Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-23T15:56:51.489Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Human interaction with the physical world: a brief review of studies on affordances

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 May 2024

Khyati Priya ,
Jayesh Pillai  and
Avinash Shende
Khyati Priya*
Affiliation:
IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Jayesh Pillai
Affiliation:
IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
Avinash Shende
Affiliation:
IDC School of Design, Indian Institute of Technology Bombay, India
*
khyatipriya@iitb.ac.in

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

Gibson used "affordance" to describe how animals perceive and interact with their environment. Since the term was coined, many studies, both theoretical as well as empirical, have been done. We conducted a review of the 56 most cited works on physical affordances to answer: (1) What methods have been used to study affordances, and how have they changed with time? (2) How has the definition of affordances evolved over time? We went through papers decade-wise and compare their key contributions. Finally, we discuss how the definition and research on affordances has evolved in the last 40 years.

Keywords

affordanceuser-centred designresearch methodologies and methods
Type
Design Theory and Research Methods
Information
Proceedings of the Design Society , Volume 4: DESIGN 2024 , May 2024 , pp. 105 - 114
Creative Commons
Creative Common License - CCCreative Common License - BYCreative Common License - NCCreative Common License - ND
This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives licence (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is unaltered and is properly cited. The written permission of Cambridge University Press must be obtained for commercial re-use or in order to create a derivative work.
Copyright
The Author(s), 2024.

References

Adolp, K.E., Epple, M.A. and Gibso, E.J. (1993), “Crawling versus Walking Infants’ Perception of Affordances for Locomotion over Sloping Surfaces”, Child Development, Vol. 64 No. 4, pp. 1158–1174, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1993.tb04193.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bloomfiel, B.P., Latha, Y. and Vurdubaki, T. (2010), “Bodies, technologies and action possibilities: When is an affordance?”, Sociology, SAGE Publications Ltd, Vol. 44 No. 3, pp. 415–433, https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0038038510362469.Google Scholar
Caro, A.J., Caro, R.F. and Antel, S.E. (1988), “Infant Understanding of Containment: An Affordance Perceived or a Relationship Conceived?”, Developmental Psychology, Vol. 24 No. 5, pp. 620–627.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Chemer, A. (2003), “An Outline of a Theory of Affordances”, Ecological Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 181–195, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15326969ECO1502_5.Google Scholar
CHOW, S.L. (1989), “An Intentional Analysis of ‘Affordance’ Revisited”, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Vol. 19 No. 3, pp. 357–365, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1989.tb00154.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costal, A. (1995), “Socializing Affordances”, Theory & Psychology, Vol. 5 No. 4, pp. 467–481.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costal, A. (2012), “Canonical affordances in context”, Avant, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 85–93.Google Scholar
Costantin, M., Ambrosin, E., Scoroll, C. and Borgh, A.M. (2011), “When objects are close to me: Affordances in the peripersonal space”, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Vol. 18 No. 2, pp. 302–308, https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/s13423-011-0054-4.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Costantin, M., Ambrosin, E., Tier, G., Sinigagli, C. and Committer, G. (2010), “Where does an object trigger an action? An investigation about affordances in space”, Experimental Brain Research, Vol. 207 No. 1–2, pp. 95–103, https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00221-010-2435-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davi, J.L. and Chouinar, J.B. (2016), “Theorizing Affordances: From Request to Refuse”, Bulletin of Science, Technology and Society, SAGE Publications Ltd, Vol. 36 No. 4, pp. 241–248, https://dx.doi.org/10.1177/0270467617714944.Google Scholar
van Dij, L. and Rietvel, E. (2017), “Foregrounding sociomaterial practice in our understanding of affordances: The skilled intentionality framework”, Frontiers in Psychology, Frontiers Research Foundation, Vol. 7 No. JAN, https://dx.doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2016.01969.Google Scholar
Elli, R. and Tucke, M. (2000), “Micro-affordance: The potentiation of components of action by seen objects”, British Journal of Psychology, John Wiley and Sons Ltd., Vol. 91 No. 4, pp. 451–471, https://dx.doi.org/10.1348/000712600161934.Google Scholar
Faje, B.R. (2007), “Affordance-based control of visually guided action”, Ecological Psychology, Routledge, Vol. 19 No. 4, pp. 383–410, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10407410701557877.Google Scholar
Faje, B.R., Rile, M.A. and Turve, M.T. (2009), “Information, affordances, and the control of action in sport”, International Journal of Sport Psychology, Vol. 40 No. 1, pp. 79–107.Google Scholar
Fayar, A.-L. and Week, J. (2014), “Affordances for practice”, Information and Organization, Elsevier Ltd, Vol. 24 No. 4, pp. 236–249, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.infoandorg.2014.10.001.Google Scholar
Fitzpatric, P., Carell, C., Schmid, R.C. and Core, D. (1994), “Haptic and Visual Perception of an Affordance for Upright Posture”, Ecological Psychology, Vol. 6 No. 4, pp. 265–287, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326969eco0604_2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Follme, S., Leithinge, D., Olwa, A., Hogg, A. and Ishi, H. (2013), “inFORM: dynamic physical affordances and constraints through shape and object actuation”, Proceedings of the 26th Annual ACM Symposium on User Interface Software and Technology, United Kingdom, pp. 417–426, https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2501988.2502032.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ghiseli, M.T. (1981), “Categories, life, and thinking”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00008852.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibso, E.J. (2000), “Where Is the Information for Affordances?”, Ecological Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Vol. 12 No. 1, pp. 53–56, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15326969ECO1201_5.Google Scholar
Gibso, E.J. and Walke, A.S. (1984), “Development of knowledge of visual-tactual affordances of substance.”, Child Development, Vol. 55 No. 2, pp. 453–460, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1984.tb00305.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gibso, J.J. (1979), “The ecological approach to visual perception”, Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Green, J.G. (1994), “Gibson's Affordances”, Psychological Review, Vol. 101 No. 2, pp. 336–342, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0033-295x.101.2.336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hartso, R. (2003), “Cognitive, physical, sensory, and functional affordances in interaction design”, Behaviour & Information Technology, Taylor & Francis, Vol. 22 No. 5, pp. 315–338, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/01449290310001592587.Google Scholar
H, HEFT. (1989), “Affordances and the Body: An Intentional Analysis of Gibson's Ecological Approach to Visual Perception”, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Vol. 19 No. 1, pp. 1–30, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1989.tb00133.x.Google Scholar
H, HEFT. (1990), “Perceiving Affordances in Context: A Reply to Chow”, Journal for the Theory of Social Behaviour, Vol. 20 No. 3, pp. 277–284, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-5914.1990.tb00187.x.Google Scholar
Jone, R.K. and Pic, A.D. (1981), “Categorization and affordances”, Behavioral and Brain Sciences, Vol. 4 No. 2, pp. 292–293, https://dx.doi.org/10.1017/S0140525X00008943.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koncza, J., Meeuwse, H.J. and Cres, M.E. (1992), “Changing Affordances in Stair Climbing: The Perception of Maximum Climbability in Young and Older Adults”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 18 No. 3, pp. 691–697, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.18.3.691.Google Scholar
Kyttä, M. (2004), “The extent of children's independent mobility and the number of actualized affordances as criteria for child-friendly environments”, Journal of Environmental Psychology, Academic Press, Vol. 24 No. 2, pp. 179–198, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0272-4944(03)00073-2.Google Scholar
van Leeuwe, L., Smitsma, A. and van Leeuwe, C. (1994), “Affordances, Perceptual Complexity, and the Development of Tool Use”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 174–191, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.20.1.174.Google Scholar
Lope, P., Jonel, P. and Baudisc, P. (2015), “Affordance++: Allowing objects to communicate dynamic use”, Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems - Proceedings, Vol. 2015-April, Association for Computing Machinery, pp. 2515–2524, https://dx.doi.org/10.1145/2702123.2702128.Google Scholar
Lovelan, K.A. (1986), “Discovering the affordances of a reflecting surface”, Developmental Review, Vol. 6 No. 1, pp. 1–24, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0273-2297(86)90001-8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maie, J.R.A. and Fade, G.M. (2009), “Affordance based design: A relational theory for design”, Research in Engineering Design, Vol. 20 No. 1, pp. 13–27, https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s00163-008-0060-3.Google Scholar
Mar, L.S. (1987), “Eyeheight-Scaled Information About Affordances: A Study of Sitting and Stair Climbing”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 361–370, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.13.3.361.Google Scholar
Mar, L.S., Balliet, J.A., Crave, K.D., Dougla, S.D. and Fo, T. (1990), “What an Actor Must Do in Order to Perceive the Affordance for Sitting”, Ecological Psychology, Vol. 2 No. 4, pp. 325–366, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326969eco0204_2.Google Scholar
McCab, V. (1982), “Invariants and affordances: An analysis of species-typical information”, Ethology and Sociobiology, Vol. 3 No. 2, pp. 79–92, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0162-3095(82)90003-6.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michael, C.F. (1988), “S-R Compatibility Between Response Position and Destination of Apparent Motion: Evidence of the Detection of Affordances”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 14 No. 2, pp. 231–240, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.14.2.231.Google Scholar
Michael, C.F. (2003), “Affordances: Four Points of Debate”, Ecological Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 135–148, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15326969ECO1502_3.Google Scholar
Norma, D.A. (1988), The Psychology of Everyday Things., Basic books.Google Scholar
Norma, D.A. (2013), The Design of Everyday Things, Rev. and expanded edition., MIT press, CambridgeGoogle Scholar
Osiura, F. and Badet, A. (2016), “Tool use and affordance: Manipulation-based versus reasoning-based approaches”, Psychological Review, American Psychological Association Inc., Vol. 123 No. 5, pp. 534–568, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/rev0000027.Google Scholar
Osiura, F., Jarr, C. and Le Gal, D. (2010), “Grasping the Affordances, Understanding the Reasoning: Toward a Dialectical Theory of Human Tool Use”, Psychological Review, Vol. 117 No. 2, pp. 517–540, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0019004.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Osiura, F., Rossett, Y. and Badet, A. (2017), “What is an affordance? 40 years later”, Neuroscience and Biobehavioral Reviews, Elsevier Ltd, Vol. 77, pp. 403–417, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neubiorev.2017.04.014.Google Scholar
Oudejan, R.R.D., Michael, C.F., Bakke, F.C. and Dolné, M.A. (1996), “The Relevance of Action in Perceiving Affordances: Perception of Catchableness of Fly Balls”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 22 No. 4, pp. 879–891, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.22.4.879.Google Scholar
Pezzul, G. and Cise, P. (2016), “Navigating the Affordance Landscape: Feedback Control as a Process Model of Behavior and Cognition”, Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Elsevier Ltd, Vol. 20 No. 6, pp. 414–424, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.03.013.Google Scholar
Plumer, J.M., Kearne, J.K. and Creme, J.F. (2004), “Children's perception of gap affordances: Bicycling across traffic-filled intersections in an immersive virtual environment”, Child Development, Vol. 75 No. 4, pp. 1243–1253, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.2004.00736.x.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ricci, G.E. and Stoffrege, T.A. (1988), “Affordances as constraints on the control of stance”, Human Movement Science, Vol. 7 No. 2–4, pp. 265–300, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/0167-9457(88)90014-0.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rietvel, E. and Kiverstei, J. (2014), “A Rich Landscape of Affordances”, Ecological Psychology, Routledge, Vol. 26 No. 4, pp. 325–352, https://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10407413.2014.958035.Google Scholar
Sandsete, E.B.H. (2009), “Affordances for risky play in preschool: The importance of features in the play environment”, Early Childhood Education Journal, Vol. 36 No. 5, pp. 439–446, https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10643-009-0307-2.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sartor, L., Straulin, E. and Castiell, U. (2011), “How objects are grasped: The interplay between affordances and end-goals”, PLoS ONE, Vol. 6 No. 9, https://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0025203.Google Scholar
Scarantin, A. (2003), “Affordances Explained”, Philosophy of Science, Vol. 70 No. 5, pp. 949–961, https://dx.doi.org/10.1086/377380.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stoffrege, T.A. (2003), “Affordances as Properties of the Animal-Environment System”, Ecological Psychology, Lawrence Erlbaum Associates Inc., Vol. 15 No. 2, pp. 115–134, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/S15326969ECO1502_2.Google Scholar
Stoffrege, T.A., Gorda, K.M., Shen, Y.-Y. and Flyn, S.B. (1999), “Perceiving affordances for another person's actions”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, American Psychological Association Inc., Vol. 25 No. 1, pp. 120–136, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.25.1.120.Google Scholar
Tippe, S.P., Pau, M.A. and Haye, A.E. (2006), “Vision-for-action: The effects of object property discrimination and action state on affordance compatibility effects”, Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, Psychonomic Society Inc., Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 493–498, https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03193875.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turve, M.T. (1992), “Affordances and Prospective Control: An Outline of the Ontology”, Ecological Psychology, Vol. 4 No. 3, pp. 173–187, https://dx.doi.org/10.1207/s15326969eco0403_3.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Turve, M.T., Shockle, K. and Carell, C. (1999), “Affordance, proper function, and the physical basis of perceived heaviness”, Cognition, Vol. 73 No. 2, pp. B17–B26, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/S0010-0277(99)00050-5.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Warren, W.H. Jr. and Whang, S. (1987), “Visual Guidance of Walking Through Apertures: Body-Scaled Information for Affordances”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 13 No. 3, pp. 371–383, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.13.3.371.Google ScholarPubMed
Warre, W.H. (1984), “Perceiving affordances: Visual guidance of stair climbing”, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Vol. 10 No. 5, pp. 683–703, https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0096-1523.10.5.683.Google Scholar
Withage, R., de Poe, H.J., Araúj, D. and Peppin, G.-J. (2012), “Affordances can invite behavior: Reconsidering the relationship between affordances and agency”, New Ideas in Psychology, Vol. 30 No. 2, pp. 250–258, https://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.newideapsych.2011.12.003.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wrag, M. (1999), “The role of eye height in perceiving affordances and object dimensions”, Perception and Psychophysics, Psychonomic Society Inc., Vol. 61 No. 3, pp. 490–507, https://dx.doi.org/10.3758/BF03211968.Google Scholar
Yona, A. and Hartma, B. (1993), “Perceiving the Affordance of Contact in Fourand Five-Month-Old Infants”, Child Development, Vol. 64 No. 1, pp. 298–308, https://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1467-8624.1993.tb02911.x.Google Scholar
Zhu, Y., Fath, A. and Fei-Fe, L. (2014), “Reasoning about object affordances in a knowledge base representation”, Lecture Notes in Computer Science, Vol. 8690 LNCS, pp. 408–424, https://dx.doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-10605-2_27.CrossRefGoogle Scholar