# Affordances > *Affordances* refer to the actionable possibilities that an environment offers to an organism, based on the organism's capabilities. Essentially, it describes how objects and features in the environment provide opportunities for interaction. SEE ALSO: [[Adaequatio (Adequateness)]], [[Requisite Variety]] ==This note is just a #seedling. More is coming to grow and connect it to the rest of the Field Guide.== Psychologist J.J. Gibson coined the term "affordances" to describe a complementary relationship between an animal and its environment. He suggested that the affordances offered by any environment will be relative to the nature and capacity of the animal within it. > "The *affordances* of the environment are what it *offers* the animal, what it *provides* or *furnishes*, either for good or ill. The verb *to afford* is found in the dictionary, the noun *affordance* is not. I have made it up. I mean by it something that refers to both the environment and the animal in a way that no existing term does. It implies the complementarity of the animal and the environment." (Gibston 1977) The *Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning* [defines the term](https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_369#:~:text=(n.),There%20is%20no%20middle%20ground.) more directly: > An *affordance* is an action possibility formed by the relationship between an agent and its environment (Gibson [1977](https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_369#ref-CR3_369 "Gibson, J. J. (1977). The theory of affordances. In R. Shaw & J. Bransford (Eds.), Perceiving, acting, and knowing (pp. 67–82). Hillsdale: Lawrence Erlbaum."), [1979](https://link.springer.com/referenceworkentry/10.1007/978-1-4419-1428-6_369#ref-CR4_369 "Gibson, J. J. (1979). The ecological approach to visual perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.")). For any combination of agent or environment, any given affordance either exists or does not exist. There is no middle ground. As one example, consider a hardcover book on the ground. It has fixed physical qualities as an object. But the *affordances* of that object depend entirely upon the qualities and capacities of the animal encountering it. To a small animal, like a mouse, the book offers a raised, flat surface for sitting upon. To curious and hungry animal, like a goat, it offers something to chew on. To an animal with opposable thumbs, it offers something to pick up and hold, throw, or use as a tool. And to an animal with a learned understanding of language and the written word, the same book offers meaningful narrative and knowledge (and also something to throw). --- ## Sources - Gibson, J.J. "The Theory of Affordances." In *Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing: Toward an Ecological Psychology*, edited by R. Shaw and J. Bransford, 67–82. Hillsdale, NJ: Erlbaum, 1977. - Nye, B.D., Silverman, B.G. "Affordance." In: Seel, N.M. (eds) *Encyclopedia of the Sciences of Learning*. Springer, Boston, MA, 2012. ## Tags (click to view related pages) #frameworks #seedling