功能可供性（affordance）

概念

功能可供性（affordance）认为人知觉到的内容是事物提供的行为可能而不是事物的性质，而事物提供的这种行为可能就被称为可供性。简单来说，“这个东西能干啥”。中文维基翻译为“承担特质/环境赋使”，但翻译成“能供性”会比较易于了解。

应用领域

人机交互、人工智能、科技与社会、认知心理学、传播学、工业设计等

起源

美国心理学家詹姆斯·吉布森（James Jerome Gibson）于1977年最早提出功能可供性的概念。吉布森认为，可供性是独立于人的物体的属性，但与每个人的能力又密切相关。1998年，认知科学家唐纳德·诺曼（Donald Arthur Norman）将可供性的概念运用到人机交互（RHI）领域，相较于吉布森，诺曼更强调一定情境下可以被知觉到的可供性（perceived affordance）的意义，它不但与个人的实际能力有关，还将受到心理的影响。

英文维基解释的更为全面https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affordance

An affordance is a relation between an object or an environment and an organism that, through a collection ofstimuli, affords the opportunity for that organism to perform an action.[1][2] For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling. As a relation, an affordance exhibits the possibility of some action, and is not aproperty of either an organism or its environment alone.[3][4]

Different definitions of the term have developed. The original definition described all actions that are physically possible. This was later adapted to describe action possibilities of which an actor is aware. Some define affordance as a potential resource for some (not a particular) organism or species of organism, and so while inviting the possible engagement of some species, not identified with any particular one.[5][6] The term has further evolved for use in the context of human–computer interaction (HCI) to indicate the easy discoverability of possible actions.

As action possibilities
Psychologist James J. Gibson originally introduced the term in his 1977 article “The Theory of Affordances”[7] and explored it more fully in his book The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception[8] in 1979. He defined affordances as all “action possibilities” latent in the environment, objectively measurable and independent of the individual’s ability to recognize them, but always in relation to agents and therefore dependent on their capabilities. For instance, a set of steps which rises four feet high does not afford the act of climbing if the actor is a crawling infant. Gibson’s is the prevalent definition in cognitive psychology.