A neologism devised by James J. Gibson (1904-1979). Defined as functional possibilities of an object or environmental layout relative to what an individual can do with respect to them. It involves two sorts of properties: objective properties (what something affords depends on its physical characteristics) and subjective properties (what something affords depends in addition on relevant characteristics of the perceiver, such as body size and action abilities). For example, whether a chair affords sitting for an infant will, in part, depend on the size and action capabilities of the infant relative to the height of the chair. The affordance concept derives directly from the concept of organism-mutualism. Accordingly, the same object will offer different affordances to different animals (see figure below).
