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James Jerome Gibson (1904–1979) was an American psychologist, considered one of the most important 20th century psychologists in the field of visual perception.

Contents 1 Biographical information 2 Education 3 Positions 4 Main areas of interest 5 Funded grants 6 Honors 7 Editorial board/consulting editor 8 Association affiliations 9 See also 10 Publications 10.1 Books 10.2 Book Chapters 10.3 Papers 11 External links

[edit] Biographical information

[edit] Education

[edit] Positions

[edit] Main areas of interest

In his classic work The Perception of the Visual World (1950) he rejected the behaviorism then fashionable for a view based on his own experimental work, which pioneered the idea that animals 'sampled' information from the 'ambient' outside world. He also invented the word 'affordance': the interactive possibilities of a particular object or environment. This concept has been extremely influential in the field of design and ergonomics: see for example the work of Donald Norman 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 in the same way he had attacked behaviorism before. Gibson argued strongly in favour of 'direct realism' (as pioneered by the Scottish philosopher Thomas Reid), as opposed to cognitivist 'indirect realism'. He termed his new approach ecological psychology. He also rejected the information processing view of cognition. Gibson is increasingly influential on many contemporary movements in psychology, such as situated cognition.

[edit] Funded grants

[edit] Honors

[edit] Editorial board/consulting editor

[edit] Association affiliations

[edit] See also

[edit] Publications

[edit] Books

• Gibson, JJ (1950)The Perception of the Visual World
• Gibson, JJ (1979)The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception

[edit] Book Chapters

[edit] Papers

[edit] External links

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at J. J. Gibson. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.