ENVIRONMENTAL

PSYCHOLOGY PRESENTATION

THEORY OF
GIBSON
By James J. Gibson &
Eleanor Jack Gibson
YEOW CHII YUNN
HO LI HUA
NG PEI XIN

NICOLE TAN KAH LIH

SITI NUR SYAFIQAH RAHIMIN
NARESH BAHULAYAN

What is
Environmental
Psychology?

ENVIRONMENTAL
PSYCHOLOGY
Define : Environmental
psychology studies the
interactions and relations between people and
their environment

Psychological perspective on
Human-made environmental problems
Effects of the environment on people

Person Environment

About +/-

WHY IS PSYCHOLOGY
IMPORTANT?

Virtually all environmental problems are humanmade, for example AGW

Thus, it is both appropriate and necessary that
psychology, the science of human behaviour and well
being, contributes to the solution of these problems
Environmental psychology:
a response to problems within the social and
behavioural sciences
a result of historical-political circumstances
a response to social problems

CHARACTERISTICS OF
ENVIRONMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Environment-behaviour relationships are studied
as a unit
Environment-behaviour relationships are
interrelationships
No sharp distinctions between applied and basic
research.
A clear interdisciplinary appeal

DEFINITION OF
THEORY OF GIBSON

AFFORDANCE THEORY (J. J.

GIBSON)
American psychologist James Jerome Gibson was
influential in changing the way we consider visual
perception. According to his theory, perception of the
environment inevitably leads to some course of action

Affordances, or clues in the environment that indicate

possibilities for action, are perceived in a direct,
immediate way with no sensory processing. Examples
include: buttons for pushing, knobs for turning,
handles for pulling, levers for sliding, etc.

Based upon Gestalt theories, Affordance Theory has

various implications for design, human-computer
interaction, ergonomics, visualization, etc. Some
believe that good design makes affordances explicit.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

 Bottom-up processingis also

known as data-driven processing,
because perception begins with
the stimulus itself. Processing is
carried out in one direction from
the retina to the visual cortex, with
each successive stage in the visual
pathway carrying out ever more
complex analysis of the input.
Top-down processingrefers to
the use of contextual information
in pattern recognition. For
example, understanding difficult
handwriting is easier when reading
complete sentences than when
reading single and isolated words.
This is because the meaning of the
surrounding words provide a
context to aid understanding

http://www.simplypsychology.org/perception-theorie

A lot of information reaches the eye, but

much is lost by the time it reaches the
brain (estimated about 90% is lost).
Therefore, the brain has to guess what a
person sees based on past experiences.
We actively construct our perception of
reality.
Proposed that perception involves a lot of
hypothesis testing to make sense of the
information presented to the sense
organs.
Our perceptions of the world are
hypotheses based on past experiences
and stored information.
Sensory receptors receive information
from the environment, which is then
combined with previously stored
information about the world which we
have built up as a result of experience.
The formation of incorrect hypotheses
will lead to errors of perception (e.g.
visual illusions like the Necker cube).

http://www.simplypsychology.org/perception-theorie

BACKGROUND
THEORY OF GIBSON

BACKGROUND OF THEORY OF
GIBSON

James J. Gibson

Eleanor Jack Gibson

BACKGROUND OF THEORY OF
GIBSON
James J. Gibson was an American psychologist
who received his Ph.D from Princeton
Universitys Department of Psychology.
He is considered one of the most important
20th century psychologists in the field of visual
perception.
Gibson challenged the idea that the nervous
system will actively construct conscious visual
perception.
He promoted the ecological psychology where he
believes that the mind will directly perceives
environmental stimuli without additional

BACKGROUND OF THEORY OF
GIBSON
In his early life, Gibson was born in McConnelsville, Ohio
on 27th January 1904.
His was the eldest among the three children in the family.
His father was a worker on the railroad and therefore they
will need to travel and relocate quite frequently.

They moving throughout the Dakotas and Wisconsin until

they finally settled down in Chicago.

BACKGROUND OF THEORY OF
GIBSON
When Gibson was a boy, his father would take him out on
train rides.
From there, Gibson recalled that he is absolutely fascinated
by the way the visual world would appear when in
motion.
While in the direction of the train, the world would appear
to flow in the same direction and expand.
When he looked behind the train, the visual world seems to
contract.

BACKGROUND OF THEORY OF
GIBSON
Due the experiences, it sparked Gibsons interested in
investigating optic flow and the visual information
generated from different modes of transportation.
Later in life, he applied the fascination to the study of
visual perception of landing and flying planes.
Soon, Gibson started his career at Smith College where he
met his wife, Eleanor Jack.
In the 1960s and 1970s, Gibson and his wife created the
Gibsonian ecological theory of development.

BACKGROUND OF THEORY OF
GIBSON
Together they proposed the perceptual field around an
individual, such has closely related to the research by his
wife.
In the experiment, they found that an infant that was
new to crawling was sensitive to the depth of an
edge.
Gibsons goal to leave a lasting impact on knowledge was
fulfilled by his success in introducing such theory.
He owned a lot of honors and awards before he end his life
in Ithaca, New York on 11th December, 1979 at the age
of 75.

GIBSONIAN ECOLOGICAL
THEORY OF
DEVELOPMENT

GIBSONIAN ECOLOGICAL THEORY

OF DEVELOPMENT
Created by American psychologist
Gibson during the 1960s and 1970s.

Eleanor

J.

Gibson
emphasized
the
importance
of
environment and context in learning and, together
with husband and fellow psychologist James J.
Gibson, argued that perception was crucial as it
allowed humans to adapt to their environments.

KEY CONCEPT
Gibson asserted that development was driven by a
complex interaction between environmental
affordances and the motivated humans who
perceive them.
For example, to an infant, different surfaces
"afford" opportunities for walking, crawling,
grasping, etc. As children gain motor skills, they
discover new opportunities for movement and thus
new affordances. The more chances they are given
to perceive and interact with their environment,
the more affordances they discover, and the more
accurate their perceptions become.

FOUR IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF

HUMAN BEHAVIOR THAT
DEVELOP:
Agency - Self-control, intentionality in behavior
Agency is learning to control both one's own activity and
external events
Babies learn at an early age that their actions have an effect
on the environment
Prospectivity - Intentional, anticipatory, planful, futureoriented behaviors
For example: A baby will reach out to try and catch an object
moving toward them because the baby can anticipate that the
object will continue to move close enough to catch. In other
words, the baby perceives that reaching out his/her hand will
afford him/her to catch the object.

FOUR IMPORTANT ASPECTS OF

HUMAN BEHAVIOR THAT
DEVELOP:
Search for Order - Tendency to see order,
regularity, and pattern to make sense of the
world
For example: Before 9 months, infants begin to
recognize the strong-weak stress patterns in their
native language
Flexibility - Perception can adjust to new
situations and bodily conditions (such as growth,
improved motor skills, or a sprained ankle)
Perception is an on-going, active process.

EXAMPLES

Translational component of radial flow

produced by observer translation toward the
X

EXAMPLES
1. Optic flow pattern
. The changes in the flow show the type of
movement.
. The center of that movement indicates the
direction in which the perceiver is moving.
. Contains cues for the perception and control of
self-motion.

Retinal flow field produced by

translating toward the x while taking
o on top of a post

2. The role of invariants in perception

textures expand as you approach an object &

contract as you move away.

3. Affordance
This is the cues in the environment that aid
perception
People perceive their ability to interact with the
world based on affordance & affectivities

CONCLUSION

CONCLUSION
Environment influences behaviour
Gibsons theory based on nature
Influential in changing the way we consider
visual perception
Perception drives action
Information taken in by our sensory receptors is
all we need to perceive the world

 There is no need to involve past experiences

Basically, perceiving helps us move better in an
environment
Lastly, Gibsons theory can be applied in our life
As man will changed the shapes and
substances of his environment to something
that can affords him
We can bring more inventions to the world that
will help us

REFERENCE

REFERENCES
Doorey M. James J Gibson. Retrieved from https://
global.britannica.com/biography/James-J-Gibson
McLeod, S. A. (2007). Visual Perception Theory.
Retrieved from
www.simplypsychology.org/perception-theories.html
V. George Matthew. Environmental Psychology.
Retrieved from http://
www.psychology4all.com/environmentalpsychology.ht
m

 Zaitchik A. Applying Gibsons Affordance Theory to Interior

Design. Retrieved from https://
www.behance.net/gallery/7176481/Applying-Gibsons-Affordan
ce-Theory-to-Interior-Design
Affordance Theory (Gibson). Retrieved from http://
www.learning-theories.com/affordance-theory-gibson.html
Gibsons Theory of Perceptual Learning. Retrieved from
http://
www.psych.nyu.edu/adolph/publications/AdolphKretch-inpre
ss-GibsonTheory.pdf
Gibsons Theory of Direct Perception. Retrieved from
http://www.users.totalise.co.uk/~
kbroom/Lectures/gibson.htm
Perception and Learning. Retrieved from

THE END,
THANK YOU!