First paragraph: Gibson's, 1979 concept of affordances had a major impact on psychology and neuroscience. The term denotes the actions that the environment makes possible—“affords”—for the organism in a situation: that this chair may be sat on, that this ball could be thrown about this far, and that this vase might break if not handled carefully. In Gibson's original formulation organisms would “directly perceive” those affordances that are relevant to them, given their current action capabilities, allowing them to carry out those most in their line with their goals.