I am studying Gibson's theory of affordances, and looking to find
references to his work in the sociocultural/CHAT literature.
The theory is interesting for me because its focus on the interaction
between animals and environment avoids perennial problems of dualism.
Gibson views values and meanings as properties of things in the
environment, directly perceived by animals. This perspective also avoids an
individualist bias, in that meanings are external to the individual perceiver.
Gibson's affordances have been found broadly useful by social
theorists. For instance, ecological psychologists have paid attention to
immediate perception-action systems by analyzing the relations of agents
with physical systems and environments. Costall (1995) has explored the
implications of an ecological approach to the human sciences, arguing that
the concept of affordances should be socialized. Gaver (1996) applies an
ecological approach to social interaction by exploring affordances of
material properties of human activity. Greeno (1994) has done some work to
import Gibson's ideas into situated cognition theorizing. For instance Greeno,
Moore, and Smith (1993) define transfer in terms of attunement to the
invariances of affordances.
I wonder if there also is work in the sociocultural tradition that makes use
of Gibson's insights. Any leads to the literature would be appreciated.
Thanks in advance.
JeongSuk Pang
Louisiana State University
jpang who-is-at unix1.sncc.lsu.edu
Costall, A. (1995). Socializing affordances. _Theory and Psychology_ 5(4),
467-481.
Gaver, W. W. (1996). Situating Action II: Affordances for interaction: The
social is material for design. _Ecological Psychology_, 8(2), 111-129.
Greeno, J. G. (1994). Gibson's affordances. _Psychological Review_, 101
(2), 336-342.
Greeno, J. G., Moore, J. L., & Smith, D. R. (1993). Transfer of situated
learning. In D. K. Detterman & R. J. Sternberg (Eds), _Transfer on trial:
Intelligence, cognition, and instruction_ (pp. 99-167). Norwood, NJ: Ablex