Yeah—as far as I know, ecological psychology is less about messing with undergrads in the lab and more about understanding how the constraints of the body and environment inform and enable what were historically thought to be “purely mental” activities. The empirical usefulness of ecological psychology is evident in how ideas from it helps us build robots that walk and grasp and so on.
There’s quite a lot to say about this, of course. I’d be willing to write some posts about it, but I don’t have a lot of time I’m able to commit to doing so, and I think it would take a lot of work. But it’d be interesting, so we’ll see.
Yeah—as far as I know, ecological psychology is less about messing with undergrads in the lab and more about understanding how the constraints of the body and environment inform and enable what were historically thought to be “purely mental” activities. The empirical usefulness of ecological psychology is evident in how ideas from it helps us build robots that walk and grasp and so on.
Could you say more about this?
Yes—didn’t see this comment. Basically, researchers have found ways to build robots that move like people, and ecological psychology is the framework that best helps us understand how to make sense of this in terms of what the brain does. Here’s an example.
There’s quite a lot to say about this, of course. I’d be willing to write some posts about it, but I don’t have a lot of time I’m able to commit to doing so, and I think it would take a lot of work. But it’d be interesting, so we’ll see.