Nested reciprocities: the organism-environment system in perception-action and development

The ecological approach to studying perception and action is one in which researchers view the structure in ambient energy arrays surrounding a given organism as being sufficient to specify meaningful environmental properties to that organism. Thus, from this perspective, perception is viewed not as a cognitive achievement but as a lawful state of affairs that exists in an organism-environment system. The approach to studying development known as transactionalism is one in which researchers view the developmental process as the expression of a complex web of endogenous and exogenous factors. Thus, from this perspective, development is not an unfolding of a genetic program, but rather an ongoing exchange among levels of the organism-environment system that continues throughout the life span of the organism. Despite their independent development, these two meta-theoretical approaches have much in common. In each approach, the organism-environment system is the fundamental unit of analysis, and the development of perception and behavior is spread across the multiple levels of this system.