Commentary on the Development of Perception and Cognition
Eleanor J. Gibson · Psychology Press eBooks · 2019
Perceptual development is characterized by exploration and a search for invariants and affordances. As they are discovered, perception is differentiated and increasingly distinguished by embedded and superordinate structure. Perceptual learning does not require reinforcement as learning theories of the forties demanded; detecting the invariant, the order, the affordance in the event is itself reinforcing and the differentiation thus achieved is not lost. Differentiated perception” is not a “mode of perceiving” but a change in what is perceived. Order imposed by contingent relations in a task provides a structure that offers the opportunity for more economical processing, if it is picked up. Nested dimensions or potential “rule-giving” dimensions can reduce uncertainty; detection of such relations is of great utility.