Introduction to the Ecological Approach to Visual Perception

The approaches to understanding visual perception that we discussed in the second part of this book rest on a common assumption that the function of perception is to provide us with awareness of the surrounding world. With our eyes open, we have an immediate impression of a solid world of surfaces, objects, and people, and of their shapes, movements, or identities. From the origins of thinking about visual perception through to modern vision science, the goal has been to understand how such impressions are obtained from a fluctuating pattern of light falling on the retina.