Abstract

Ecological psychology has been criticized for ignoring the brain in its theory formation. In recent years, however, a number of researchers have started asking ecologically-inspired questions about the ways in which not only the embodied activity of the organism in its environment, but also the particulars of the organism's nervous system matter. This work has typically appeared in neuroscience journals, thereby potentially escaping the attention of ecological psychologists. The current article introduces a Special Issue of Ecological Psychology that aims to correct this problem. This issue brings together one empirical and six theoretical articles that develop ideas about the contributions of the nervous system to perception-action. We briefly review each of the articles, identify common themes, and point out the surprising variety in theoretical positions. It is hoped that this Special Issue will help guide discussions amongst ecological psychologists and (ecological) neuroscientists as they confront the question “What should a ‘Gibsonian neuroscience’ look like?”

摘要

人们批评生态心理学忽视了大脑的理论形成。但是，近年来，许多研究人员已经开始就有关生物不仅在其环境中体现的活动，而且还与生物的神经系统有关的方式产生生态启发性的问题。这项工作通常出现在神经科学期刊上，从而有可能逃避生态心理学家的关注。本文介绍了生态心理学的特刊旨在纠正此问题。这个问题汇集了一篇关于经验的文章和六篇理论文章，它们提出了关于神经系统对知觉行为的贡献的观点。我们简要回顾了每篇文章，确定了共同的主题，并指出了理论立场令人惊讶的多样性。希望本期特刊将有助于指导生态心理学家和（生态）神经科学家之间的讨论，因为他们面临的问题是“吉普森人的神经科学应该是什么样？”