More than science: A systems approach inspired by Michael T. Turvey

Abstract

This year, we lost a giant in the field of perception and action, Michael T. Turvey. This special issue is dedicated to the impact that he made on his students and the field. I learned about ecological psychology just as I was headed to graduate school in 1990. Through Michael's teachings and my own academic career that followed, I recognized that the inseparability of organism and environment that was fundamental to ecological psychology was part of the larger story of a systems perspective that itself helped to frame questions of causality from Aristotle and the problematic division of subject and object inherited from Descartes. In this mini review, I identify fundamental concepts in systems science from an academic perspective, but I extend that same reasoning to life beyond science. Together with his wife, Claudia Carello, who was also the director of the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA) at the University of Connecticut, Michael taught, mentored, and cared for his students within the same systems framework. It is that broader lesson for how to teach and mentor students that I offer to honor his memory today.