J.J. Gibson and the ecological approach to perception

The design of an office can affect productivity and work performance. Though social distraction (acoustic and visual distractions from other co-workers) certainly impacts performance, the effects of the spatial characteristics of the office environment per se are less known. We tested visual enclosure by simply adding a cubicle partition around a desk, and show in two studies that even this minor change improves perseverance, a central function underlying many job tasks. A third study suggests that this effect is likely caused by adjusting the allocation of mental effort depending on the environment, with larger spaces requiring a greater effort allocation. These findings suggest that environmental characteristics affect human performance by influencing the effort allocated to various tasks (effort allocation hypothesis) rather than by activating concepts related to enclosure (semantic priming). Overall, we suggest that visual enclosure in itself could be beneficial in tasks requiring perseverance.

Reid's criticism of the theory of ideas is regarded as his most important philosophical contribution, while his sensation — perception distinction is considered to be his most important psychological contribution. This is surprising since the sensation — perception distinction is one of the basic tenets of the traditional theory of ideas. In order to face this difficulty, I compare Reid's formulation of the sensation — perception distinction with the traditional approach. Contrary to the prevailing opinion, I show that the two formulations differ on essential issues. Consequently, Reid's criticism of the theory of ideas is compatible with his mature view of the sensation — perception distinction (Section I). Understanding Reid's stand in this matter enables us to discuss some features of his direct approach to perception (Section II), and to compare it to a recent psychological formulation of the direct approach as expressed in the Gibsonian, ecological approach (Section III). The discussion shows the relevance and importance of Reid's view for an adequate description of perception.