The theory developed by James J. Gibson in the mid-20th century, is a theory in the field of perceptual psychology that argues that sensory perception does not necessarily depend on complex mental processes of processing or interpreting information. Instead, the environment itself provides a person with direct and sufficient information for perception. Gibson believed that the eye (or the senses in general) receive rich patterns of visual or sensory information that are organized in such a way that a person can understand them directly, without having to construct complex mental representations. The basic concept of this theory is affordances, which are properties of objects or environments that show how they can be used or interacted with—for example, a chair that “invites” you to sit down, or a ladder that “invites” you to climb.