The Relevance of Gibson’s Ecological Approach to Perception for Environment-Behavior Studies

The ecological approach developed by the late James J. Gibson (1966, 1979) has been described as a revolutionary psychology (Heft, 1988a; Mace, 1977; Neisser, 1976, 1990; Reed, 1988, 1996; Reed & Jones, 1979; Turvey, 1977). It is a radical departure from the way perceiving, and knowing more generally, have been traditionally conceptualized in psychology and philosophy. At the heart of Gibson’s ecological approach is an original analysis of the environment, which in turn leads to a novel view of person—environment relations with significant implications for psychology and epistemology. Because of the distinctive nature of these conceptualizations of the environment and person—environment relations, Gibson’s ecological approach has been promoted as having particular significance for environment—behavior (EB) studies and environmental design (Heft, 1981, 1988a; Kaminski, 1989; Krampen, 1991; Landwehr, 1988; Lang, 1987).