Literature study: Affordances and Product Semantics

I decided to do more study about affordances and what they are because I stumbled upon a discussion about affordances and product semantics. I did not know what product semantics were and if this had anything to do with what I'm researching (how to use visual communication for affordances).
The following text are my insights in affordances and product semantics.

Sensory elements
Affordances are elements of an object (or environment, but I will be focusing on objects) that communicate possibilities for actions with this object that have been given through sensory elements.
The main sensory elements to communicate actions are tactile and kinematic senses.
The kinematic sense (kinestetic) is the feeling of movements in limbs, relating to sensations in muscles, tendons and joints.
The tactile sense is the skin as sense organ, including sensations of pressure, temperature and pain. This is a passive sense, since you don't need to move to use these senses.
The haptic sense is impressions conveyed by the kinematic and tactile senses (Revesz, 1950).

Example: Doorhandle
Visual exploration:
First impression tells us it is a handle which can open the door to allow passage. This is perhaps followed by an anticipation of how to grasp the handle.
Haptic exploration:
This first impression does not always tells us how the handle can be manipulated regarding to the amount of force, when to pull or even the amount of rotation required. That will require haptic exploration or some kind of visual guidance (mostly product semantics are used in this case)

Product semantics:
The study of the symbolic qualities of manmade forms in the cognitive and social context of their use and application of knowledge gained to objects of industrial design. Product semantics are cognitive, not perceived (Krippendorf and Butter 1984)

Affordances:
Gibson: Affordances, or clues in the environment that indicate possibilities for action, are perceived in a direct, immediate way with no sensory processing. (Buttons for pushing, knobs for turning, handles for pulling, levers for sliding, etc.) (Learning Theories Knowledgebase, 2010)

Environment: Buttons, switches, knobs
Affordances: Push-able, flip-able, rotate-able
Constraints: Buttons allows it only to be pushed, rotating it will not turn on the light bulb.
Feedback: Light of the bulb (action is succesfull or not), on or off, up or down or counterwise or clockwise.

Structure of affordances, Chemero 2003:
'Affordances are relations between the abilities of organisms and features of the environment (or object).'
Affords-X (feature, ability)
Example:
Affords-sitting (flat surface, butt and bendable legs)
If affordances are properties of the environment relative to an animal then we can state that we can design affordances in a toy, because they would be properties of the toy relative to a learner/player.
All the 'action possibilities' latent in the environment, objectively measurable and independent of the individual's ability to recognize them, but always in relation the the actor and therefore dependent on their capabilities.

Ecological psychology (Young, 2001):
The importance of the environmental or ecological niche in cognition, hence it considers cognition as situated. So:
'What and how' people think depends on the situation they found themselves in.
Micheal Young (2001): 'Affordances can be thought of as possibilities for action. Affordances are detected by a goal-driven agent as they move about in an 'information field' that results from the working of their senses in concert with their body movements.

The theory of affordances, James Gibson (1977)
When a user perceives the affordances clues from the appearance features of a product, the user can correctly and intuitively operate the product to complete the operating tasks without any exploration or specification.
The theory of affordances are what it offers the animal, what it provides or furnishes.
Exaple: if an object which has a rigid, level, flat and extended surface and it is about knee-high to human, then it affords sitting-on.
If a human can detect visual information of the five properties, the object can offer the affordance of sit-abillity to the human.


Conclusion:
The difference between affordances and products semantics is very clear:
Affordances is that what can be immediately understood based on perceived properties of an object. Affordances reflect possible relationships among actors and objects; they are properties of the world (Norman 1999)

Product semantics communicate an affordance by using symbols. They are not affordances theirselves, they are not interactive or tangible. Product semantics are based on conventions, they are arbitrary, artificial and learned.

So to make my research more clear, I say that with researching how visual design communicates affordances, I'm not talking about product semantics (using symbols and conventions to communicate affordances), but about the properties of an object, how these are perceived to come to an understanding of how the object can be used. I'm not interested in researching product semantics because I think that the challenge for designers should be in creating products where exploration is encouraged until skilled performance is possible (so don't put an icon on everything to tell how it works). Visual exploration is okay, but only with haptic exploration you can really learn to use a product (skilled performance).