Eleanor J. Gibson: Difference between revisions

{{shortShort description|American psychologist & academic}}

| name = Eleanor J. Gibson

| image = Eleanor Gibson (1993).jpg

| caption = Eleanor Gibson - Keynote Address - 1993 APS Convention

| alma_mater = [[Smith College]] <small>(B.A., 1931) (M.S., 1933)</small><br>[[Yale University]] <small>(Ph.D., 1938)</small>

| birth_date = {{birth date|mf=y|1910|12|7}}

| birth_name = Eleanor Jack

| death_date = {{death date and age|mf=y|2002|12|30|1910|12|7}}

| birth_place = [[Peoria, Illinois]]

| death_place = [[Columbia, South Carolina]]

| citizenship = [[United States|American]]

| fields = [[Psychology]],<br>[[developmental psychology]],<br> [[comparative psychology]],<br> [[experimental psychology]],<br>[[ecological psychology]]

| known_for = Visual cliff,<br>[[perceptual learning]],<br> differentiation theory,<br>enrichment of embedded structures

| spousechildren = [[James J. Gibson]] Junior <br> Jean Gibson

'''Eleanor Jack Gibson''' (7 December 1910 – 30 December 2002) was an American [[psychologist]] who focused on reading development and perceptual learning in infants. Gibson began her career at Smith College as an instructor in 1932, publishing her first works on research conducted as an undergraduate student. Gibson was able to circumvent the many obstacles she faced due to the [[Great Depression]] and gender discrimination, by finding research opportunities that she could meld with her own interests. Gibson, with her husband [[James J. Gibson]], created the [[Gibsonian ecological theory of development]], which emphasized how important perception was because it allows humans to adapt to their environments. Perhaps her most well-known contribution to psychology was the "[[visual cliff]],”" which studied [[depth perception]] in both human and animal species, leading to a new understanding of perceptual development in infants. Gibson was elected to the [[National Academy of Sciences]] in 1971, the [[National Academy of Education]] in 1972, and to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] in 1977. In 1992, she was awarded the [[National Medal of Science]].

Eleanor (née Jack) Gibson was born on December 7, 1910, in [[Peoria, Illinois]]. Her father, William Alexander Jack, was a businessman who specialized in the wholesale of hardware. Her mother, Isabel Grier Jack, was a homemaker who graduated from [[Smith College]]. Gibson had one sibling, Emily Jack, who was born in 1916.<ref name="Caudle, F. M. (2003)">Caudle, F. M. (2003). Eleanor Jack Gibson (1910-2002). American Psychologist, 58(12), 1090-1091. {{doi:|10.1037/0003-066X.58.12.1090}}</ref>

Gibson began attending Smith College at the age of sixteen with the intention of studying languages. She graduated in 1931 with a [[B.A. degree]]. While at Smith, she became interested in experimental psychology.<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)">Eppler, M. (2006). Eleanor Jack Gibson: 1910-2002. The American Journal of Psychology, 119(1), 121-127.</ref> Gibson completed her [[master's degree]] at Smith, graduating in 1933.<ref name="Caudle, F. M. (2003)"/> In 1935, Gibson began her [[Doctor of Philosophy|Ph.D.]] at [[Yale University]]. While attending Yale, Gibson became interested in [[comparative psychology]]. Originally, Gibson had asked [[Robert Yerkes]] to be her dissertation advisor. He declined, stating that he does not permit women to work in his lab. [[Clark L. Hull]], a [[Behaviorism|behavioural psychologist]], became her dissertation supervisor,<ref name=":1">American psychological foundation awards for 1986: Gold medal Awards. (1987). ''American Psychologist, 42''(4), 327-332.</ref><ref name=":2">Rodkey, E. N. (2011, July). The woman behind the visual cliff. ''Monitor on Psychology'', ''42''(7). <nowiki>http://www.apa.org/monitor/2011/07-08/gibson</nowiki></ref> despite the fact that they did not necessarily have the same theoretical perspective.<ref name="Caudle, F. M. (2003)"/> Gibson completed her dissertation on differentiation using behaviourist terminology. After a year at Yale, Gibson passed the required exams and moved back to [[Northampton, Massachusetts]], where she continued to teach at Smith. She completed her dissertation two years later in 1938, at which point she received her doctorate from Yale.<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)"/>

In 1949, James Gibson took a job at [[Cornell University]], requiring that the family move to [[Ithaca, New York]]. Gibson was unable to obtain a job at Cornell due to [[Nepotism|anti-nepotism]] policies prohibiting her from working in the same department as her husband. Thus, Gibson became an unpaid research associate. She continued her research by reaching out to other Cornell faculty, working alongside [[Howard Liddell (psychologist)|Howard Liddell]], a professor in Psychologypsychology. Gibson worked in Liddell's Behaviour Farm Laboratory, giving her experience working with and rearing baby animals.<ref name=":2" /><ref name=":3">Szokolszky, A. (2003). An interview with Eleanor Gibson. ''Ecological Psychology, 15''(4), 271-281. {{doi:|10.1207/s15326969eco1504_2}}</ref> Gibson's interest in development grew after working with the animals.<ref name=":3" /> Liddell's Behaviour Farm is where the discovery of the behaviour that led to the Visual Cliff took place. After conducting research there for two years, Gibson left the Behaviour Farm upon finding out that her control group of goats was given away.<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)"/> Later, Gibson received funding from the United States Air Force and grants from the [[United States Navy]] to work on perceptual learning. In order to further explore this topic, Gibson and her husband, James, co-authored a study on the perception of nonsense scribbles, eventually leading to the differentiation theory.<ref name="Caudle, F. M. (2003)"/> Additionally, when Richard Walk was hired at Cornell University, Gibson and Walk decided to explore discrimination learning on rats who were raised in different environments, eventually leading to the Visual Cliff experiment.<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)"/> Their work together ended when Walk left Cornell University to pursue work at [[George Washington University]].<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)"/>

In Eleanor Gibson's final years she was focused on writing and publishing books. Her goal was to illustrate her progression of thinking. Her book titled, “An"An Odyssey in Learning and Perception”Perception"<ref>Gibson, E. J. (1991). ''Learning, development, and conceptual change. An odyssey in learning and perception''. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press.</ref> is a collection of her academic papers starting from the 1930s. The book encompasses her 50 years of work toward [[perceptual learning]] and [[Developmental psychology|development]].<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)"/>

In 2002, before her death, Gibson published a final book. Her final book was initially written as a personal family history but later evolved into a story about the lives of two psychologists.<ref name="Eppler, M. (2006)"/> She titled her final book: “Perceiving"Perceiving the affordances: A portrait of two psychologists.”"<ref>Gibson, E. J. (2002). ''Perceiving the affordances: A portrait of two psychologists''. Mahwah, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates</ref> Gibson died on December 30, 2002, in [[Columbia, South Carolina]].

Gibson worked with her husband James on a joint study to explore the perception of nonsense scribbles to clarify this concept of perceptual learning. The study consisted of three different groups. The first group had ten participants between 6- and 8 -year -olds. The second group had ten participants between 8½- toand 11 -year -olds. The third group had twelve participants that were adults.<ref name="“Gibson_&_Gibson_1955”" />

Another study Gibson did in perceptual learning is the perception of words and spelling patterns. Learning to read is a crucial aspect in child development and is complicated as words can have different meanings when perceived by the reader. Gibson was interested in factors enabling a reader to reach the stage where they can instantly tell words apart. Gibson argues that pronounceability has an impact in reading as certain combinations of the alphabet are easier to pronounce than others. Certain letters pair well in certain positions in words which allows for easier perception. According to Gibson, these particular spelling patterns are pronounced the same. For example, the positions of the letters “glurck”"glurck" is pronounceable despite it not being an English word. On the other hand, the positions of “ckurgl”"ckurgl" is not as easy to pronounce. A person fluent in English may notice that the letters “gl”"gl" is the start of many words while “ck”"ck" is at the end of many words. Such spelling patterns in words allow a reader to easily perceive the words to pronounce.<ref name="“Benjafield_2015”" />

Eleanor Gibson performed a study to examine how young children discriminate between different “letter"letter-like forms”forms".<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962">Gibson, E. J., Gibson, J. J., Pick, A. D., & Osser, H. (1962). A developmental study of the discrimination of letter-like forms. ''Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 55''(6), 897-906. {{doi:|10.1037/h0043190}}</ref> The children used in the study were between ages 4 and 8 years old.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> The children were given 13 standard letter-like forms in a column on the left-hand side of the page to examine.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> Several variations in each letter-like form, termed [[Geometric transformation|''transformations'']], were given along the rows.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> The transformations were either slight changes in appearance by altering the lines in the form (“topological"topological transformation”transformation" and “line"line-to-curve transformation”transformation") or a change in the perspective of the letter (“rotational"rotational-reversal transformation”transformation" and “perspective"perspective transformation”transformation") while keeping the form identical.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> The task given to the children was to determine and indicate which transformations were no different from the standard forms.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> Overall, as age increased, the amount of incorrect differentiations made decreased.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> However, this varied depending on the level of difficulty of the transformations.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> The results demonstrated that the 4 to 5 year olds had great difficulties with all variations of the forms whereas the 6 to 8 year olds performed much better and were able to discriminate between the standard letter-like forms and the variations shown.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> The following list is ordered from the transformations that had the largest decrease in errors (largest improvement) to the smallest (least improvement), as age increased: rotational-reversal, line-to-curve, perspective, topological.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" /> These results contribute to the research on perceptual learning in that they suggest that children learn distinctive characteristics to be used for differentiation which is a large component of the identification of letters.<ref name="Gibson et al. 1962" />

Eleanor had been studying the development and process of [[Imprinting (psychology)|imprinting]] in goats when the inspiration for the visual cliff was spontaneously discovered.<ref name="Rodkey, N, E. (2015)">Rodkey, N, E. (2015). The visual cliff’s forgotten menagerie: rats, goats, babies, and myth-making in the history of psychology. ''Journal of the History of the Behavioural Sciences, 51''(2), 113-140. {{doi: |10.1002/jhbs.21712}}</ref> While washing one of the baby goats, another was about to be born.<ref name="Rodkey, N, E. (2015)"/> Acting quickly, she placed the goat on an object elevated off the ground.<ref name="Rodkey, N, E. (2015)"/> The newborn did not move from where she placed it, giving some indication of depth perception.<ref name="Rodkey, N, E. (2015)"/>[[File:NIH visual cliff experiment (cropped).png|thumb|Visual cliff used with human infants]]

Walk & Gibson studied visual depth perception in rats, chickens, turtles, lambs, baby goats, pigs, dogs, cats, and monkeys.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960">Gibson, E. J., & Walk, R. D. (1960). The “visual cliff”. ''Scientific American, 202''(4), 64-71. {{doi:|10.1038/scientificamerican0460-64}}</ref> In the original study with rats, the apparatus was made of two sheets of glass standing “parallel"parallel to the floor and 53 inches above it”it" with a thin board along the middle.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> The rats were either placed into the experimental group with the shallow and deep side or a control group having no deep side, only shallow.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> The results of the study demonstrated that the rats in the experimental group spent the majority of their time on the shallow side while the rats in the control condition did not show a preference.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> A follow-up study was then conducted with an apparatus having both deep sides with no shallow, along with the same control condition.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> The results of the follow-up study demonstrated that majority of the rats stayed on the center board and those that did not took longer to walk onto the glass than did rats in the control condition.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> Gibson then used a larger apparatus to test chickens, turtles, lambs, kids (baby goats), pigs, dogs, cats, and monkeys; all showing similar results.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" />

Finally, Walk & Gibson examined visual depth perception in human infants with a larger apparatus.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> The infants ranged from 6 months old to 14 months old.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> Each child was placed on the center board with his or her mother standing on either the shallow side or the deep side, attempting to motivate the child to crawl toward the mother.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> The results demonstrated that the majority (approximately 90%) of the infants would crawl onto the shallow side but only approximately 10% would crawl onto the deep side.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> It was observed that the infants who refused to crawl onto the deep side would either crawl away from their mother when she was standing on that side or would cry.<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" /> These results suggest that “the"the average human infant discriminates depth as soon as it can crawl.”"<ref name="Gibson & Walk 1960" />

Just a couple years following her Visual Cliff Study, on behalf of the Chairmanchairman and Committee on Scientific Awards, [[George Armitage Miller]], presented Gibson an APA Award for Distinguished Scientific Contributions.<ref name="distinguished award">Eleanor Jack Gibson: Distinguished scientific contribution award. (1968). American Psychologist, 23(12), 861-863. {{doi:|10.1037/h0020776}}</ref> At the annual convention, she was recognized for her exceptional studies in perceptual learning and development. Along with [[James Birren]] and [[Muzafer Sherif]], they were each presented with a writing of their contributions to the field of scientific psychology, as well as a cheque for one thousand dollars.<ref name="distinguished award"/> This was the start of her acknowledgement.

At the age of 92, Gibson died on December 30, 2002. She was an experimental psychologist who significantly contributed to the many fields of psychology including perception, infant development, and reading.<ref name="Observer (2003)">[https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer In appreciation: Eleanor Gibson. (2003, April)]. ''Observer, 16''(4). <nowiki>https://wwwApril 2003.psychologicalscience.org/observer</nowiki></ref> In 1949, she worked as a researcher in the department of psychology at Cornell University. Gibson was then appointed professor in 1966, where she became the first woman to hold an endowed professorship at Cornell. Six years later, she was named the Susan Linn Sage Professor of Psychology.<ref name="Observer (2003)" />

Gibson not only left an impact on the field of psychology but also an impact on the people she interacted with. Arlene Walker-Andrews, an associate provost and emeritus professor of psychology at the [[University of Montana]], was one of Gibson's students at Cornell.<ref>Department of Psychology. (2015). <nowiki>[http://hs.umt.edu/psychology/faculty/default.php?s=Walker-Andrews< Walker Andrews] {{Webarchive|url=https:/nowiki>/web.archive.org/web/20160605051013/http://hs.umt.edu/psychology/faculty/default.php?s=Walker-Andrews |date=June 5, 2016 }}</ref> Gibson provided her with an opportunity to be a part of her research one month into the school year. Arlene was part of a team of graduate researchers, whom were all brand new students but Jackie never failed to give them full credit.<ref name="Observer (2003)" /> Arlene viewed her as a "gifted mentor" and spoke on her generosity, flexibility, and willingness. She never undervalued the graduate students and always treated them like independent scholars. In appreciation of Gibson, Arlene noted that she was an outstanding model with her work ethic, determination, raw intellect, and dedication to the growth and development of students.<ref name="Observer (2003)" />

* Gibson, E. J. (1939). Sensory generalization with voluntary reactions. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology, 24'', 237–253. {{doi:|10.1037/h0062877}}

* Gibson, E. J. (1940). A systematic application of the concepts of generalization and differentiation to verbal learning. ''Psychological Review, 47''(3), 196–229. {{doi:|10.1037/h0060582}}

* Gibson, E. J. (1941). Retroactive inhibition as a function of degree of generalization between tasks. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28''(2), 93-11593–115. {{doi:|10.1037/h0056366}}

* Gibson, E. J. (1942). Intra-list generalization as a factor in verbal learning. ''Journal of Experimental Psychology, 30''(3), 185–200. {{doi:|10.1037/h0058505}}

* Gibson, E. J. (1952). The role of shock in reinforcement. ''Journal of Comparative and Physiological Psychology, 45''(1), 18–30. {{doi:|10.1037/h0057667}}

* Gibson, E. J. (1994). Has psychology a future? ''Psychological Science, 5'', 69–76. {{doi:|10.1111/j.1467-9280.1994.tb00633.x}}

*Adolph, K. E., & Vereijken, B. (2005). Esther Thelen (1941–2004). ''American Psychologist, 60''(9), 1032. [https://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0003-066X.60.9.1032 Esther Thelen (1941-2004).]