affordance competition hypothesis

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

The affordance competition hypothesis is Cisek’s proposal that multiple currently possible actions are represented in frontoparietal systems and compete for selection. RB2 uses it to connect ecological possibilities with continuous neural evaluation. The entry preserves the status of a hypothesis and the specific action-selection role, without presenting one brief account as settled neuroscience or a complete explanation of conscious decision-making.

Explanation

The direct passage describes a landscape of potential actions afforded by the current environment. Selection occurs among possibilities rather than beginning from an isolated abstract choice with no bodily context. Cisek remains the named theoretical source; the adjacent native reference supplies provenance rather than independent experimental confirmation by this review.

The preceding ecological-dynamics discussion emphasizes task and environmental constraints on skilled performance. That provides a comparative setting for the neural hypothesis, not evidence that ecological coordination and frontoparietal competition are identical mechanisms or that every ecological theory depends on this one neural model.

RB2 then presents ecological, enactive and phenomenological approaches in parallel, preserving differences in their philosophical commitments. The proposed subentry accordingly limits itself to simultaneous action possibilities and selection. It specifies no unique circuit map, competition equation, measured probability or claim that all conscious content reduces to competing motor plans.

Scope and attribution

Preserve hypothesis status and bibliographic provenance without inventing measurements.

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

Cisek’s hypothesis connects possible actions and neural selection without establishing a settled complete model.

Occurrence locators: 78.

Background used in the editorial explanation

Cisek’s neural hypothesis is distinguished from sports constraints and general coordination dynamics.