Andrew D Wilson

LATEST ARTICLES ( 227 )

• The Optical Information for Self-Perception (Gibson, 1979, Chapter 7)

  So far we have considered what the world looks like to a point of observation that may or may not be occupied. It was important to Gibson that he establish... Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Events and the Information for Perceiving Events (Gibson, 1979, Chapter 6)

  In the previous chapter, Gibson introduced the notion of the ambient optic array and discussed the kinds of information it can have (flow, and invariants). The... Read more

  Posted on 27 March 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Ambient Optic Array (Gibson, 1979, Chapter 5)

  

  In the previous chapter, Gibson laid the foundations for an ecological optics by distinguishing between stimulation and stimulus information. Read more

  Posted on 16 March 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Relationship Between Stimulation and Stimulus Information (Gibson, 1979,...

  The first three chapters describe the world to be perceived, at the ecological scale. This chapter opens the section on how we visually perceive that world - vi... Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Meaningful Environment (Gibson, 1979, Chapter 3)

  In Chapter 1, Gibson identified the animal and it's environment as the two mutually defining parts of an ecological system. In Chapter 2, he developed a... Read more

  Posted on 05 March 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Medium, Substances, Surfaces (Gibson, 1979, Chapter 2)

  

  In this chapter, Gibson continues to lay out the rules of the environment (vs the physical world). In physics, there are objects in spaces, but this simply... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• The Animal and the Environment (Gibson, 1979, Chapter 1)

  Gibson's first chapter introduces his notion of the environment. This is a distinct level of description from the world according to physics, even though... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Reading Group - Gibson (1979) The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception

  

  Rob, Marianne, and I had so much fun with the Turvey (2019) reading group that we decided to keep going, and we decided to return to the source - Gibson's 1979... Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Introductions in the 2014 Edition (Gibson, 1979 Reading Group)

  The 2014 reprint of Gibson (1979) includes the original Preface and Introduction, as well as an Introduction to the Classic Edition by William H Mace. Read more

  Posted on 16 February 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 26: Strong Anticipation and Direct Perception (Turvey, 2019, Lectures...

  In this final chapter, Turvey lays out the basics of the ecological approach to coordinating action with respect to the future. Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 25: The Mechanical Basis for "Getting About Among Things" (Turvey,...

  This chapter is about the mechanical consequences of interacting with the environment; what happens when we come into physical contact with things. Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 24: Perceiving "How to Get About Among Things" (Turvey, 2019, Lectures o...

  This chapter focuses on the perception side of the perception-action system we will end up with for behaviour. It covers the objects of perception (affordances)... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 23: Ecological Optics Primer (Turvey, 2019, Lectures on Perception)

  The 'barrage of conceptual details that was Lecture 22' has provided us with the notion of affordances, and these are to be the objects of both perception and... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 22: Ontology at the Ecological Scale (Turvey, 2019, Lectures on...

  After a book length set of preliminaries, we are finally getting to the meat of the positive case the ecological approach has to make. Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 21: Barriers to Ecological Realism (Turvey, 2019, Lectures on Perception)

  Last Lecture Turvey introduced the notion of ecological realism; realism that has a species-dependence to it. Normally a realism is for everyone, but different... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 20: Ecology: The Science That Reasons Why (Turvey, 2019, Lectures on...

  Turvey has finally arrived at the ecological approach, but all the preceding chapters have made it such that there are preliminaries to deal with first. Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 19: Reflections on the Physical Symbol System Hypothesis (Turvey, 2019,...

  The final lecture about the computational-representational perspective is focused on the general claim that intelligent action can arise from a computer,... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 18: Turing Reductionism, Token Physicalism: The Computational System...

  We have encountered the idea in Lectures 6 and 16 that perception might be formalised as a form of computation, and that this might be the step that enables... Read more

  Posted on 19 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Lecture 17: Pattern Recognition and Representation Bearers (Turvey, 2019,...

  Last Lecture Turvey reviewed the basics of the computational approach, and highlighted again how it is just the latest iteration of the Cartesian programme. Read more

  Posted on 15 January 2026 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE

• Radical Embodied Memory (Wilford & Anderson, 2025)

  

  Of all the representation-hungry problems out there, memory seems to be the hungriest. It is clearly a fact that we can organise our present behaviour with... Read more

  Posted on 19 November 2025 LANGUAGES, PHILOSOPHY, PSYCHOLOGY, SCIENCE