Olgierd Borowiecki

Affordances face definitional chaos. Ecological psychologists disagree about their ontological status (dispositional properties vs. organism-environment relations) and about their processing mechanisms (direct perception vs. representational inference). The only characteristics researchers agree on are that affordances are organism-dependent and action-related, yet actions escape definitions across ecological psychology, philosophy, and neuroscience. After reviewing definitions of actions across these three fields, this article operationalises actions as observable movements varying systematically from exploratory (XPLR) to exploitative (XPLT). Behavioural evidence shows that movements become automated across training, with decreasing reaction times and reduced variability. Neural evidence reveals cortical and subcortical networks that correlate with the automation of movements with training. The movement spectrum accommodates both dispositional and relational ontologies by specifying how organism-dependence operates through neural reorganisation. Orthogonally, the XPLR-XPLT spectrum applied to movements at immediate timescales addresses the sensorimotor perception-movement loop. Whether this is direct or representational remains an open question. This work provides a mechanistic specification for organism-dependence compatible with competing camps.

Purpose: Traditional cognitive tasks isolate cognitive parameters but miss how cognition naturally operates. I argue that games can be used to study cognition as it unfolds in ecological settings. Methodology: Drawing from predictive coding and embodied cognition, I show that the very embodiment in the brain also works with tools and virtual tools. An avatar in a game is treated by the brain as a body part, such as a hand. Given this insight, I derive five design principles for games to reinstate ecological settings in virtual worlds: autonomous goal pursuit, embodied avatar control, consistent rules, continuous temporal flow, and complex environments. Results: Commercial games unintentionally include classic cognitive paradigms: racing games demand continuous visuomotor control that can't be accomplished through discrete trials; FIFA leverages executive functions beyond traditional working memory assessments. Main Contribution: Given findings of body schema and peripersonal spaces, and embodied mind and predictive coding frameworks, I provide methodological guidance for behavioural, physiological, and neural measurements during gameplay, offering researchers tools to assess cognition while preserving experimental rigour. Practical Implications: Beyond novel experimental designs that allow for the exploration of unaddressed neural processes, adopting ecological games has the potential to aid neurodegenerative and neurodiverse conditions.