Affordances and Prospective Control: An Outline of the Ontology

TLDR

Prospective control of actions requires perceiving the behavioral possibilities of surface layouts and events. The article outlines an ontological basis for understanding prospective control in realist terms and argues that ecological research on prospective control seeks objective laws. The authors adopt a materialist, dynamicist ontology of affordances, equating lawfulness with real possibility, and investigate the affordances underlying prospective control and the circumstances that actualize them. Critical evaluation of the proposed ontological themes could advance experimental and theoretical studies of perception for activity.

Abstract

Actions must be controlled prospectively. This requires that the behavioral possibilities of surface layouts and events be perceived. In this article, the ontolog- ical basis for an understanding of prospective control in realist terms is outlined. The foundational idea is that of affordances and the promoted ontology is materialist and dynamicist. It is argued that research in the ecological approach to prospective control is ultimately the search for objective laws. Because lawfulness is equated with real possibility, this amounts to the study of the affordances (the real possibilities) underlying prospective control and the circumstances that actualize them. The ontological assumptions and hypotheses bearing on this latter proposal are articulated. It is suggested that critical evaluation of the identified ontological themes may benefit the experimental and theoretical study of perception in the service of activity.