James Jerome Gibson (1904–1979) was an American psychologist, considered one of the most important 20th century psychologists in the field of visual perception. In his classic work The Perception of the Visual World (1950) he rejected the fashionable behaviorism 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. 1904 (MCMIV) was a leap year starting on a Friday (link will take you to calendar). ... This page refers to the year 1979. ... A psychologist is a scientist and/or clinician who studies psychology, the systematic investigation of the human mind, including behavior and cognition. ... (19th century - 20th century - 21st century - more centuries) Decades: 1900s 1910s 1920s 1930s 1940s 1950s 1960s 1970s 1980s 1990s As a means of recording the passage of time, the 20th century was that century which lasted from 1901–2000 in the sense of the Gregorian calendar (1900–1999... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... 1950 (MCML) was a common year starting on Sunday (link will take you to calendar). ... Behaviorism or behaviourism is an approach to psychology based on the proposition that behavior can be researched scientifically without recourse to inner mental states. ... An affordance is a property of an object, or a feature of the immediate environment, that indicates how to interface with that object or feature. ... Design, usually considered in the context of the applied arts, engineering, architecture, and other such creative endeavours, is used as both a noun and a verb. ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Donald A. Norman is a professor emeritus of cognitive science at University of California, San Diego and a Professor of Computer Science at Northwestern University, but nowadays works mostly with cognitive science in the domain of usability engineering. ...

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, particularly those considered to be post-cognitivist. The word cognitivism is used in several ways: In ethics, cognitivism is the philosophical view that ethical sentences express propositions, and hence are capable of being true or false. ... Direct realism is a theory of perception that claims that the senses provide us with direct awareness of the external world. ... Thomas Reid Thomas Reid (April 26, 1710 – October 7, 1796), 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. ... Ecological psychology (EP) is term claimed by a number of schools of psychology. ... In general, information processing is the changing (processing) of information in any manner detectable by an observer. ... Psychology is an academic and applied field involving the scientific study of mental processes and behavior. ... Psychological movements are considered to be post-cognitivist if they are opposed or move beyond the cognitivist theories posited by Noam Chomsky, Jerry Fodor and others. ...

External links

• The purple Perils of J. J. Gibson