The Concept of Ecological Validity: What Are Its Limitations and Is It Bad to Be Invalid?

Abstract

The concept of ecological validity has played an important role in research on perceptual development. The limitations of this concept are discussed and illustrated with examples from research on the development of intersensory perception. By itself the concept of ecological validity fails to provide objective criteria for experimental design, but together with more traditional bottom-up methodological approaches it can be used in a convergent operations manner to enrich our understanding of perceptual development.