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Higher order affordances
Thomas A Stoffregen1, Jeffrey B Wagman2
1School of Kinesiology and Center for Cognitive Sciences, University of Minnesota, 1900 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, USA. tas@umn.edu.
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|June 29, 2024
Summary
Higher-order affordances, opportunities for action, emerge from relationships between other affordances. This concept explains behaviors traditionally attributed to cognition or cultural rules.
Area of Science:
- Behavioral Sciences
- Ecological Psychology
- Cognitive Science
Background:
- The concept of affordances, opportunities for action, is widely used in behavioral sciences.
- Existing theories face challenges in explaining the relationships between different affordances.
Purpose of the Study:
- To propose a novel framework for understanding affordances and their interrelations.
- To introduce the concept of higher-order affordances, explaining their emergence from non-additive relations.
Main Methods:
- Theoretical analysis of affordance theory.
- Conceptual framework development focusing on relational properties of affordances.
Main Results:
- Affordances can be described as opportunities for all kinds of behaviors.
- Most affordances emerge from relations between other affordances (higher-order affordances), not solely from animal-environment interactions.
- All affordances structure ambient energy arrays, enabling direct perception.
Conclusions:
- Higher-order affordances offer a unified account for phenomena previously explained by cognitive processes (e.g., memory, imagination) or cultural norms.
- This framework provides a more comprehensive understanding of behavioral phenomena by emphasizing the relational nature of affordances.
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