Events (Like Objects) Are Things, Can Have Affordance Properties, and Can Be Perceived

Abstract

Stoffregen (target article, this issue) argues that events and affordances are qualitatively distinct properties; that affordances are animal and observer referential, whereas events are not; and that only affordances are perceived and events are not. In this commentary, I argue to the contrary-that events are perceived as well as affordances and that animals do not perceive disembodied properties anymore than they could perceive propertyless things. I argue that events are not properties but are substantial, spatiotemporal things that have properties. Events can exhibit affordances that must vary in scope to support the perceptually guided temporal evolution of behaviors.