Gibson

• Gibson's direct theory of perception

  The idea that we perceive simply by using the information we receive through our senses, which gives us enough information to make sense of the world
• Direct perception

  • People (and animals) do not just receive passive images of the world, it is a bottom up theory that has evolved in all animals to help best interact with their environment
• No need for Inferences


  Gibson thought our senses provide all the information we need to accurately make sense of the world, the potential uses of objects (affordances) can be perceived directly without relying on inferences or assumptions based on past experience
• Visual information

  • Complex information about light, texture and detail all comes from the environment, allowing accurate judgements about features such as distance and movement
• Influence of Nature


  Gibson thought accurate perception is innate not learnt, coming about from evolution, animals with the best/most accurate perception had the best evolutionary advantage
• Role of motion parallax


  A monocular depth cue from the environment that helps to perceive movement, objects closer to us appear to move faster than objects
• Perception

  Fast and accurate, with an ability to respond quickly to stimuli
• Gibson's direct theory

  • Does not require an extra level of mental processing
• Gibson's theory

  Suggests we have all the information we need to perceive the world accurately from our senses
• Gibson's theory

  Struggles to explain how we are fooled by visual illusions
• Gibson's theory

  • Correct in suggesting we gain a large amount of information directly from the environment in perceiving the world
• Affordances


  Objects we can automatically perceive the use of
• Gibson's suggestion of "affordances" is criticised by many researchers
• Many of the things we use in day to day life we have learnt how to use, requiring the use of stored knowledge