R eview of Perceiving the Affordances – A Portrait of Two Psychologists E .

Open practically any introductory perception or Gibson. Holt, a radical behaviorist, attempted to cognition textbook (Sekuler & Blake, 1994; Medin formulate a motor theory of awareness, helping to & Ross, 1997) and you will be sure to find an shape James Gibson’s impression of consciousness abundance of references to both James and Eleanor as an active process. As her Master’s thesis superGibson’s research. In short, the couple were highly visor, James Gibson influenced his wife’s early influential in shaping perceptual research, and exviews on memory in favor of a functionalist viewperimental psychology in general, for five decades. point. Together, they revolutionized the way we approach Following the first two chapters, the focus of the perception and how we investigate the world that first half of the book rests on James Gibson’s surrounds us. But who exactly were the Gibsons? research, and the development of his ideas towards Written by Eleanor Gibson, Perceiving the Affordthe theory of affordances. The chapters thus have a ances: A Portrait of Two Psychologists seeks to chronological layout, although some concepts reapanswer this question, chronicling the lives of the two pear in later chapters. Essentially, Perceiving the psychologists and the evolution of their ideas and Affordances: A Portrait of Two Psychologists retheories. Generally, the book is a quick and not views a variety of experiments conducted by James overly difficult read. Gibson presents enough sciGibson and discusses his most valuable contributions entific information to engage the reader in some to the field of perception. critical thought about how we as organisms perceive Chapter three introduces the traditional notions of and act in the world, yet the book contains a fair perception expounded by researchers such as Edwin amount of personal anecdotes. Effectively, such a Boring, against whom Gibson based much of his combination of research and life history challenges own thought. Prior to Gibson’s work, sensationour ideas about perception without the dryness of a based theory dominated the field, insisting that textbook. awareness existed along four dimensions of extensiChapter one contains a detailed history of the ty, location, shape, and depth (Gibson, 1950). Thus, Gibson family, and contributes little in terms of in effect, according to empiricism, consciousness scientific discussion. Chapter two discusses mainly followed directly from sensations produced by physthe early influences of James Gibson and Eleanor ical stimuli in the environment. Perception was presumed to be a process whereby the mind accumu*Corresponding author. Tel.: 1 1-514-398-6151. lated or combined sensations, resulting in a percept.