Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-24T05:03:05.691Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

An “ecological” action-based synthesis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  24 November 2016

Jonathan de Vries  and
Lawrence M. Ward
Jonathan de Vries
Affiliation:
Interdisciplinary Studies Graduate Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T1Z4, [email protected] Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T1Z4, Canada
Lawrence M. Ward
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T1Z4, Canada Brain Research Centre, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, British Columbia, V6T1Z4, Canada. [email protected]://www2.psych.ubc.ca/~lward/
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

We expand upon Morsella et al.'s synthesis in the direction of what Gibson (1979) called an ecological approach to perception. Morsella et al. describe consciousness as a director of voluntary action, but they understate the role of the environment in its evolution as well as in directing behavior. We elaborate these roles in the context of the concept of affordances.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 39 , 2016 , e173
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2016 

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Butler, A. B. (2008) Evolution of the thalamus: A morphological and functional review. Thalamus and Related Systems 4:35–58.Google Scholar
Gibson, J. J. (1979) The ecological approach to visual perception. Houghton Mifflin.Google Scholar
Glover, S. (2004) Separate visual representations in the planning and control of action. Behavioral and Brain Sciences 27:3–78.Google Scholar
Norman, D. (2013) The design of everyday things. (Revised and expanded edition.) Basic Books.Google Scholar
Sobel, N., Prabhakaran, V., Hartley, C. A., Desmond, J. E., Glover, G. H., Sullivan, E. V. & Gabrieli, J. D. E. (1999) Blind smell: Brain activation induced by an undetected airborne chemical. Brain 122:209–17.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stepp, N. & Turvey, M. T. (2015) The muddle of anticipation. Ecological Psychology 27(2):103. doi:10.1080/10407413.2015.1027123.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tolman, E. C. (1948) Cognitive maps in rats and men. Psychological Review 55:189–208.Google Scholar
Turvey, M. T. (2015) Quantum-like issues at nature's ecological scale (the scale of organisms and their environments). Mind and Matter 13:7–44.Google Scholar
Withagen, R. & van Wermeskerken, M. (2010) The role of affordances in the evolutionary process reconsidered: A niche construction perspective. Theory and Psychology 20:489–510.Google Scholar
Zucco, G. M., Priftis, K. & Stevenson, R. J. (2014) From blindsight to blindsmell: A mini review. Translational Neuroscience 6:8–12.Google Scholar