The neglect of the environment by cognitive psychology.

Abstract

In 1955, Egon Brunswik presented a paper in which he argued that neglect of the environment and over emphasis of the organism was the major downfall of cognitive psychology. His critiques have largely been ignored and research is discussed that demonstrates the same organismic-asymmetry Brunswik detailed in 1955. This research is discussed in attribution terms since experimental psychologists make behavioral attributions. This organismic-asymmetry has resulted in a body of research that is guilty of the fundamental attribution error. Brunswik’s theory of representative design, proposed to address organismic-asymmetry, is discussed and contrasted with calls for ecological validity. Although calls for ecological validity are well intentioned, they lack any systematic theory of the environment and fall significantly short of Brunswik’s ideal.

Examination of gaze behaviors under in situ and video simulation task constraints reveals differences in information pickup for perception and action

“…Brunswik (1956) stressed that experimental stimuli should be sampled from the organism's natural environment to be representative of the population of stimuli to which the organism has adapted and to which empiricists wish to generalize findings. Complementary to the view of Brunswik (1956;see Araújo et al, 2007;Dunwoody, 2006;Vicente, 2003), Gibson's (1979) theory of direct perception in ecological psychology was explicit on the importance of studying animal-environment relations while emphasizing the theoretical significance of a reciprocal relationship between perception and action (see also Michaels & Carello, 1981;Warren, 2006). Gibson proposed that human behaviors are predicated on the perception of affordances (i.e., opportunities for action) offered by a set of environmental conditions relative to an In past work, Abernethy (1990) compared gaze behaviors of expert and novice squash players for in situ and video simulation conditions with performances measured using a verbal response.…”

Make 'em Laugh? The Mnemonic Effect of Humor in a Speech

“…In another study, Cowley (2005) found that observers of service encounters have a tendency to commit the FAE by attributing outcomes of encounters to dispositions of the service provid ers as opposed to situational restraints (such as a computer crash or a rush of customers). Dunwoody (2006) has even made the claim that the entire field of cognitive psychology is guilty of the FAE because of its asymmetric organismic focus and disregard of the environment in explaining behavior.…”

The acquisition of pedagogical expertise in dance : a constraints-led approach

“…Enghauser, 2003;Krasnow & Wilmerding, 2015;Mainwaring & Krasnow, 2010;Matt, 2003) and, as previously discussed, this view suggests that learning processes occur solely in individuals' minds, rather than through the individual's interaction with the environment where learning occurs (Dunwoody, 2006). This logic of separating the individual from the environment has been observed to have led to educational gaps in dance (Bailey & Pickard, 2010;Batson, 2008).…”

“…Therefore, traditional cognitive psychology theories can be considered limited in their ability to explain how skill learning occurs because this view is expressive of a separation between an individual's skill and the specific contexts in which she or he is skillful (Turvey & Shaw, 1995). Furthermore, cognitive psychology suggests that learning processes occur exclusively in individuals' minds, whereas from an ecological perspective learning occurs through the individual's interaction with the environment (Dunwoody, 2006).…”

“…In general, the literature on pedagogy has proposed many strategies to improve dance teachers' education, however, the large majority of these proposals were based on traditional information processing theory (Bailey & Pickard, 2010;Batson, 2008) and within the theoretical framework of cognitive psychology (Anderson, 1990). This latter approach can be viewed as limited because of its exclusive focus on the individual, neglecting important ecology-influencing behaviour (Dunwoody, 2006). In contrast, from an ecological perspective, it is important to understand how individuals under the influence of constraints are able to function effectively (Araújo, 2007).…”