Modularity and the study of visual perception - Marr and Gibson

Gibson’s 1966 book The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems recently turned 50. Two issues of the journal Ecological Psychology commemorated that event (here, and here). This is the second in a series of posts reviewing those contributions.

Vision research was impacted tremendously by the short career of David Marr. Marr was tremendously impacted by James J. Gibson, though mostly by Gibson's earlier work on optic flow, and not by his later works that birthed Ecological Psychology. Marr was incredibly influential in the move towards thinking of vision (and neuroscience in general) as "modular", while most of Gibson's work would lead one away from modular thinking. It is this tension that motivates Sedgwick and Gillam's article "A Non-Modular Approach to Visual Space Perception."

The senses re-considered as perceptual systems - Introduction to the Special Isuses

Gibson’s 1966 book The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems recently turned 50. Two issues of the journal Ecological Psychology commemorated that event (here, and here). This is the first in a series of posts reviewing those contributions.

These special issues were organized by Covarrubias, Jiménez, and Cabrera, from the University of Guadalajara, and Costall from the University of Porsmouth, and they provided an introduction to both issues. Putting together these issues is a tremendous service to the field, and I hope that the articles contained therein will help shape the field’s future. It is worth starting with some highlights from the intros themselves, and the next post will start with the looking at the contributed articles. 

E.C. Tolman's Biography, and the end of PsychCritques

I recently completed what will be my last review for PsycCritiques, the online journal that succeeded the print Contemporary Psychology, which itself ran from 1956-2004 (founded by Edwin Boring). The book was a good one:

Restarting.... Again

There has been another prolonged absence on this blog, about 5 months this time. While a shame, at least that time has been productive. I completed a few projects and began a few more. It is time to restart things here.... again.

Later this week, I will start with a review of the recently published biography of E.C. Tolman.

After that, I will start reviewing articles from this year's Special Issues of the journal Ecological Psychology, which were dedicated to the 50th anniversary of Gibson's "The Senses Considered as Perceptual Systems." (They can be found here, and here.) That book was crucial because it was the first big statement about Gibosn's system, following only a small number of articles hinting about the direction his thinking was moving in. It is less read than his 1979 books, which is a shame, because in many ways it lays the system out better, including more in depth discussions about the physiology and evolution of sensory systems. I've skimmed some of the articles in the Special Issues, and there is some really impressive scholarship there; things that I hope will influence the field for many years to come, and which deserve to have influence beyond the field. Where I can, my focus will be on drawing out what I see as the larger morals in the articles, rather tan simply summarizing them.


Two additional things I hope to start working on: 1) Telling people a bit about my current job. 2) Sharing nifty announcements from the various societies I'm associated with.

With the latter in mind, it is worth noting that the journal History of Psychology has been promoting it's section reserved for not-full-length-article contributions to the field.

A reminder that the Sources, Research Notes, and News section of History of Psychology is a venue for publication of brief research notes, discussion of methodology, and reports on archives or sources. If you are interested in contributing something to this section please contact me.

Additionally, a plug for our  “News & Notes Poetry Corner,” which emphasizes the marginal, yet notably amusing, role of psychology-oriented poetics in the history of the field. If you’re “holding” any little known or much lauded poetic gems by or about psychologists or psychology, I invite you to send them along to be featured.

People interested in submitting to that should email  news.editor@historyofpsych.org