Ecologically scaled perception

![Figure][1] Throughout their respective, allied careers, James J. and Eleanor J. Gibson maintained that the received view of perception was incorrect. The traditional view holds that the human perceiver requires a cognitive apparatus to infer reality by making meaning out of ambiguous elementary sensations. Instead, the Gibsons argued that perception was direct and that events in the world lead to changes in perceptible patterns that uniquely specify the event that caused them. This perspective emphasizes that perceivers actively engage the world to learn more about its properties and to contribute to its changing structural character ([ 1 ][2]). In Coming to Our Senses: Perceiving Complexity to Avoid Catastrophes , psychologist Viki McCabe contends that recent disasters stem in great part from three related errors: rejection of the Gibsons' hypothesis; scant attention to the complex, dynamic structure of the environment; and setting aside perceptual evidence in favor of preconceived theories about how the world works. McCabe's argument rests on the Gibsonian view: Humans evolved in a complex, dynamic world and come prepared to detect higherorder structure, yet we often choose to focus on disembodied features from which to infer the truth. Somehow we have conflated perception-based observation and theoretical conceptions that are frequently based on mistaken premises. This can lead to disaster. Far-ranging examples abound. “At 9:54 a.m. on July 3, 1988, the U.S. Navy cruiser Vincennes mistakenly shot down Iran Air's Flight 655, killing all 290 people on board.” Apparently the radar on each of two vessels ( Vincennes and USS Sides ) showed an ascending plane larger than a fighter jet, but the Vincennes commander heeded his own beliefs and fired. ![Figure][1] Researchers atop sea ice and melt ponds in the Chukchi Sea (July 2011). CREDIT: ICESCAPE MISSION/COURTESY NASA EARTH OBSERVATORY To demonstrate the value of relying on perception, McCabe offers the rich observations that a skilled physical therapist uses to diagnose injured patients by watching them as they walk, get out of a car, open doors, or sit. The therapist attends to dynamic structural information that specifies the interaction of a system, in this case the human body with its joints, muscles, and tissues all working together to produce movement. A harder task for McCabe is to describe how preconceived theories lead to blunders in response to complex circumstances such as climate change or vacillations in economic markets, but she provides chilling illustrations. She argues that scientific theories are closer to direct perception: “Scientists confirm their theories through systematic observation, experimentation, and peer review, and … their results can, on occasion, come close to gaining the status of accepted fact.” Nonetheless, sometimes “our culture provides us with theories that distract us and obscure … information.” For example, Nobel laureate Barbara McClintock's genetic discoveries were initially discounted. Evidence that genes jump and make new connections flew in the face of conclusions about the immutability of DNA. Furthermore, and crucial to McCabe's thesis, McClintock's “direct perceptual methodology defied the widespread assumption that our senses and the data they access are suspect.” Denials of climate change reveal analogous behavior. McCabe's economic examples emphasize that the real world is a dynamic, nonlinear complex system, but attempts at simplification have led to catastrophes. For example, introduction of monoculture crops coupled with adoption of flat field farming is implicated in the Irish famine. McCabe claims that the sale of over-the-counter derivatives divorced from actual products and complex systems of trading goods and services led inexorably to economic collapse in 2008. Consistent with the Gibsonian approach is that we coevolved with and adapted to this world and that “our perceptions of the physical world carve out receptive pathways that create the interconnected neural structures in our brain. Each new perception amends these patterned channels and in doing so increases their range of responsiveness.” Consequently, if not led astray by convictions that we must interpret our sensations, perception becomes more veridical with time, with development, and, especially, with the information sentient beings provide. Our imitative, empathic responses to others' expressions yield comprehension of feelings and a highly tuned ability to understand others' intentions. One aspect missing from McCabe's book is discussion of the development during infancy of the ability to read the world, but she would agree with Eleanor Gibson: “man evolved as a seeker of information, not an intellectual pauper who must build something to believe in, because there would be no truth otherwise” ([ 2 ][3]). The major thesis of Coming to Our Senses is that, indeed, we are building something to believe in rather than perceiving the truth. By failing to trust our senses and reducing the complexity of dynamic systems, we overlook that we live in an “intact complex system that require[s] all of its components working together to sustain the whole.” In the Epilogue, McCabe returns to “the example set by the ice.” Media and politicians may debate whether climate change exists, but as glaciers disappear, the West Antarctic ice sheet disintegrates, and the effect of ice melt upends ecosystems, we must again attend to sensory data and the evidence provided by technological sensors to respond effectively. 1. [↵][4] 1. M. J. Braund , Kritike 2, 123 (2008). [OpenUrl][5] 2. [↵][6] 1. E. J. Gibson , An Odyssey in Learning and Perception (MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, 1991). [1]: pending:yes [2]: #ref-1 [3]: #ref-2 [4]: #xref-ref-1-1 "View reference 1 in text" [5]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DKritike%26rft.volume%253D2%26rft.spage%253D123%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [6]: #xref-ref-2-1 "View reference 2 in text"