Disturbance of Ecological Self and Impairment of Affordance Perception.
Nam-gyoon Kim, Judith A Effken
Frontiers in psychology January 1, 2022 Peer reviewed DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2022.925359 via PubMed
Summary
Perceiving affordances—opportunities for action the environment offers—is essential for maintaining meaningful contact with one's surroundings. Impairments in affordance detection may underlie irrational behavior in self disorders like schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease. Two laboratory studies showed that patients with these conditions have reduced ability to perceive affordances, serving as contra-positive evidence that supports the affordance concept. This approach also validates contra-positive evidence as a complementary tool for empirically testing concepts of meaning and value.
Study at a glance
| Design | empirical investigation |
|---|---|
| Population | patients with schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease |
| Key finding | Patients with schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease have impaired capacity to perceive affordances, providing contra-positive evidence for the affordance concept. |
Abstract
Affordance, a radical concept James Gibson introduced in the 1970s, remains controversial today. Defined as environmental properties taken with reference to an animal's anatomy and action capabilities, affordances are opportunities for action the environment offers. By perceiving affordances, organisms hold meaningful relationships with their surroundings. Affordance is not just a theoretical concept but, as the embodiment of meanings and values, has serious psychological implications. We contend that the lack of these meanings and values underlies the irrational behavior seen in patients with self disorders such as schizophrenia. We reason that it is by perceiving affordances that individuals keep in touch with their surroundings and stay mentally healthy. Using contrapositive reasoning, the reverse could also be true. That is, when individuals experience difficulty maintaining meaningful relations with their surroundings and suffer from mental health problems, we might anticipate that their affordance detection systems are impaired. In two studies conducted in our laboratory, patients with schizophrenia and Alzheimer's disease were shown to have impaired capacity to perceive affordances, a result qualifying as contra-positive evidence corroborating the affordance concept. In addition, our results provide support for accepting contra-positive evidence as a complementary tool to positive evidence for empirically validating concepts such as affordance and meaning.