Gibson's Theory of Affordances

Gibson's theory of affordances suggests that our perception of the environment is not solely based on physical properties, but rather on the opportunities for action that surfaces and objects provide. This means that instead of perceiving objects in terms of their size, distance, or speed, we perceive their potential for action, such as the ability to catch a ball or navigate through a gap. Gibson argues against the need for higher cognitive processing to interpret perceptual information and instead proposes that affordances can be directly perceived based on the information present in the environment, without requiring mental models or internal representations.