Your professor says that our perception brings us into contact with the environment in order to interact with and adapt to it. this indicates that he holds a(n) view on perceptual development.

Ecological

Explanation:

According to the ecological view on perceptual development, the environment around individuals influence the way they perceive an information and develop a reasoning to address the problem around them. In the long run, this will influence the way they exercise their brain and the rate of their brain development.

For example.

Let's say that there are 2 children who grow up in completely different place.

One of them grow up in a tribe in the middle of a mountain, where technologies and resources are limite.

One of them grow up in a developed countries, accomodated by enough resources and information by the parents.

During their development period, the children who grow up in a developed countries are more likely to encounter problems that required higher level of reasoning compared to  those who grow up in environment with lack of resources. This will make the children who grow in a more developed countries tend to have higher brain capacity as they grow into adult.