James Jerome Gibson was an American

United States

The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 psychologist

Psychologist

Psychologist is a professional or academic title used by individuals who are either:* Clinical professionals who work with patients in a variety of therapeutic contexts .* Scientists conducting psychological research or teaching psychology in a college...

, born in McConnelsville, Ohio

McConnelsville, Ohio

McConnelsville is a village in Morgan County, Ohio, United States. The population was 1,676 at the 2000 census. It is the county seat of Morgan County. As of October 19 2011, the mayor is John Walter Finley.-Geography:...

, who received his Ph.D. from Princeton University

Princeton University

Princeton University is a private research university located in Princeton, New Jersey, United States. The school is one of the eight universities of the Ivy League, and is one of the nine Colonial Colleges founded before the American Revolution....

's Department of Psychology

Princeton University Department of Psychology

The Princeton University Department of Psychology, located in Green Hall, is an academic department of Princeton University on the corner of Washington St. and William St. in Princeton, New Jersey. For over a century, the department has been one of the most notable psychology departments in the...

, and is considered one of the most important 20th century psychologists in the field of visual perception

Visual perception

Visual perception is the ability to interpret information and surroundings from the effects of visible light reaching the eye. The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight, or vision...

. In his classic work The Perception of the Visual World (1950) he rejected the fashionable behaviorism

Behaviorism

Behaviorism , also called the learning perspective , is a philosophy of psychology based on the proposition that all things that organisms do—including acting, thinking, and feeling—can and should be regarded as behaviors, and that psychological disorders are best treated by altering behavior...

 for a view based on his own experimental work, which pioneered the idea that animals 'sampled' information from the 'ambient' outside world. He also coined the term 'affordance

Affordance

An affordance is a quality of an object, or an environment, which allows an individual to perform an action. For example, a knob affords twisting, and perhaps pushing, while a cord affords pulling...

', which refers to the opportunities for action provided by a particular object or environment. This concept has been extremely influential in the field of design

Design

Design as a noun informally refers to a plan or convention for the construction of an object or a system while “to design” refers to making this plan...

 and ergonomics

Ergonomics

Ergonomics is the study of designing equipment and devices that fit the human body, its movements, and its cognitive abilities.The International Ergonomics Association defines ergonomics as follows:...

: see for example the work of Donald Norman

Donald Norman

Donald Arthur Norman is an academic in the field of cognitive science, design and usability engineering and a co-founder and consultant with the Nielsen Norman Group. He is the author of the book The Design of Everyday Things....

 who worked with Gibson, and has adapted many of his ideas for his own theories.

In his later work (such as, for example, The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979)), Gibson became more philosophical and criticised cognitivism

Cognitivism (psychology)

In psychology, cognitivism is a theoretical framework for understanding the mind that came into usage in the 1950s. The movement was a response to behaviorism, which cognitivists said neglected to explain cognition...

 in the same way he had attacked behaviorism before. Gibson argued strongly in favour of direct perception and direct realism (as pioneered by the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid

Thomas Reid

The Reverend Thomas Reid FRSE , was a religiously trained Scottish philosopher, and a contemporary of David Hume, was the founder of the Scottish School of Common Sense, and played an integral role in the Scottish Enlightenment...

), as opposed to cognitivist indirect realism. He termed his new approach ecological psychology

Ecological psychology

Ecological psychology is a term claimed by a number of schools of psychology. However, the two main ones are one on the writings of James J. Gibson, and another on the work of Roger G. Barker, Herb Wright and associates at the University of Kansas in Lawrence...

. He also rejected the information processing

Information processing

Information processing is the change of information in any manner detectable by an observer. As such, it is a process which describes everything which happens in the universe, from the falling of a rock to the printing of a text file from a digital computer system...

 view of cognition. Gibson is increasingly influential on many contemporary movements in psychology

Psychology

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...

, particularly those considered to be post-cognitivist.

I seem to be, to my surprise, a member of a large profession. There are some 20.000 psychologists in this country alone, nearly all of whom have become so in my adult lifetime. They are all prosperous. Most of them seem to be busily applying psychology to problems of life and personality. They seem to feel, many of them, that all we need to do is to consolidate our scientific gains. Their self-confidence astonishes me. For these gains seem to me puny, and scientific psychology seems to me ill-founded. At any time the whole psychological applecart might be upset. Let them beware!

Gibson died in Ithaca, New York

Ithaca, New York

The city of Ithaca, is a city in upstate New York and the county seat of Tompkins County, as well as the largest community in the Ithaca-Tompkins County metropolitan area...

. He was married to fellow psychologist Eleanor J Gibson.

Publications

• Gibson, J.J. & Gibson, E. (1955). Perceptual learning: differentiation or enrichment? Psyc. Rev., 62, 32-41.

• Gibson, J.J. (1950). The Perception of the Visual World. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

• Gibson, J.J. (1960). The Concept of the Stimulus in Psychology. The American Psychologist 15/1960, 694-703.

• Gibson, J.J. (1966). The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems. Boston: Houghton Mifflin. ISBN 0313239614

• Gibson, J.J. (1972). A Theory of Direct Visual Perception. In J. Royce, W. Rozenboom (Eds.). The Psychology of Knowing. New York: Gordon & Breach.

• Gibson, J.J. (1977). The Theory of Affordances (pp. 67-82). In R. Shaw & J. Bransford (Eds.). Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing: Toward an Ecological Psychology. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.

• Gibson, J.J. (1979). The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.ISBN 0898599598 (1986)

• Gibson, J.J. (1982). Reasons for Realism: Selected essays of James J. Gibson, E. Reed & R. Jones (Eds.). Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum. ISBN 978-0898592078

External links

• Key JJG resources at: International Society for Ecological Psychology (ISEP)

• Major centre for direct perception research: Centre for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA)
• The Gombrich/Gibson Dispute

• Donald Norman: Affordance, Conventions and Design