Affordances, context and sociality

Affordances, i.e. the opportunity of actions offered by the environment, are one of the central research topics for the theoretical perspectives that view cognition as emerging from the interaction between the environment and the body. Being at the bridge between perception and action, affordances help to question a dichotomous view of perception and action. While Gibson’s view of affordances is mainly externalist, many contemporary approaches define affordances (and micro-affordances) as the product of long-term visuomotor associations in the brain. These studies have emphasized the fact that affordances are activated automatically, independently from the context and the previous intention to act: for example, affordances related to objects’ size would emerge even if the task does not require focusing on size. This emphasis on the automaticity of affordances has led to overlook their flexibility and contextual-dependency. In this contribution I will outline and discuss recent perspectives and evidence that reveal the flexibility and context-dependency of affordances, clarifying how they are modulated by the physical, cultural and social context. I will focus specifically on social affordances, i.e. on how perception of affordances might be influenced by the presence of multiple actors having different goals

Dynamics of Affordances and Implications for Design

Affordance is an important concept in HCI. There are various interpretations of affordances but it has been difficult to use this concept for design purposes. Often the treatment of affordances in the current HCI literature has been as a one-to-one relationship between a user and an artefact. According to our views, affordance is a dynamic, always emerging relationship between a human and his environment. We believe that the social and cultural contexts within which an artefact is situated affect the way in which the artefact is used. Using a Structuration Theory approach, we argue that affordances need also be treated at a much broader level, encompassing social and cultural aspects. We suggest that affordances should be seen at three levels: single user, organizational (or work group) and societal. Focusing on the organizational level affordances, we provide details of several important factors that affect the emergence of affordances

Affordance of garden towards restorative process of hospitalized children

This study investigates sense of affordance attains by hospitalized children participating in a pediatric-ward garden during their restoration in hospital. Affordances are the functional meanings generated when children play with the garden features, either alone or with peers. According to ecological perceptual psychology, the affordances are interrelated with stimulation and feedback when the children interact with the garden contents. The functional meanings of the garden can be seen in four different levels of affordances: potential, perceived, utilized and shaped affordances. The affordances generate movement through play and positive perceptual judgments such as attachment, affiliation, memory, bonding and affection toward the garden features. Responses from 31 patients, aged 6-12 years, are elicited by semi-structured interview. It is found that 84% (n=26) patients perceived and utilized the affordances of play equipment. However, less number of patients (52%; n=16) perceived the plant as significant element of the garden. This perception suggests the affordances of the play equipment are greater than the plant. Moreover, all patients recognized the affordances of microclimatic factors (rain, sunlight, temperature and wind). Thus through play participation with the garden elements afford the patients to increase their cognitive performances, improve performance tasks (i.e. play) and increased social performances. In healthcare delivery, these improvements are considered restoration. This seems to suggest that garden is an environmental intervention in affording hospitalized children to foster health recovery

Evaluating affordances of streams and rivers pertaining to children functioning in natural environment

This study evaluates the affordances of natural water bodies pertaining to functioning of children. Ten children, aged 4-12, were observed experiencing three streams and two rivers in tropical environment. A phenomenological approach yielded a dataset of the children’s behavioral responses derived from a behavioral mapping and an open-ended interview. The responses are physical movement and words and phrases of the children suggesting their preferences or dislikes toward the water settings. The data was analyzed in three stages, firstly, positive or negative affordances, secondly, a taxonomy affordance of children’s outdoor environment, and thirdly, level of affordances. The children experienced 78 positive affordances and only five negative ones. From the taxonomy, the water afforded 11 categories of environmental qualities in which the categories graspable/detached objects and water offered the most number of affordances, 16 and 15, respectively. Most of the children’s activities were performatory and exploratory types. The results suggest that children perceived the affordances of streams and rivers through physical, cognitive and social interactions. The children, therefore, perceived the water bodies as playscapes affording varieties of functional meanings

What are the affordances of information and communication technologies?

The paper examines the notion that Information and Communication Technologies (ICT) have affordances that epitomize the features of our late modern age (Giddens, 1991) and explores whether these affordances (Salomon, 1993, p. 51) can be used to facilitate particular approaches to educational practice. It argues that a clear articulation of these affordances would enable us to understand how these technologies can be most effectively used to support learning and teaching. We believe that any one affordance can be considered to have both positive and negative connotations and the paper draws on social and educational theory to provide an initial taxonomy of these affordances

In-service Initial Teacher Education in the Learning and Skills Sector in England: Integrating Course and Workplace Learning

The aim of the paper is to advance understanding of in-service learning and skills sector trainee teachers’ learning and propose ways of improving their learning. A conceptual framework is developed by extending Billett’s (International Journal of Educational Research 47:232–240, 2008) conceptualisation of workplace learning, as a relationally interdependent process between the opportunities workplaces afford for activities and interactions and how individuals engage with these, to a third base of participation, the affordances of the initial teacher education course. Hager and Hodkinson’s (British Educational Research Journal 35:619–638, 2009) metaphor of ‘learning as becoming’ is used to conceptualise the ways trainees reconstruct learning in a continuous transactional process of boundary crossing between course and workplace. The findings of six longitudinal case studies of trainees’ development, and evidence from other studies, illustrate the complex interrelationships between LSS workplace affordances, course affordances and trainee characteristics and the ways in which trainees reconstruct learning in each setting. The experience of teaching and interacting with learners, interactions with colleagues, and access to workplace resources and training are important workplace affordances for learning. However, some trainees have limited access to these affordances. Teaching observations, course activities and experiences as a learner are significant course affordances. Trainees’ beliefs, prior experiences and dispositions vary and significantly influence their engagement with course and workplace affordances. It is proposed that better integration of course and workplace learning through guided participation in an intentional workplace curriculum and attention to the ways trainees choose to engage with this, together with the use of practical theorising has the potential to improve trainee learning

Studying web 2.0 interactivity: a research framework and two case studies

With more than one third of the world’s population being online, the Internet has increasingly become part of modern living, giving rise to popular literature that often takes a teleological and celebratory perspective, heralding the Internet and Web 2.0 specifically, as an enabler of participation, democracy, and interactivity. However, one should not take these technological affordances of Web 2.0 for granted. This article applies an interaction framework to the analysis of two Web 2.0 websites viewed as spaces where interaction goes beyond the mere consultation and selection of content, i.e., as spaces supporting the (co)creation of content and value. The authors’ approach to interactivity seeks to describe websites in objective, structural terms as spaces of user, document, and website affordances. The framework also makes it possible to talk about the websites in subjective, functional terms, considering them as spaces of perceived inter-action, intra-action and outer-action affordances. Analysis finds that both websites provide numerous user, document, and website affordances that can serve as inter-action or social affordances

Affording Affordances

A striking feature of the latest version of Dennett’s ‘big picture’ of the evolution of life and mind is frequent reference to ‘affordances’. An affordance is, roughly, a possibility for action for a creature in an environment. Given more than one possibility for action, a good question is: what will the creature actually do? I argue that affordances pose a problem of selection, and that a good general solution to this problem of mind-design is to implement a system of preferences