James J. Gibson

James J. Gibson (1904-1979) is one of the most important psychologists of the 20th century, best known for his work on visual perception. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and his first major work was The Perception of the Visual World (1950) in which he rejected behaviorism for a view based on his own experimental work. In his later works, including The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception (1979), Gibson became more philosophical and criticized cognitivism in the same way he had attacked behaviorism before, arguing strongly in favor of direct perception and direct realism, as opposed to cognitivist indirect realism. He termed his new approach ‘ecological psychology’. Gibson’s legacy is increasingly influential on many contemporary movements in psychology, particularly those considered to be post-cognitivist.

Works

Dissertation

• A Study of the Reproduction of Visually Perceived Forms, Princeton University, 1928.

Books

• The Perception of the Visual World, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1950.

• The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1966.
  • Die Sinne und der Prozess der Wahrnehmung, Bern: Hans Huber, 1973. (German)

• The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1979; Psychology Press, 1986; 2015, 315 pp.
  • Wahrnehmung und Umwelt : der ökologische Ansatz in der visuellen Wahrnehmung, Munich: Urban & Schwarzenberg, 1982, 356 pp. (German)
  • Ekologicheskiy podchod k zritelnomu vospriyatiyu [Экологический подход к зрительному восприятию], trans. T.M. Sokolskoy, Moscow: Progress, 1988. (Russian)
  • Un approccio ecologico alla percezione visiva, Bologna: Il Mulino, 1999. (Italian)
  • Approche écologique de la perception visuelle, trans. & intro. Olivier Putois, afterword Claude Romano, Bellevaux: Dehors, 2014. Afterword. (French)

• Reasons for Realism: Selected Essays, eds. E. Reed and R. Jones, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1982.

Articles

• with E. Gibson, "Perceptual Learning: Differentiation or Enrichment?" Psych. Rev. 62 (1955), pp 32-41.
• "The Concept of the Stimulus in Psychology", The American Psychologist 15 (1960), pp 694-703.
• "A Theory of Direct Visual Perception", in The Psychology of Knowing, eds. J. Royce and W. Rozenboom, New York: Gordon & Breach, 1972.
• "The Theory of Affordances", in Perceiving, Acting, and Knowing: Toward an Ecological Psychology, eds. R. Shaw and J. Bransford, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum, 1977, pp 67-82.
• "The Visual Perception of Objective Motion and Subjective Movement", Psychological Review 101:2 (1994), pp 318-323.

Literature

• Mark H. Bickhard, D. Michael Richie, On the Nature of Representation: A Case Study of James Gibson's Theory of Perception, Praeger, 1983.
• Randolph Blake, "Gibson's Inspired but Latent Prelude to Visual Motion Perception", Psychological Review 101:2 (1994), pp 324-328
• Ken Nakayama, "James J. Gibson - An Appreciation", Psychological Review 101:2 (1994), pp 329-335.
• James G. Greeno, "Gibson's Affordances", Psychological Review 101:2 (1994), pp 336-342.
• Frederick A. Jules, A Comparison of the Application to Architecture of the Ecological and Gestalt Approaches to Visual Perception, Center for Architecture and Urban Planning Research Books, 1984. "A comparison of two psychological theories of visual perception, Gestalt Theory and an Ecological Theory developed by J. J. Gibson, with two theories of architectural composition, theories developed by the Ecole des Beaux-Arts and theories of the Modern Movement in architecture."
• Harry Heft, Ecological Psychology in Context: James Gibson, Roger Barker, and the Legacy of William James's Radical Empiricism, London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, 2001. Review: McGann.
• Tamara Leonova, "L'approche écologique de la cognition sociale et son impact sur la conception des traits de personnalité", L'année psychologique 104:2 (2004), pp 249-294. (French)
• Jonathan Tudge, Jacquelyn T. Gray, Diane M. Hogan, "Ecological Perspectives in Human Development: A Comparison of Gibson and Bronfenbrenner", in Comparisons in Human Development: Understanding Time and Context, ed. Tudge, et al., Cambridge University Press, 2008, pp 72-105.