J. J. Gibson
J.J. Gibson was a psychologist whose ideas reshaped our understanding of perception. He argued that we perceive the world not just through sensory input but by interacting with our environments. Instead of seeing perception as a passive reception of stimuli, he proposed that we actively explore and extract information from our surroundings. His concept of "affordances" suggests that objects offer specific uses or actions due to their properties, influencing how we perceive and interact with them. Gibson's work emphasizes the importance of context and activity in shaping our perceptual experiences.
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J.J. Gibson was an influential psychologist known for his work on perception and ecological psychology. He challenged reductionism—the idea that complex phenomena can be understood solely by breaking them into their simplest parts—by proposing that perception is not just a result of sensory input but involves an active interaction with the environment. Gibson's concept of "affordances" suggests that objects provide opportunities for action, emphasizing the importance of context. This perspective aligns with emergentism, which holds that complex systems possess properties not found in their individual parts, highlighting how perception arises from the relationship between an organism and its surroundings.