affordance calibration

Compiled with AI assistance and selectively reviewed. Please consult the cited passages; the books remain the authoritative source. About this companion

Editorial synthesis · provisional

Definition

Affordance calibration is the learned adjustment of perceived action possibilities to an organism’s actual present capacities. RB2 describes retuning after changes in posture, morphology, tools and skills, including the transition from crawling to walking. Calibration concerns the fit of judgment to ability; it differs from learning which informational cues to attend to and never guarantees immediate transfer.

Explanation

Adolph’s infant example reports accurate crawling judgments failing to transfer immediately to newly acquired walking. The surroundings can remain similar while posture and balance change what is possible. The need for fresh practice is part of the source result rather than a defect erased by calling ecological perception direct.

Tool and assistive-device examples extend the principle to changed practical reach and action organization. Practice can make previously unavailable possibilities usable, but an acquired device does not instantly confer calibrated skill. These illustrations identify embodied learning, not a clinical recommendation or a guarantee about every individual’s rehabilitation.

The local distinction separates education of attention, selecting useful cues, from calibration, matching perceived affordances to actual abilities. Adult vehicle control and direct learning supply related cases of feedback-guided refinement. The proposed entry preserves fallibility and renewed adjustment whenever relevant conditions change rather than claiming a once-for-all internal map.

Scope and attribution

Retain developmental specificity and correction through practice; do not infer therapeutic outcomes.

RB2 — The Real Book, Volume II: Becoming Is Being

Calibration retunes perception to current abilities and does not automatically transfer between locomotor modes.

Occurrence locators: 72, 73, 74, 165.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Calibration is distinguished from general scientific measurement and generic adjustment.