TOEFL Speaking Task 3

The concept of 'affordance' in environmental psychology refers to the potential uses or actions that an object or environment offers to an individual, based on their physical capabilities and perceptual abilities. Affordances are not inherent properties of the object itself but arise from the relationship between the environment and the person. For example, a flat, sturdy surface affords sitting, but only if a person recognizes it as such and has the physical ability to sit. Thus, affordances are action possibilities that are both perceived and actualized by the user.

Professor: Let me illustrate affordance with a study. Researchers observed two groups of children in a playground. One group included children with typical motor skills, and the other included children with mobility impairments using wheelchairs. The playground had a low, wide wooden platform. For the typical children, the platform afforded climbing, jumping, and sitting—they used it in various ways. However, for children in wheelchairs, the platform did not afford sitting or climbing because its height and edge made it inaccessible from a wheelchair. Instead, they used the adjacent ramp to roll onto a flat grassy area, which afforded them a place to rest. So the same physical object offered different affordances depending on the user's physical capabilities. This shows that affordances aren't just about the object's features; they depend on who is interacting with it.