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James Jerome Gibson (January 27, 1904 – December 11, 1979) earned his Ph.D. in psychology from Princeton University. Gibson’s work on visual perception still influences psychology today. He determined that we perceive our environment directly and termed this explanation an ecological approach to the study of visual perception.

Early Life
James J. Gibson was born in 1904 to Thomas and Gertrude Gibson in McConnelsville, Ohio. Thomas Gibson was employed as a railroad surveyor. His mother worked as a school teacher until she was married and had children. His father’s job enabled young James to ride trains frequently, which inspired James’ interest in visual perception at a young age. Altogether Thomas and Gertrude had three children; James, Thomas and William. James Gibson was the elder of the three brothers. When James Gibson was eight years old, his father’s job required the family to move to Chicago.

Education and Influences
In 1921, Gibson attended Northwestern University for his first year of college. He then transferred to Princeton University to complete his undergraduate degree. At Princeton, he majored in philosophy. During his senior year, he enrolled in an experimental psychology course taught by H. S. Langfeld. Gibson became interested in psychology and decided to continue his education in psychology at Princeton in graduate school. His dissertation thesis, in which he argued that form perception was not innate, showed his strong empiricist views of the world. E. B. Holt, who was taught by William James, inspired Gibson to be a radical empiricist. Holt was a mentor to Gibson. While Gibson may not have directly read William James’ work, E. B. Holt was the connecting factor between the two. Holt’s theory of molar behaviorism brought James philosophy of radical empiricism into psychology. Heft argues that Gibson’s work was an application of William James’ philosophy radical empiricism. Gibson believed that perception is direct and meaningful. He discussed the meaning of perception through his theory of affordances. Gibson also was influenced by James neutral monism, nothing is solely mental or physical. After graduating from Princeton, he was hired at Smith College, where he taught from 1928 to 1942. While a professor, he taught a wide variety of courses ranging from a social psychology class to an advanced experimental class. Kurt Koffka, the famous Gestalt psychologist, began working at Smith’s college in 1928 as well. Koffka held a weekly seminar where research findings were discussed and critiqued. Gibson attended Koffka’s weekly seminars from 1928 to 1941. Gibson was not a Gestalt psychologist; he thought their theories were too compassionate. However, he agreed with Koffka that perceptual problems are central to psychology. In 1931 to 1932, he taught a group of women in an advanced experimental psychology class. Eleanor Jack attended this psychology course. In September of 1932, the two were married. They raised two children. James and Eleanor were inspired by different theorists as well as different forms of behaviorism leading them to rarely work as a team. This does not mean that they did not influence one another. They were both interested in the problems pertaining to the stimulus-reaction formula. James and Eleanor Gibson wrote a paper together on the effects of perceptual learning in which they discussed what perception is. They worked independently but allowed for the other to express ideas and assist.

Career
While a professor at Smith College, he conducted research on the effects of looking at curved lines. He discovered that there was an after effect when he observed actually curved lines. The curvature decreased and straight lines appeared as they were curved in the opposite direction. This has been termed the Gibson effect. In 1942, Gibson entered the US Army Air Force as a captain during World War II. He spent eighteen months in Fort Worth Texas. The Army Air Force enlisted psychologists in order to help select members and assign them to the correct field within the Air Force. In 1943, Gibson was moved to Santa Ana Army Base in California. Gibson was in charge of a motion picture unit and he worked to continue research with visual perception. Gibson soon realized that what psychologists knew about perception of motion was insufficient for the practical problems in the military. He sought to determine how people are able to fly and land planes, how people are able to recognize landmarks and how people are able to aim bullets at targets. He also sought to expand knowledge on the effectiveness of training videos. Training videos were widely used in the military when no research had been done to determine their effectiveness. He left the war a lieutenant colonel. After the end of the war Gibson returned to Smith College. In 1949, Gibson accepted a position at Cornell University that he held until 1972 when he retired. He published The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception, in 1979 and this explained his theory of ecological perspective and affordances. He died within the year in Ithaca, New York.

Ecology and Perception
Gibson believed that the environment and animals are not separable items. He stated that without the environment animals cannot survive and without animals there is no environment. The environment is what we perceive at any given moment. All animals are able to perceive. Humans perceive the environment directly. This is why we are unable to perceive things in the environment that are too small to see, such as an atom.

Affordances
Gibson coined the noun affordance. For Gibson the noun affordance pertains to the environment providing the opportunity for action. Affordances require a relationship in which the environment and the animal can work together. An example is that mankind has changed the environment to better suit our needs. When coming across Earths natural steep slopes, man designed stairs in order to afford walking. In addition, objects in the environment can also afford many different behaviors, such as lifting or grasping. Gibson argued that when we perceive an object we observe the objects affordances and not its particular qualities. He believed that perceiving affordances of an object is easier than perceiving the many different qualities an object may have. Affordances can be related to different areas of the habitat as well. Some areas of the world allow for concealing while some allow for foraging.

Social Affordances
He expanded on the affordance theory to include social affordances. He believed affordances were important to understanding social behaviors. Our behavior depends on what we perceive the other person intentions to be. It is not about the behavior itself but how we perceived their behavior. This is how misconceptions occur, we misinterpret another individual's behavior. Gibson stated that behavior affords behavior. Therefore, if someone is being nice to you then this affords a nice reaction. This can be applied to why humans get married or form friendships.

Awards and Positions
Gibson published The Perception of the Visual World in 1950, after which began a long series of notable honors. In 1952, Gibson was a member of the Society for Experimental Psychologist and was awarded with the Warren Medal. He became president of the third and tenth division of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1954 and 1958 respectively. In 1957, he was named president of the Eastern Psychological Association. Gibson received the Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award in 1961. He became Fulbright fellow at Oxford, a fellow of the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, and a fellow of the Center for Advanced Study in Behavioral Sciences at Stanford. In 1964, he received the National Institute of Mental health Senior Career Award. In 1967, he was elected into the National Academy of Sciences. Gibson received honorary doctorates by Edinburgh and Uppsala Universities.