The Routledge International Handbook of Ecological Psychology

1. Auflage 2026
ISBN: 978-1-032-81743-9
Verlag: Taylor & Francis Ltd

Buch, Englisch, 538 Seiten, Format (B × H): 174 mm x 246 mm

Reihe: Routledge International Handbooks

The Routledge International Handbook of Ecological Psychology provides the definitive international reference for understanding how humans perceive and control goal-directed behavior in everyday environments. This authoritative volume examines the rapidly expanding field that bridges perception, action, and environmental interaction across diverse real-world contexts.
The handbook comprehensively surveys theoretical developments, empirical evidence, and practical applications spanning laboratory research and real-world practice. It explores behavioral dynamics across multiple scales, examining both affordances that create behavioral opportunities and the perceptual information that guides behavioral control. Key domains include child development, rehabilitation, sports performance, artistic expression, diversity studies, and technological innovation. The volume establishes fundamental ecological psychology concepts while showcasing cutting-edge research on lawful perceptual control of everyday actions. Additionally, it maps emerging trends and contemporary debates, positioning new developments against established findings and theories to demonstrate how innovative ideas are challenging traditional viewpoints and advancing the field's theoretical landscape.
This handbook serves researchers, graduate students, and academics working in ecological psychology, cognitive science, and related disciplines. It provides essential reference material for those seeking comprehensive understanding of current scholarship and emerging developments in this rapidly evolving field.

Zielgruppe

Postgraduate and Undergraduate Advanced

Autoren/Hrsg.

Wagman, Jeffrey B.

Nonaka, Tetsushi

Segundo-Ortin, Miguel

Romero, Veronica

Fachgebiete

• Sozialwissenschaften Psychologie Allgemeine Psychologie Kognitionspsychologie
• Geisteswissenschaften Philosophie Moderne Philosophische Disziplinen Philosophie des Geistes, Neurophilosophie

Inhaltsverzeichnis

Contents. Contributors. Preface. Acknowledgements. Part One. Foundations of Ecological Psychology. Chapter 1. The Reciprocity of the Organism and the Environment. Chapter 2. Agency and Attention in the Ecological Approach: a Selective Review. Chapter 3. Specification and Direct Perception. Chapter 4 Dynamical Systems: Capturing the Information Essential to an Ecological Psychology. Part Two. The Meaningful Environment. Chapter 5. Affordances. Chapter 6. Psychological Ecology, Social Practices, and the Hierarchically Nested Structure of the Human Habitat. Chapter 7. Emotions: Centralizing affectivity in ecological thinking. Part Three. Information and Medium. Chapter 8. Ecological Optics and the Visual Control of Locomotion. Chapter 9. Specification of Affordances in the Global Array. Chapter 10. Dynamic Touch. Part Four. Perception and Cognition. Chapter 11. Ecologizing cognition: Remembering and Thinking as Lawful, Nested, and Emergent Relations in an Econiche. Chapter 12. Ecological Neuroscience. Chapter 13. A World of Minds: Ecological Psychology as a Framework for Comparative Cognition. Chapter 14. Physical Intelligence: Naturalizing Agency. Chapter 15. Multiscale Dynamics Might be Essential to Psychology: Promises, Challenges, and Real Possibilities. Part Five. Action: Controlling Encounters. Chapter 16. An Ecological Approach to Interpersonal Coordination. Chapter 17. Behavioral Dynamics of Pedestrians and Crowds. Part Six. Development and Learning. Chapter 18. An Ecological Perspective on How Play and Disability Impact Motor Adaptation Across the Lifespan. Chapter 19. Direct Learning: Information for Learning Lawfully Emerges From the Cycle of Perception and Action. Chapter 20. Developmental Ecological Neuroscience: Active Exploration for Increased Perceptual Differentiation. Part Seven. Sociality and Interactions. Chapter 21. Behavioral Dynamics: Capturing Our Ability to Coordinate Our Actions with Others. Chapter 22. Social Ecological Psychology and Interpersonal Coordination. Chapter 23. An Ecological Approach to Conversation. Chapter 24. An Ecological Approach to Human Interactivity and Language. Part Eight. Applications. Chapter 25. Rehabilitation in Light of Affordances: Engagement with Ecological Psychology to Support and Celebrate Individual's Unique Contexts and Abilities in Rehabilitation. Chapter 26. Performance, Learning and Expertise in Sport: An Ecological Dynamics Rationale. Chapter 27. Sensory Substitution From and Ecological Perspective. Index.

Über Autor(innen)

About the authors

Tetsushi Nonaka is Professor at Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, Kobe University, Japan. His research explores how humans learn to use affordances that shape everyday life. For his work on flexible action control in the body–environment system, he received the JSPS Prize in 2017.

Miguel Segundo-Ortin is a Ramón y Cajal Research Fellow at the University of Murcia. His research focuses on the philosophy of the cognitive sciences, with a focus on embodied cognition, ecological psychology, agency, and, more recently, comparative psychology. He is associated with the Minimal Intelligence Laboratory (MINT Lab), where he investigates the cognitive capacities of plants from an empirically informed philosophical perspective.

Veronica Romero is an assistant professor of Psychology at Colby College in Waterville, ME, USA. Her research focuses on interaction dynamics, specifically between dyads, in various situations. She is associated with the Davis institute for Artificial Intelligence at Colby College, where she completed a sabbatical fellowship in 2022-2023 during which her use of AI deepened. Her recent work is being funded through a National Science Foundation grant as part of the AI Research Institute on Interaction for AI Assistants (ARIA) between 2025 and 2030.

Jeffrey B. Wagman is a Professor of Psychology at Illinois State University, Normal, IL, USA. His research focuses on perception of affordances and perception by touch. He is the recipient of the Illinois State University College of Arts and Sciences Distinguished Lecturer Award, the Illinois State University Outstanding University Researcher Award, and a Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Invitation Fellowship for Research in Japan. He is a member of the Board of Directors of the International Society for Ecological Psychology, and an Associate Editor of the journal of Ecological Psychology