ABSTRACT
Chronologically, the ecological accent developed in James J. Gibson’s mind before his ideal of a perceptual psychophysics lost its central significance. Before turning to Gibson’s original formulation of ecological optics and the question of how its genesis was related to an increased concern with the environment, some of the early substantive results of Gibson’s investigation of the environment are mentioned. The general picture that emerges in Gibson’s initial development of an ecology of perception is perception as an active epistemic accomplishment geared to survival in a structured and dynamic environment. Egon Brunswik’s proposal for a representative methodology in psychological research was also involved in Gibson’s amplified interest in the environment. Likewise, Brunswik, inasmuch as he viewed the psychology of perception from the viewpoint of evolution and functionalism, treated psychological problems as questions dealing with the modus operandi of adaptation and survival.
