J. J. Gibson’s “Ground Theory of Space Perception”

Abstract

J. J. Gibson's ground theory of space perception is contrasted with Descartes’ theory, which reduces all of space perception to the perception of distance and angular direction, relative to an abstract viewpoint. Instead, Gibson posits an embodied perceiver, grounded by gravity, in a stable layout of realistically textured, extended surfaces and more delimited objects supported by these surfaces. Gibson's concept of optical contact ties together this spatial layout, locating each surface relative to the others and specifying the position of each object by its location relative to its surface of support. His concept of surface texture—augmented by perspective structures such as the horizon—specifies the scale of objects and extents within this layout. And his concept of geographical slant provides surfaces with environment-centered orientations that remain stable as the perceiver moves around. Contact-specified locations on extended environmental surfaces may be the unattended primitives of the visual world, rather than egocentric or allocentric distances. The perception of such distances may best be understood using Gibson's concept of affordances. Distances may be perceived only as needed, bound through affordances to the particular actions that require them.

Effect of Pictorial Depth Cues on Illusory Spatial Depth of the Lin Family Garden

“…According to the study conducted by Sinai et al (1998), with the presence of a gap without the texture gradient, the subjects tend to overestimate the perceived distance. The authors further believe that the experiment results support the ground theory of space perception that the surface texture is used as the reference frame for laying out objects in three-dimensional environment, as proposed by J.J Gibson (Gibson, 1950;Sinai et al, 1998;Sedgwick, 2021). In addition, various studies also confirmed that the presence of a life-threatening environment can trigger the emotion of fear and increase the distance perception (Jackson, 2009;Stefanucci, Gagnon, Tompkins, & Bullock, 2012).…”

Can People Infer Distance in a 2D Scene Using the Visual Size and Position of an Object?

“…If they failed to consider the environment in the 2D scene as a life-size pathway but instead viewed it like a painting, then they would not have perceived it at the correct scale. The perceived size of an object is “driven from the underlying scale of the environment…within which individual objects are located” [ 39 ] (p. 15). Misperceiving the scale of the environment would result in misperceiving the size of an object, leading to inaccurate perceived distance.…”

Optic Flow: A History

“…Gibson responded to this challenge by formulating his ground theory of space perception (see Sedgwick, 2021 , for an extensive discussion), which he first described in a chapter that he wrote in collaboration with N.M. Glaser, a member of the Psychological Test Film Unit, and included in the extensive report he produced after the war on the work of his unit ( Gibson, 1947 , chap. 9).…”