The one major problem I see with this article is that there isn't much information about Eleanor Gibson. The article just gives very basic information about her and it is a very brief article. There can be a lot more done to this article. The little side table is great but there are no sections included, it just says Eleanor J. Gibson. [1] [2]

Questions: 1. Would there be enough other information such as specifics about her that we could write about instead of the more basic information about her life and her accomplishments? 2. For this project are we supposed to edit and work on the current page about Eleanor Gibson that is already on Wiki or do we make our own one? Brandonri27 (talk) 20:20, 25 February 2016 (UTC)

While I did not see any banners, I think this article has very little information. The talk page did not have anything on it and the information it does have is just a brief description. I think we could go into more detail on her life and accomplishments because they have not done that yet.

[1] 1. Caudle, F. M. (2003). Eleanor Jack Gibson (1910-2002). American Psychologist, 58(12), 1090-1091. doi:10.1037/0003-066X.58.12.1090

[2] 2. Pick, H. L. (1992). Eleanor J. Gibson: Learning to perceive and perceiving to learn. Developmental Psychology, 28(5), 787-794. doi:10.1037/0012-1649.28.5.787

[3]Gibson, J. J., & Gibson, E. J. (1955). PERCEPTUAL LEARNING: DIFFERENTIATION OR ENRICHMENT?. Psychological Review,62(1), 32-41. doi:10.1037/h0048826

Questions: I'm finding a lot of information on her life and what she did, but is there anything else that we should be including?

Are we allowed to use any secondary sources or just mainly primary? I found most of mine using the NDSU library PsychINFO but was struggling to find stuff using google scholar.Jenna.leeseberg (talk) 01:24, 26 February 2016 (UTC)


The problem that I saw was the lack of information. There is a lot of room to work with because of the lack of a complete or close to complete page.

Would you like us to try to fill in everything from home life, work life and individual pieces of work in both broad and specific information?

(1) Eppler, M. (2006). Eleanor Jack Gibson: 1910-2002. The American Journal Of Psychology, 119(1), 121-127. (2) Caudle, F. M. (2000). Gibson, Eleanor J. In A. E. Kazdin, A. E. Kazdin (Eds.) , Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 3 (pp. 491-493). Washington, DC, US; New York, NY, US: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10518-231 (3) Eleanor Jack Gibson: Distinguished Scientific Contribution Award. (1968). American Psychologist, 23(12), 861-863. doi:10.1037/h0020776 Justin.a.arp (talk) 23:29, 28 February 2016 (UTC)


To Do List Jenna.leeseberg (talk) 21:25, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

1) Create outline/contents 2) Find more sources 3) Find anything she has written 4) Decide who should do what parts. I could work on her biography and start seeing what I can find on the "visual cliff" if someone would like to help me with that as well?


Outline Jenna.leeseberg (talk) 21:25, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

1) Biography 2) Ideas 3) Legacy/historical impact 4) Works/Books/ect. 5) References 6) See Also 7) Notes 8)Further Reading 9) External links

New References Jenna.leeseberg (talk) 21:25, 7 March 2016 (UTC)

Khatibi1, Mina; Sheikholeslami, Razieh (July – September, 2015). "Gibson’s Ecological Theory of Development and Affordances: A Brief Review" (PDF). The International Journal of Indian Psychology 2 (4).


NOTE TO EVERYONE: Our references seem to all be bunching together at the bottom of the page. Jenna I cant see yours on the edit source page but I think they pop up at the bottom of the page.

To Do List Brandonri27 (talk) 18:35, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

1) Plan an outline and figure out what is going to be in each Subcategory 2) Research more into Gibson and find interesting/important information about her 3)Figure out who is doing what in our group 4)Find more sources that we can use 5)Figure out what we are going to use or add to the old article

Outline Brandonri27 (talk) 18:35, 20 March 2016 (UTC)

1) Background/ Biography 2) Theories/ Ideas 3) Why she was important and what she did for psychology 4)Work/Research 5) Maybe an interesting facts or something that would be appealing to the reader about her. This could also go into #1 6)References 7)See Also 8)Notes 9) Further reading/ Links if necessary

New References Brandonri27 (talk) 18:35, 20 March 2016 (UTC) [3] [4] [5]


Lead Section-Brandon Ringsaker edit

Eleanor Jack Gibson (7 December 1910 — 30 December 2002) was an American psychologist who focused on reading development and perceptual learning in infants and toddlers. Among her contributions to psychology one of her most well known ones is the "visual cliff" in which animals and infants were tested on their ability of depth perception. Gibson also created the Gibsonian ecological theory of development in which perception of the environment was crucial as it allowed humans to adapt to their environments and learn by necessity. This led to a new understanding of perceptual development in infants. These two creations by Gibson were important for psychology in that they both led to a great understanding of perception and learning in infants. Eleanor as a result was elected to the National Academy of Sciences and in 1992 she was awarded the National Medal of Science which is the highest scientific honor in the US and is rarely awarded to psychologists.

  • Somewhere you should indicate that she worked with her husband, James Gibson, to develop ecological theory. Also, these are not really two creations, they are part of the same research program.J.R. Council (talk) 16:06, 6 April 2016 (UTC)

Lead Section-Jenna Leeseberg edit

Eleanor Jack Gibson (December 7, 1910 – December 30, 2002) was an American psychologist who focused primarily on infants and toddlers perception. In the 1960's and 1970's Gibson, alongside 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. In 1992 Eleanor was awarded the National Medal of Science and following that was elected a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1997. Perhaps her most well known contribution to psychology was the "visual cliff", which studied depth perception and visual or motor impairments in both human and animal species.

Lead Section-Group Lead Section edit

Eleanor Jack Gibson
 
Born(1910-12-07)December 7, 1910
DiedDecember 30, 2002(2002-12-30) (aged 92)
NationalityAmerican
Alma materSmith College (B.A., 1931) (M.S., 1933)
Yale University (Ph.D., 1938)
Known forVisual cliff
SpouseJames J. Gibson
Children2
AwardsNational Medal of Science (1992)
Scientific career
FieldsPsychology
InstitutionsCornell University

Eleanor Jack Gibson (7 December 1910 — 30 December 2002) was an American psychologist who focused on reading development and perceptual learning in infants and toddlers. In the 1960's and 1970's 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 and visual or motor impairments in both human and animal species. This led to a new understanding of perceptual development in infants. The environment provides information for the sensory system to develop with increased stimuli, so perceptual development corresponds with environmental stimuli. Infants develop from adapting to the environment. Gibson was elected to the National Academy of Sciences in 1971 and as a fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences in 1977. In 1992 she was awarded the National Medal of Science, which is the highest scientific honor in the United States, and only five of which have been awarded to psychologists. Brandonri27 (talk) 22:08, 7 April 2016 (UTC) Jenna.leeseberg (talk) 15:41, 8 April 2016 (UTC)

Biography edit

Eleanor J. Gibson was born in Peoria, Illinois on December 7, 1910. While much of her early life is unknown, Gibson received her B.A. degree in 1931 and her M.S. degree in 1933 from Smith College in Massachusetts. While studying at Smith College Gibson met James J. Gibson, a professor there who she married in 1932.[6] In 1938, she completed her Ph.D. from Yale University.[7] Once completed, Gibson returned to Smith College and began teaching. In 1941 Gibson's husband was drafted by the Air Force to make perceptual tests for some of their pilots so Gibson, her husband and their two children moved to Texas and then on to California. Throughout this time Gibson was a homemaker but returned to work at Smith College for a few years before she and her family left for Cornell University, where she was a research associate. While at Cornell she created the "Visual Cliff" alongside Richard Walk, a professor at Cornell.[6] Gibson passed away on December 30, 2002.

Legacy timeline edit

Representative research edit

Perceptual learning edit

Gibson believed that a radically different new view of perceptual learning was needed. 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 participants were tasked to identify one standard scribble from a set of similar scribbles varying in many different dimensions.[7] At first the standard scribble was imperceptible from the other scribbles but after repeated tests the standard scribble became clear. The participants were tested until the standard was identified correctly without any correction given. The Gibson's then stated that the stimulus held all the information for perception rather than the participants learning to perceive through an associative process. This resulted in perceptual learning as being redefined as a change in what was perceived by an observer became more sensitive to the different aspects of a stimulus.[7]

Visual cliff edit

Gibson was conducting a study on infant-mother olfactory role in bonding in goats and so she would wash one of them immediately after birth before the mother could lick it. She had just finished washing one when its twin began to emerge from the mother. In a hurry Gibson decided to put the kid on a high camera stand nearby. Gibson was surprised that the newborn stood calmly on the ledge and didn't fall off. This ultimately led her to discover the visual cliff and do further research on perceptual learning.[8]

During a study with Richard Walk in which they looked at the role of the environment in development of rats, Gibson came up with the idea of a second task. Gibson wanted to test the depth perception of rats. This led to Gibson and Walk constructing an artificial cliff.[8] This was simply a sheet of plexiglass that was covered by cloth with a checkerboard pattern which was held above the ground with clamps and rods. One side of the cloth was placed just beneath the glass and on the other side the cloth was placed 4 feet below. They then watched what side the rats descended to. To Gibson's amazement the dark-reared rats acted the same way as rats reared in the light and avoided the deep side. Gibson then tested lambs, goats, chickens, dogs, pigs, monkeys and newborn children on a larger apparatus which led to the same results.[7] These tests led to the belief that perception of depth was innate in many species but not all. Kittens that were raised in the dark would walk indiscriminately on both sides of the visual cliff, therefore learning from the environment had to occur.

Major Works edit

  • Gibson, E. J. (1969). Principles of perceptual learning and development. New York: Meredith Corporation.
  • Gibson, E. J. (1991). An odyssey in learning and perception. Cambridge: MIT Press.
  • Gibson, E. J., & Walk, R. D. (1960). The "visual cliff." Scientific American, 202, 67-71.
  • Gibson, E. J. & Pick, A. D. (2000). Perceptual learning and development: An ecological approach to perceptual learning and development. Oxford: Oxford Universityn Press.
  • Gibson, E. J, & Levin, H. (1975). Psychology of reading. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
  • Gibson, E. J. (2001): Perceiving the Affordances: A Portrait of Two Psychologists. Psychology Press.

Further Reading edit

  • Caudle, F. M. (2000). Gibson, Eleanor J. In A. E. Kazdin, A. E. Kazdin (Eds.) , Encyclopedia of Psychology, Vol. 3 (pp. 491-493). Washington, DC, US; New York, NY, US: American Psychological Association. doi:10.1037/10518-231
  • Gibson, E. J. (1980). Eleanor J. Gibson. In G. Lindzey, G. Lindzey (Eds.) , A history of psychology in autobiography Vol. VII(pp. 239-271). San Francisco, CA, US: W H Freeman & Co. doi:10.1037/11346-006
  • Szokolszky, A. (2003). An interview With Eleanor Gibson.Ecological Psychology15(4), 271-281. doi:10.1207/s15326969eco1504_2

References edit

  1. ^ Pick, H. L. (2012). Eleanor J. Gibson: Learning to perceive, perceiving to learn. In W. E. Pickren, D. A. Dewsbury, M. Wertheimer, W. E. Pickren, D. A. Dewsbury, M. Wertheimer (Eds.) , Portraits of pioneers in developmental psychology (pp. 249-260). New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.
  2. ^ Gibson, E. J. (1980). Eleanor J. Gibson. In G. Lindzey, G. Lindzey (Eds.) , A history of psychology in autobiography Vol. VII (pp. 239-271). San Francisco, CA, US: W H Freeman & Co. doi:10.1037/11346-006
  3. ^ Caudle, F. M. (1990). Eleanor Jack Gibson. In A. N. O’Connell & N. F. Russo (Eds.). Women of psychology: A bio-bibliographic sourcebook (pp. 104-116). Westport, CT: Greenwood Press.
  4. ^ Gibson, E. J. (1980). Autobiography. In G. Lindzey (Ed.), History of psychology in autobiography, Vol. 7 (pp. 239-272). San Francisco: W.H. Freeman
  5. ^ Pick, H. L. (2012). Eleanor J. Gibson: Learning to perceive, perceiving to learn. In W. E. Pickren, D. A. Dewsbury, M. Wertheimer, W. E. Pickren, D. A. Dewsbury, M. Wertheimer (Eds.) , Portraits of pioneers in developmental psychology (pp. 249-260). New York, NY, US: Psychology Press.
  6. ^ a b Rodkey, Elissa. "Eleanor J Gibson - Psychology's Feminist Voices". www.feministvoices.com. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  7. ^ a b c d e f "Eleanor J. Gibson | American psychologist". Encyclopedia Britannica. Retrieved 2016-04-18.
  8. ^ a b Rodkey, E. N. (2015). The visual cliff's forgotten menagerie: Rats, goats, babies, and myth‐making in the history of psychology. Journal Of The History Of The Behavioral Sciences51(2), 113-140. doi:10.1002/jhbs.21712