WHY DO THINGS LOOK AS THEY DO - SOME GIBSONIAN ANSWERS TO KOFFKA QUESTION

This article contributes to understanding the relation within Gibson’s perception theory between two questions that Gibson raised in the introductory paragraph of his final book, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception: (a) how we see how to do things and (b) why things look to us as they do (Koffka’s question). Although Gibson considered Koffka’s question to be a crucial test for any psychological theory of visual perceiving, Gibson did not explicitly defend his ecological approach with reference to Koffka’s question. Gibson’s entire final book is not, as some Gibsonians would suggest, Gibson’s answer to Koffka’s question. However, certain subsidiary parts of the book implicitly and almost explicitly suggest a place in Gibsonian perception theory for the phenomenal looks of things that we visually perceive. The present article considers some Gibsonian answers and reactions to Koffka’s question, and argues that the phenomenal looks of things play a crucial role in Gibson’s account of the visual control of locomotion. © 1991, Taylor & Francis Group, LLC. All rights reserved.