Announcing - PDF document

1 Announcing a Special Issue in
Announcing a Special Issue in i - Perception. “ The ecological approach of James J. Gibson: 40 years later” Guest Editors: Hal Sedgwick, Barbara Gillam, Brian Rogers Submission due date: September 15, 2020 Paper types: original research reports, short reviews. Rationale for the Special Issue “ The ecological approach of James J. Gibson: 40 years later” James J. Gibson ’s book “The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception” was first published in 1979. It was the product of 30 years of his thinking about the nature of perception and it offered a radically different approach to our understanding of the senses and our perceptual systems. Traditional, indirect theories of perception have emphasised both the insufficiency of the information reaching ou r eyes and the need for ‘higher - level’ cognitive processes to reveal the meaning of the sensory input. In contrast, Gibson proposed a ‘direct’ theory of perception based on the richness of the sensory input that provides ‘affordances’ of what the world of fers us. In his first book “The Perception of the Visual World” published in 1950, Gibson emphasised the richness of the sensory input in the form of spatial gradients and optic flow. By 1966, when “The Senses considered as Perceptual Systems” was publis hed, his theoretical ideas had become much more radical. In that book, he rejected the idea of the ‘stimulus’ as the input to the perceptual system in favour of the idea of perceptual ‘information’. In addition, he rejected the idea of perception as a se parate system in favour of a ‘perceptual system’ that allows us to act (rather than simply perceive) the world. In his third book, published in the year of his death, Gibson outlined the most controversial of his ideas - that of ‘affordances’. Experime ntal studies over the last 40 years have helped to reveal the richness of the information that reaches our senses as well as t

2 he strong links between percepti
he strong links between perception and action but the focus of most empirical work in the field of perception has remained on perc eptual appearance and the ambiguity and insufficiency of sensory information. The aims of this special issue are twofold: first, to critically assess the concepts and ideas of Gibson’s ecological theory of perception and to see how they have changed and d eveloped over the last 40 years and second, to discuss and evaluate the results of empirical studies that have been influenced by his ecological approach. The Special Issue The ecological approach of James J. Gibson: 40 years later” is a follow up to the ECVP2019 Symposium that took place on 27th August 2019 at the University of Leuven, Belgium (https://kuleuvencongres.be/ecvp2019). The Special Issue will contain papers by the six contributors to that symposium - Bill Warren, Brian Rogers, Jim Todd, Hal Sedgwick, Barbara Gillam and Ken Nakayama - but the Call for Papers is also open to anyone working in the field of perception who wants to address either the underlying theoretical issues and problems of Gibson’s ecological approach t o the study of perception or the relevant research findings over the last 40 years.. We welcome your contributions to this Special Issue of i - Perception. Your submission will be peer - reviewed by experts in the related fields. If accepted, you will be exp ected to pay for the costs for open - access publication (see: https://uk.sagepub.com/en - gb/eur/i - perception/journal202441) . Brevity is encouraged; s tandard articles (12 or more pu blished pages) will be charged at £530 + VAT; shorter papers at £285 + VAT, and Short and Sweet papers (1200 word limit) at £210 + VAT. For further details concerning guidelines for authors see: https://uk.sagepub.com/en - gb/eur/i - perception/journal202441#submission - guidelines . Please feel free to contact us, if you require further information. Hal Sedgwick, Barbara Gillam and Brian Roger