Folk psychology takes perception and cognition to be two
distinct processes. It seems that when we perceive the world
we are engaged in one kind of activity and when we think about
it we are engaged in a different one. This conception underlies
various discussions within the cognitive sciences, such as on
the architecture and modularity of the mind, and the cognitive
penetrability of perception. But is the distinction justified? This
paper looks for an answer in two opposing paradigms in the
sciences of the mind: traditional cognitivism and ecological
psychology. Even though cognitivism is the dominant
paradigm, we argue that it has thus far failed to give a definite
account of the relation between perception and cognition, and
to support or to deny their separation. Ecological psychology,
on the other hand, rejects the distinction and integrates
cognition with perception. We discuss previous work within
the ecological view and sketch directions for future research.