ABSTRACT
We analyze the concept of “affordance” in ecological psychology and the concept of “Turing machine” drawn from computation. We propose that Turing’s theory of computation supports Gibson’s ecological theory of affordances as entities perceived directly—without invoking representations—as the configurations of Turing machines. Our arguments draw on the compelling reinterpretation of the Turing machine by Andrew Wells. Further, we link affordances with the discovery by Graziano and colleagues of ethological action maps in the motor cortex, which can be understood as neurophysiological attunement to affordances. Thus, affordances and the accompanying theory of direct perception are compatible with the contemporary understanding of the organization of the mammalian brain and with the contemporary understanding of computation by an active agent without recourse to representation. The concept of affordance can provide a powerful guide for work linking neural functioning with organismal behavior.
