ABSTRACT

Inspired by the work of James Gibson (1979), a number of investigators focused their attention on the geometric relation between actor and environment in order to work on a solution of how actors visually guide their activities in a cluttered environment (e.g., Mark, 1987; Mark & Vogele, 1987; Pufall & Dunbar, 1992; Warren, 1984; Warren & Whang, 1987). The general rationale behind the studies is that, if actions are guided by perceiving affordances, the actor must be able to perceive the relation between the environmental properties and the properties of the observers ‘ action system. One of the conclusions of the above mentioned studies is that subjects are quite accurate in perceiving relatively ordinary action possibilities (passing apertures, Stepping onto and over obstacles, sitting).