, W. M. (1982).
  Ecological psychology The consequences of a
  commitment to realism. In W. Weimer D. S.
  Palermo (Eds.), Cognition and the symbolic
  processes II (pp. 159-226). Hillsdale, NJ
  Erlbaum.
• Ecological realism A reality arising from
  interaction with the environment and feedback
  from the consequences of those actions.
  

53
PERCEPTUAL REALISM

• Perceptual realism is a philosophical disposition
  with regard to the method by which animals
  perform the act of perceiving.
  
• Gibson's premise It is a fact that animals, as
  epistemic agents, are in contact with
  activity-relevant properties of their
  environments. Kugler, 1985

54
THE PERCEPTION-ACTION CYCLE

• What makes active movement effective in achieving
  perceptual-motor adaptation?
  
• Feedback from active movement provides direct,
  immediate information on the extent and direction
  of placement errors,
  
• which in turn may provide a basis for correction
  or for learning a new relation.
  
• Thus, what appears to be crucial for adaptation
  is visual feedback about the mismatch between
  actual movement and its consequence.
  Schiffman, 1996

55
THE REAL WORLD

• The world is as many ways as it can be truly
  described, seen, pictured, etc, and there is no
  such thing as the way the world
  is. Goodman, 1968
• Theorists describe the world the way they would
  like it to be. Osipow, 1997

56
REAL WORLD VERSUSSOCIAL CONSTRUCTION

• There is a real world
• its properties are not just social
  constructions
  
• facts and evidence do matter.
• What sane person would contend otherwise?
• Alan Sokal, 1996

57
THEORETICAL REALISM

• The extent to which a theoretical description
  matches the real-world phenomenon, i.e., is an
  accurate representation of reality.
  
• E.g., Darwin's model of domestic selection as an
  analog of natural selection.
  

58
MODELS REALITY

• The recipe of a cake tells us nothing about how
  good the cake tastes.
  
• A scientific model is no closer to the reality of
  the materials than a recipe is to the
  mouth-watering flavour of the cake.
  Barton, 1997

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REALITY CHECK

• The inner dimension of reality is occupied by the
  activities that keep it going.
  
• William James, 1909
• Dont let your preoccupation with reality stifle
  your imagination. NASA slogan
  
• I believe in looking reality straight in the eye
  and denying it. Garrison Keillor
  

61
REALITY

• Reality is a crutch for those who cant handle
  drugs. Lily Tomlin
  
• Lets face it. A nation that maintains a 72
  approval rating on George W. Bush is a nation
  with a very loose grip on reality.
  Garrison Keeler
• Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very
  persistent one. Albert
  Einstein
  

62
ONTOLOGY

• The branch of metaphysics dealing with the nature
  of being, reality, or ultimate substance.
  Websters 3rd College Dictionary, 1994
  
• The nature of existence in the world.
  Zahorik Jenison, 1998

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REALITY

• The totality of conditions or contingencies which
  limit the freedom of the individual.
  
• Chaplin, J. P. (1975) Dictionary of
  Psychology.
  
• I.e., constraints.

66
PRAGMATISM

• A method in philosophy, started by C. S.
  Pierce and William James, which determines the
  meaning and truth of all concepts by their
  practical consequences.

67
DEWEYS PRAGMATISM

• Deweys pragmatism is seen to be a radical form
  of realism a transactional realism in which
  instrumentation plays a subordinate role.
  
• Knowing thus takes the place of knowledge, and
  thinking entails active involvement with
  independent reality, an involvement that is
  causally efficacious. Sleeper, 1986

68
REALITY

• The totality of objective things and factual
  events.
  
• Reality includes everything that is perceived by
  a persons special senses and is validated by
  other people. Freedman, Kaplan,
  Sadock, 1976

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WAY BEYOND THE INFORMATION

• A walker on a beach near Manukau was distressed
  to find what they thought was a severed penis and
  testicles.
  
• The suspected male appendage was in fact a form
  of marine life.
  
• Maybe seaweed, maybe some sort of anemone
• but it was apparently very realistic, a police
  office said.

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PSYCHOLOGICAL REALITY
72
PSYCHOLOGICAL REALITY

• Scott Bender, of Phildelphia, fell asleep on a US
  Airways plane and snoozed through the landing and
  disembarkation.
  
• He sued the flight attendents for negligence,
  contending that
  
• he awoke on his own and was so startled by the
  dark, empty cabin
  
• he believed the plane had crashed and thought he
  might be dead.

73
PERSPECTIVES ON REALITY

• The solipsist imagines that there is no reality
  outside of his own mind,
  
• while the realist flatters himself that what
  is in his head is all real.
  
• Both suffer from the same disease.
  Weinberg, 1975
  

74
THE REALITY PRINCIPLE

• The awareness of the demands of the environment
  and the necessity of conforming to those demands
  (Psychoanalysis).
  
• Chaplin, J. P. (1975) Dictionary of
  Psychology.
  
• The adjustment of the mental activities of a
  mature individual to meet the unavoidable demands
  of ones environment (Psychoanalysis).
  
• Websters 3rd College Dictionary (1994).

75
PSYCHOSES

• Mental disorder in which a persons capacity to
  recognize reality is impaired enough to interfere
  with his capacity to deal with the ordinary
  demands of life.
• Freedman, Kaplan, Sadock, 1976

76
CHESS VS REALITY

• Why such proximity between genius and madness in
  chess?
  
• Chess is a monomania.
• You study it intensively day and night from
  childhood if you are going to rise to the ranks
  of the greats,
  
• and that kind of singular focus constricts your
  reality and makes you more vulnerable to
  distortions of it. contd

77
CHESS VS REALITY contd

• A chess genius, wrote George Steiner, is a
  human being who focuses vast, little understood
  mental gifts and labors on an ultimately trivial
  human enterprise.
• Almost inevitably, this focus produces
  pathological symptoms of nervous stress and
  unreality.
  
• Charles Krauthammer TIME, May 2, 2005

78
PSYCHOTIC

• A symptom is psychotic if it betrays
  misapprehension and misinterpretation of the
  nature of reality. Rycroft,
  1987 contd

79
AN EXAMPLE

• Saddam Husseins psycho-profiles in the files
  of intelligence services suggest he is often
  bordering on being clinically psychotic.
  
• CIA psychiatrists write His thoughts and
  speech can become almost uncoordinated,
  
• and he has little or no contact with reality.
• That is when he is at his most
  dangerous. Gordon Thomas, (2002),
  Sunday Express

How can they determine the extent to which his
thoughts and speech are uncoordinated??
80
For President Bush to have a credibility gap, he
would need to have some credibility in the first
place. Marc van Leeuwen Poitiers,
France
AND HIS OPPONENT
81
PSYCHOTIC contd

• If, for instance, someone asserts that he is
  Napoleon, or emperor of Canada, or has had sexual
  intercourse with God, he is psychotic,
  
• since such assertions are by common consent
  untrue and anyone making them seriously must be
  misapprehending the nature of reality and failing
  to distinguish between his fantasies and the
  facts of the case.

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"I am big it's the pictures that got small!"
Aging silent movie queen Norma Desmond.
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REALITY INTRUDES

• If you live in a fantasy life, you have to come
  forward and confront reality.
  
• Simone Doublette, 1995
• Canterbury clinical psychology student who
  faudulantly claimed she had been abused by a
  satanic cult.

85
SELF EVALUATION VERSUS REALITY

• No matter how positively we wish (or need) to see
  ourselves, self-evaluations are constrained by
  reality.
  
• Desired conclusions about the self are difficult
  to maintain unless the individual can muster
  reasonable evidence to support them.
  
• Although motivation may provide the spark for the
  positive illusions about the self, cognitive
  mechanisms keep them afloat. Suh, 1999
  

86
SELF-ESTEEM

• Bailey Junior Kurariki, 13, who was convicted of
  the manslaughter of pizza delivery worker Michael
  Choy, is being held at Kingslea Residential
  Centre in Christchurch.
• Kingslea manager Shirley Johnson said the media
  attention had affected him in a disturbing way.
  
• "He's been on the front page as New Zealand's
  youngest killer and now he thinks that he's made
  it, that he's a big star.
  

87
CREATING FALSE MEMORIES

• Memory can be treacherous, not only because
  forgetting is so easy but because the mind can
  mistake imagined scenes for reality.
  
• Some people have sworn they remember traumatic
  events -- including childhood abuse and alien
  abductions -- that never occurred.
  
• False memories can be implanted through
  deliberate or unintentional suggestions.
  Elizabeth Loftus, 1997
  

88
CHILDRENSREALITY

• The childrens hit television series Thomas the
  Tank Engine shows too many crashes, and may make
  children frightened of going on a train says
  Brian Young, a psychology lecturer at Britains
  Exeter University.
• Thomas the Tank Engine is aimed at a pre-school
  audience, who tend to be more likely to see the
  programme as a reality, Young said.
  contd

89
Thomas the Tank contd

• Evidence showed that children who watch
  programmes that consistently portrayed the same
  image, tend to think there is more danger than
  actually existed.
• As a result, there is a possibility that the
  sheer amount of crashes they see on Thomas could
  frighten them.
  
• Seeing lots of crashes on TV means they could
  end up absolutely terrified of going on a train.

90
ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• The world of physical reality does not consist of
  meaningful things.
  
• The world of ecological reality does.
• (contd.)

91
Ecological reality contd.
If what we perceived were the entities of physics
and mathematics, meanings would have to be
imposed on them. But if what we perceive are
the entities of environmental science, their
meanings can be discovered. Gi
bson, 1979
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ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• When we act, we act for a purpose we intend to
  accomplish some desired result. Whether or not
  we do achieve our intentions provides us with a
  measure of the adequacy of the psychological
  world in which we live.
• The farmer, carpenter, or surgeon learns through
  repeated testing of his actions how to
  participate effectively in a chain of sequential
  events in order to experience the desired
  consequences of his behavior.
• Ittleson,1960

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ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• Not only is ecological reality structured
  spatially and temporally, but it possesses
  affordances.
  
• Perception has been limited to quality and
  structure, but Gibson, with the development of
  the idea of affordances, introduced the
  hypothesis that uses and meanings are
  perceived.
• The meaning of an environmental feature is its
  function vis-á-vis the capabilities of an animal
  and these uses of the environment can be
  perceived. Lombardo, 1987

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ALTERNATIVE DESCRIPTIONS OF A DRIVING
ENVIRONMENT

• CONTEXT-FREE
• --------------------------------
• Clyde Road
• lamp post
• moving vehicle
• University
• --------------------------------
• objects places

• FUNCTIONAL (ACTION)
• --------------------------------
• path (follow)
• obstacle (avoid)
• collision (avoid)
• destination (park)
• --------------------------------
• field of safe travel

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A REALIZED AFFORDANCE

• An affordance is not a property of the
  environment, but rather a property of the
  coupling of a user to a given environmental
  layout.
• Flascher, Kadar, Garrett, Meyer,
  Shaw, 1995

97
THE CRITERION PROBLEM

• Every kind of realism must have at least one
  criterion for determining when something is
  real.
  
• E.g., consensual agreement among a group of
  people that they are having the same phenomenal
  experience.
  
• What is the criterion for ecological realism?

98
ECOLOGICAL CRITERIA

• Ecological reality is what I can do in the
  world.
  
• I.e., what activities it will support, and what
  it can do to me that I may want to avoid.
  
• Consequences are real, and provide feedback
  about my relation to the world.

99
REALITY TEST

• Action is the criterion for the veridicality of
  perception. Volpert, 1985

100
ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• Ecological reality is personalized and
  individuated by
  
• Body scaling
• Ability scaling
• Opportunity
• Information

101
Behavior The Control of Perception

• Control theory explains what a goal is, how goals
  relate to behavior, how behavior affects
  perceptions, how perceptions define the reality
  in which we live and move and have our being.
• Control theory is the first scientific theory
  that can handle all these phenomena within a
  single testable concept of how living systems
  work.
• Powers, 1991

102
Control theory explains

• what a goal is, how goals relate to behavior,
• how behavior affects perceptions,
• how perceptions define the reality in which we
  live and move and have our being.
  
• Powers (1991)

103
Control theory cont.

• Control theory is the first scientific theory
  that can handle all these phenomena within a
  single testable concept of how living systems
  work.
• Powers (1991)

104
ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• Affordances have a physical reality
  (geometric, kinematic, dynamic) that captures
  potential interactions of an individual with a
  object, substance, place, or event.

105
ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• Something is real because
• it supports our actions one can eat it, drink
  it, sit on it, walk on it, pick it up, write with
  it, hide behind it and
  
• there are consequences of achieving it
  nutrition, reproduction and
  
• there are consequences of not achieving it
  starvation, dehydration and
  
• there are consequences of not avoiding it one
  can drown in it, fall off it, get hit by it, get
  cut by it.
  

106
ECOLOGICAL REALITY

• Something has psychological reality when the
  affordance is detected, when it is effectuated,
  and when feedback about its support for the use
  intended and the goal desired is evaluated -- if
  the individual is still alive.
• Affordances embody the coal face where evolution
  makes its selections.

107
He who lives by the swordfish...

• A fisherman died in Acapulco after a swordfish
  he had hooked and was trying to haul out of the
  water speared him in the stomach.
  
• The fisherman suffered a punctured intestine in
  the accident and died despite emergency surgery.

108
And he who lives by the snake

• A gourmet chef in Vietnam died after being
  bitten by a venomous sea snake that he was to
  cook as the nightly special.
  
• He picked up the half-metre snake from the
  glass aquarium, but it lashed around and bit his
  hand.
  
• The snake dropped back into the tank, was
  retrieved by another chef and served to the
  waiting customer.

109
WHAT IS REAL IN VIRTUAL REALITY?

• Information in stimulation.
• Actions and interactions.
• Psychological activities.
• Psychodynamics.
• Emotions.
• Learning and transfer.

110
THE CHAIN OF CAUSALITY

• Event in Environment
• Stimulus
• CNS Activity
• Response

causes
causes
causes
111
THE CHAIN OF SPECIFICITY

• Event in Environment
• Ambient Array Structure
• Perceiving

is specific to
is specific to
contd
112
THE CHAIN OF SPECIFICITY

• Perceiving
• CNS Activity
• Acting, controlling

is specific to
is specific to
113
AFFORDANCES AND CAUSALITY

• The fundamental hypothesis of ecological
  psychology is that affordances and only the
  relative availability (or non availability) of
  affordances create selection pressure on the
  behavior of individual organisms.
• Hence, behavior is regulated with respect to the
  affordances of the environment for a given
  animal. contd

114
Affordances Causality contd

• This hypothesis has many important implications.
  One of the most profound is that behavior (in the
  most general sense, including perception and
  cognition) is not caused.
• Affordances are opportunities for action, not
  causes or stimuli. They can be used and they can
  motivate an organism to act, but they do not and
  cannot cause even the behavior that utilizes
  them. Reed, 1996

115
Affordances Causality contd

• After September 11, many charged that
  Washingtons policies, especially towards the
  Middle East, had somehow caused the terrorist
  atrocity.
• This is, of course, completely wrong, unless
  you argue that
  
• a family causes a burglary simply by having a
  home,
  
• or that the victim of mugging causes the
  mugging by walking down the street. Greg
  Sheridan, foreign editor, The Weekend
  Australian contd

116
Affordances Causality contd

• A driver sets the occasion for theft by leaving
  the ignition key in the vehicle.
  
• A tourist sets the occasion for being mugged by
  walking down a street in the wrong part of
  Christchurch at the wrong time of night.
  
• The issue is not causality, but whether US
  policies and previous actions set the occasion
  for a terrorist response.
  

117
THE IMPORTANCE OF INFORMATION

• To develop and support a theory of psychology, we
  need a theory of organisms.
  
• To develop and support a theory of organisms, we
  need a theory of environments.
  
• To couple the theories of organisms and
  environments, we need a theory of information.

118
SPECIFICITY DISTINGUISHES

• The volatile parts of plants and animals are
  sometimes called essences by odor chemists.
  
• This suggests the fact that the vapors of many
  things specify them, that is distinguish them
  from other things, and this is what I mean by
  information about things.
• Gibson, 1967

119
INFORMATION REALISM

• If invariants of the energy flux at the receptors
  of an organism exist,
  
• and if these invariants correspond to the
  permanent properties of the environment,
  
• and if they are the basis of the organism's
  perception of the environment,
  
• then I think there is support for realism in
  epistemology as well as for a new theory of
  perception in psychology. Gibson,
  1967

120
AFFORDANCES AND INFORMATION

• Every affordance names a category of potential
  encounters, and affordances provide a useful way
  of packaging event information into ecologically
  appropriate units for theoretical analysis and
  empirical study, in keeping with the
  functionalist approach of pragmatic realism.
• Warren Shaw, 1985

121
INFORMATION SPECIFYING EGOMOTION
122
Warrens (1988) conceptualization of
theperception-action cycle
forces
laws of control
laws of physics
laws of ecological optics
123
INFORMATION AND PERCEPTION

• The existence of optical information does not
  determine perception.
  
• We are not slaves to the information.
• Rik Warren, 1981

124
The ecological and cognitivist approaches to work
analysis.
Vicente, 1999