The Modern Legacy of Gibson's Affordances for the Sciences of Organisms

PART I: Ontology and Epistemology of Affordances

1. Why It Matters That Affordances Are Relations

Taraneh Wilkinson and Anthony Chemero

2. The Sociomaterial Theory of Affordances

Julien D. Kiverstein

3. When It Comes to Affordances, What Do Animals Know and How Do They Know It?

Jeffrey B. Wagman, Tyler Duffrin, and Thomas A. Stoffregen

4. Mental Action and the Scope of Affordance Perception

Thomas Mcclelland and Max Jones

5. An Affordance-Based Approach to the Origins of Concepts

Manuel Heras-Escribano, David Travieso, and Lorena Lobo

6. Toward an Ecological Theory of Time

Brandon J. Thomas

PART II: The Role of Exploratory Activity and Scale in Perception of Affordances

7. The Dynamics of Affordance Emergence and Perception

Matheus M. Pacheco and Ricardo Drews

8. Description of the World That Agential Systems Fit Into

Tetsushi Nonaka

9. The Role of Exploratory Activity in Affordance Perception

Alen Hajnal

10. Scaling Up: Lawfulness of Affordances Requires Independence From Any Single “Scale of Behavior”

Damian G. Kelty-Stephen

PART III: Affordances Through the Lens of Neuroscience

11. Affordance Switching in Self-Organizing Brain-Body-  Environment Systems

Vicente Raja and Matthieu M De Wit

12. What Is NExT for Affordances? Taking Brains Seriously in Organism-Environment Systems

Luis Favela

13. Affordance and Tool Use: A Neurocognitive Approach

François Osiurak and Giovanni Federico

14. From Turing to Gibson: Implications of Affordances for the Sciences of Organisms

Madhur Mangalam, Louise Barrett, and Dorothy M. Fragaszy

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

Ludovic Seifert, Duarte Araújo, and Keith Davids

16. Disability Through the Lens of Affordances: A Promising Pathway for Transforming Physical Therapy Practice

Paula L. Silva and Sarah M. Schwab

17. “I Got All I Need to Know About Affordances From Norman”: What Engineers, Designers, and Architects Need to Know About Affordances

Balagopal Raveendranath, Elenah Rosopa, and Christopher C. Pagano

18. Perception of Affordances in Interaction With Autonomous Systems

Tri Nguyen, Corey Magaldino, Jayci Landfair, Matt Langley, and Polemnia G. Amazeen

19. On Affordances and Their Entailment for Autonomous Robotic Systems

Mihai Andries, Lorenzo Jamone, Justus H. Piater, and Erol Sahin

Biography

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.

“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