ABSTRACT

Perceiving the Affordances is a personal history and intellectual autobiography of Eleanor Gibson, the groundbreaking research psychologist who was influential in the founding of the theory of perceptual development. It is also a biography of her husband, James J. Gibson, who was a major perceptual theorist and the founder of the ecologically-oriented theory of perception. This is the story of their lives together and how each came to make particular contributions. This book is of interest to people who study perception, perceptual development, infancy, developmental psychology, and the history of psychology.

chapter 1|10 pages

Growing Up in the Heartland

chapter 2|13 pages

Becoming Psychologists

chapter 3|9 pages

Teaching and Life at Smith College

chapter 4|15 pages

World War II

chapter 5|10 pages

Back to Civilization (Academic Style)

chapter 6|12 pages

High Above Cayuga's Waters

chapter 7|8 pages

Visiting in Academe

chapter 8|10 pages

Midlife Without Crises

chapter 9|15 pages

The Decade of the Books

chapter 10|10 pages

The Seer of Ithaca 1

chapter 11|7 pages

Going It Alone

chapter 12|13 pages

Life After the Lab