James J. Gibson: An appreciation.

J. J. Gibson (see PA, Vol 29:5103; see also PA, Vol 81:28168) conceived of a perceptual psychology very different from that taken by mainstream research work in vision over the past 30 yrs. Placing psychology in a biological and physical context and avoiding traditional disciplinary definitions, Gibson outlined a physics relevant to animate life. From this flowed his theory of affordances, his preoccupation with surfaces, and his interest in animal locomotion. Visual motion played a decisive role in rounding out these views. His work here was prophetic, anticipating neurophysiological discoveries on motion sensitivity and directly inspiring more recent studies on higher order aspects of motion encoding. Gibson scrupulously avoided mention of internal representation. Yet, those researchers interested in such internal processes remain deeply indebted to his enduring contributions. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: James J. Gibson (1904-1979).

Presents the obituary of James J. Gibson (1904-1979). Gibson was a perception psychologist who was also the creator and leader of an epistemological movement. His claim that perception is direct, requiring no inferential steps and no processing of information, presents a radical alternative to prevailing views of the nature of knowledge. Gibson's life and career are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

A reply to Mace and Pittenger on "Directly perceiving Gibson".

A reply to Mace and Pittenger on "Directly Perceiving Gibson" (see record 2005-09162-001). W. M. Mace and J. B. Pittenger address themselves to a false issue when they argue that J. J. Gibson has both a theory of stimulus structure and a theory of attention. The point of the 1972 article by J. W. Gyr is that these two theories are not as well integrated as they might be or as integrated as Gibson intended them to be. Moreover, a point also stressed by Gyr and overlooked by Mace and Pittenger is that Gibson's findings of stimulus structure are also consistent with theories that are not theories of direct visual perception, and therefore such findings by themselves cannot be used to support Gibson's theory. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological reactions of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke.

Comments on the article by Gibson (see record 1995-13278-001), which examined the psychological aspects of smoker-nonsmoker interaction. The current author adds two comments that he hopes will strengthen the positive impact of Gibson's papers. First, it is unlikely that laws and policies that provide for "nonsmoking" sections in public places will solve the problem by themselves. Second, the literature on the psychological reactions of nonsmokers to secondhand smoke reviewed by Gibson understates the psychological effects, including anger felt toward nearby smokers that is equal to the anger that anyone would feel against a person who assaults them. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Contribution Awards: 1961.

Distinguished Scientific Contribution Awards of the APA were presented to James Jerome Gibson, Donald Olding Hebb, and Henry Alexander Murray. The formal citation accompanying the award, a photograph, a brief professional biography, and a bibliography of scientific publications are included for each award recipient. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Ralph M. Gibson (1923-2001).

Memorializes R. M. Gibson, an experimental and clinical psychologist, who was an African American pioneer as a professor at the University of Michigan. He also pioneered the role of the psychologist in pediatric care. Under his leadership, the first pediatric psychology section in a department of pediatrics was established. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Cognitive maps not used by humans (Homo sapiens) during a dynamic navigational task.

To account for the impressive navigational ability of animals, some researchers have suggested that animals might use a cognitive map. Two groups of human participants (Homo sapiens) were tested for cognitive mapping using procedures similar to those used by B. M. Gibson and A. C. Kamil (2001). Participants who had to acquire spatial information about a hidden goal from the experimental contingencies alone showed patterns of search most like nutcrackers in the companion study (B. M. Gibson & A. C. Karnil, 2001). Surprisingly, postexperimental questionnaires revealed that most participants used an alternative strategy of vector integration rather than cognitive mapping during search for the hidden goal. The current study and its companion indicate that some simpler mechanisms of navigation are flexible enough to account for what appears to be map-based behavior in human and nonhuman species. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Psychological science gold medal award: Eleanor J. Gibson.

The Gold Medal Awards, which include a check for $2,000 and a gold medallion, are given to American psychologists who are 65 years of age or older and residents of North America in recognition of a distinguished and long-continued record of accomplishments in three individual areas: professional, scientific, and public interest. This article provides a citation and a biography for Eleanor J. Gibson, the 1986 Psychological Science Gold Medal Award winner. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Directly perceiving Gibson: A further reply to Gyr.

In his 1972 critique of direct theories of perception, J. W. Gyr argued from the view that Gibson believes (a) that stimulus structure can determine perception and (b) that perceiving as a consequence of voluntary activity is virtually the same as perception that is not a consequence of voluntary activity. Since neither of these assumptions is found in Gibson's approach, Gyr's criticisms do not seem to apply. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Distinguished Scientific Contribution Awards: 1968.

Presents the Awards for Distinguished Scientific Contribution, given by the American Psychological Association at the annual convention. The 1968 award recipients are James E. Birren (behavioral gerontology), Eleanor J. Gibson (perceptual learning and development) and Muzafer Sherif (interpresonal behavior and psychophysics). Included for each recipient are the citation text, biography and bibliography of scientific publications. The recipients for 1956 through 1967 are listed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Effects of similarity and experience on discrimination learning: A nonassociative connectionist model of perceptual learning.

This article describes a novel connectionist model of perceptual learning (PL) that provides a mechanism for nonassociative differentiation (J. J. Gibson & E. J. Gibson, 1955). The model begins with the assumption that 2 processes—1 that decreases associability and 1 that increases discriminability—operate during preexposure (S. Channell & G. Hall, 1981). In contrast to other models (e.g., I. P. L. McLaren, H. Kaye, & N. J. Mackintosh, 1989), in the current model the mechanisms for these processes are compatible with a configural model of associative learning. A set of simulations demonstrates that the present model can account for critical PL phenomena such as exposure learning and effects of similarity on discrimination. It is also shown that the model can explain the paradoxical result that preexposure to stimuli can either facilitate or impair subsequent discrimination learning. Predictions made by the model are discussed in relation to extant theories of PL. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Educational Implications of Gibson's Findings.

Comments on the original article by J. J. Gibson (see record 1964-01710-001) which postulated that the useful dimensions of sensitivity are those that specify the environment and the observer's reaction to the environment. The author notes that much of the new educational technology uses flat pictures and symbols, and argues that three-dimensional color photography, perhaps with motion and sound, might serve teaching better than some of the new devices. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Confrontation Vurpillot-Gibson: Recension du Livre de Monde Visuel du Jeune Enfant par Elaine Vurpillot.

Reviews the book, The Visual World of the Child by Elaine Vurpillot (1972). By reading this work in which Vurpillot approaches, by the genetic method, the problem of the perceptive conduits of identification and differentiation, it is difficult to envision a confrontation between this new approach and that of Eleanor Gibson (1969). It is done from a point of view of comparison which the work of Vurpillot will be analyzed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Visual attention and objects: Two-object cost with equal convexity.

Ss found perceptual judgments of location involving 2 objects to be harder than equivalent judgments involving a single object. This 2-object cost is in agreement with G. C. Baylis and J. Driver (1993). This occurred even when there was no difference in the degree of convexity of the single- and 2-object displays. Thus, parsing differences due to the degree of convexity of the displays (B. Gibson, 1994) cannot account for the present 2-object cost. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Obituary: Richard D. Walk (1920-1999).

Memorializes Richard D. Walk, known for his work with Eleanor Gibson on the visual cliff and the development of depth perception. His research interests and contributions were diverse and included visual discrimination, research on concept formation, aesthetics, and social relations. He is best known for his work on perceptual development, and his 1981 book Perceptual Development still provides an excellent introduction and guide to the field. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Eleanor J. Gibson: Learning to perceive and perceiving to learn.

E. Gibson essentially defined the domain of perceptual learning, which includes both improvement in perception as a function of experience and learning and acquisition of knowledge as a function of changes in perception. In her view, differentiation, as opposed to association, is the process underlying perceptual development as well as perceptual learning. She considered perceptual development to be an important aspect of cognitive development. To a considerable degree, children's acquisition of knowledge and their increasingly complex conceptual sophistication can be attributed to their ability to detect more and more meaningful aspects of the rich stimulation impinging on them. This theoretical analysis was instantiated in empirical research on a wide range of topics. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Children's detection of on-face and off-face gazes.

Assessed the accurate detection of gaze direction for 24 6-yr-old boys in 2 groups, using an on-face vs off-face gaze detection task. Compared to adults in a prior study (J. J. Gibson and A. D. Pick, 1963) who were tested with an on-face vs off-face detection task, and compared to children and adults in a prior study (C. Lord, 1974) who were tested with only an on-face detection task, these children were less accurate at detecting deviations from direct eye contact from an adult as well as a child peer. Discussion focuses on the functional equivalence of various degrees of off-face gazing and eye contact for young children. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

How independent are parallel memory systems? A theoretical comment on Gibson and Shettleworth (2005).

Using only behavioral manipulations, B. M. Gibson and S. J. Shettleworth (2005) (see record 2005-03585-021) have shown that rats can simultaneously acquire both place and response information. Experiments in which these 2 kinds of information are presented sequentially (response followed by place), provide some evidence for blocking of place learning, suggesting an influence of information acquired by a response-learning system on the subsequent acquisition of information by a place-learning system. A detailed examination of the results in the context of information about the kinds of learning that take place on a maze suggests that the memory processes underlying the rats' behavior in this experiment were considerably more complex than is acknowledged by Gibson and Shettleworth. The discussion illustrates the importance of considering both behavioral and physiological information for understanding how learning and memory functions are organized in the brain. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Recency in verb phrase attachment.

Four experiments investigated attachment preferences in constructions involving 3 verb phrases (VPs) followed by an attaching modifier. Readers preferred attachment to the most recent (lowest) VP site overall and preferred to attach the modifier to the middle VP over the highest VP, demonstrating a monotonic recency-based preference ordering. This pattern could not be attributed to lexical or plausibility-based preferences. The results contrast with the pattern for relative clause attachment into 3 potential noun phrase sites, where the preference ordering is nonmonotonic, and support the multiple-constraint theory described by E. Gibson and N. J. Pearlmutter (1998), which proposes that recency/locality and a secondary factor, predicate proximity, combine with lexical, grammatical, prosodic, and contextual constraints to determine attachment preferences. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)     

Trends in psychology: An empirical issue.

Responds to comments by M. J. Tagler, K. R. Gibson, M. P. Martens, S. Leigland , P. C. Friman et al, and G. N. Martin (see records 2000-13816-016, 2000-13816-017, 2000-13816-018, 2000-13816-019, 2000-13816-020, and 2000-13816-021) on R. W. Robins et al's (see record 1999-00297-003) article which examined trends in the prominence of 4 major schools of psychology. Methodological issues are discussed. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2010 APA, all rights reserved)