James J. Gibson

James Jerome Gibson (born January 27, 1904 in McConnelsville , OH , † December 11, 1979 in Ithaca , NY ) was an American psychologist and dealt mainly with perceptual psychology . Gibson taught at Smith College from 1929 to 1949 and at Cornell University from 1949 until his death . He was married to developmental psychologist Eleanor J. Gibson . He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences (since 1967) and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (since 1977).

Gibson established a psycho-ecological theory of visual perception and perception in general. The focus of his theory is less cognitive processing than the interaction of the perceiver with certain properties of the environment. In order to be able to understand perception, the analysis of the environment and the active subject is therefore also important. The perceiving organism actively explores its environment, which can be understood as a contradicting position to behaviorism and cognitivism and as a forerunner of later currents such as “embedded” or embodied cognition. This approach is also shared by some neurobiologists : "Animals and humans behave first, and then the structure of the sensory world is determined" ( Gerhard Roth 1996: 320).

Specific living beings

Perceptual processes do not happen unspecifically in living beings, they are not only dependent on the existence of the respective sense organs, but on the specifics of the species-specific life support. Gibson speaks of the fact that aspects of the natural or cultural environment offer different offers (affordances) to act for every living being . The same butterfly has a different prey for a bat than for a human, an ant or a tiger. The way in which an organism supports life determines whether an object or an animal or a person is important prey, enemy, annoying by-product, danger or insignificant fact. In this respect, there is a specific orientation based on the conservation of life of the species .

... in a specific environment

Gibson has examined the arrangements and conditions of the human environment, especially in the area of ​​visual perception, and described in their specifics how they become offers for human actions. This abandons the cognitivistic attempt to describe the human environment as unspecific physical . According to Gibson, human perception as an orientation (mental) is directed towards the offers of a situation d. H. recognize the opportunities to act. This orientation is built up by people in different areas in the course of life and is the basis of our actions. It can also be lost again in amnesia processes (e.g. stroke and dementia ), although the ability to perceive in the narrower sense, as sensory ability, is not lost.

... active

Gibson emphasizes that z. B. must have learned motor skills in order to see, namely movements of the body, head movements, to control our eye movements , so that one can even see what one wants to see. When seeing with one eye alone, ten eye muscles (M.) are involved, which must be specifically controlled: For controlling the iris opening according to the light intensity: Musculus sphincter pupillae, M. dilatator pupillae; for controlling the curvature of the lens - depending on the iris opening - for near or far vision: M. ciliaris (from M. tensor chorioidae: Brücke'scher muscle and Fibrae circulares - Müller's circular muscle - consisting); furthermore the muscles bulbi (M. rectus medialis, M. rectus lateralis, M. rectus superior, M. rectus inferior, M. obliquus superior, M. obliquus inferior) for the movement of the eyeball. In addition, there are the corresponding muscles of the second eye, the muscles of the neck, upper body and legs, in order to align oneself with objects that one wants to perceive. “Images” on a “passive retina”, representations of “features” - starting points for countless treatises on perception - can never functionally achieve organismic perception.

In taking the activity seriously, Gibson presupposes a subject who intentionally deals with his environment in a specific way. This overcomes the unspecific approach of most psychological theories, which have neither a concept of the specific environment of organisms with specific offers (affordance, supply character ) for specific organisms, nor a concept of the specifics of the functional organization of psychological processes of organisms. In the extension of JJ Gibson's approach, one can find critical psychology, which is oriented towards the subject sciences .

Works (selection)

• A study of the reproduction of visually perceived forms . Princeton University , 1928. ( Dissertation )
• The Concept of Stimulus in Psychology. The American Psychologist 15/1960, 694-703
• The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems . 1966. Dt .: The senses and the process of perception . Hans Huber, Bern 1973. ISBN 3-456-30586-9
• The Ecological Approach to Visual Perception . 1979. German: Perception and Environment . Urban & Schwarzenberg, Munich 1982. ISBN 3-541-09931-3
• Edward Reed, Rebecca Jones (eds.): Reasons for Realism. Selected Essays by James J. Gibson . Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale 1982. ISBN 0-89859-207-0

Web links

• Literature by and about James J. Gibson in the catalog of the German National Library
• Some texts by James J. Gibson in English