The Ecological View

The Ecological View

For the past several decades, much of the research on perceptual development In infancy has been guided by the ecological view of Eleanor and James J. Gibson (E. Gibson. 1969. 1989. 2001; J. Gibson. 1966. 1979). They argue that we do not have to lake bits and pieces of data from sensations and build up representations of the world in our minds. The environment itself is rich with information; our perceptual system selects from that rich output.

According to the Gibsons' ecological view, we directly perceive information that exists in the world around us. Perception brings us into contact with the environment in order to interact with and adapt to it. Perception Is designed for anion. Perception gives people such information as when to duck, when to turn their bodies through a narrow passages way, and when lo put their hands up to catch something.

In the Gibsons' view that the objects have affordances, which are opportunities for intcr.ini.in offered by objects that fit within our capabilities to perform activities. A pot may afford you something io cook with, and it may afford a toddler something to bang Adults immediately to know when a chair is appropriate for sitting, when a surface is safe for walking, or when an object is within reach. We directly and accurately perceive these affordances by sensing information from the environment—the light or sound reflecting from the surfaces of the world—and from our own bodies through muscle receptors, joint receptors, and skin receptors, for example.

Through perceptual development, children become more critical at discovering and using affordances. An important developmental question is. What affordances can infants or children detect and use? In one study, for example, when babies who could walk were faced with a squishy waterbed. they stopped and explored it, then chose to crawl rather than walk across it (Gibson & others. 1987). They combined perception and action lo adapt to the demands of the task.

Similarly, as we described earlier In the section on motor development, infants who were just learning to crawl or just learning to walk were less cautious when confronted with a steep slope than experienced crawlers or walkers were. The more experienced crawlers and walkers perceived that a slope affords the possibility not only for faster locomotion but also for falling. Again, infants coupled perception and action to make a decision about what to do in their environment.

Studying ihe infant's perception has not been an easy task. The Research In Life-Span Development interlude describes some of the ingenious ways researchers study the newborn's perception.