Eleanor GibsonBorn 7 Dec 1910; died 30 Dec 2002 at age 92.Eleanor Jack Gibson was an American psychologist who studied learning processes in children. She is remembered for her "visual cliff" experiment which showed how an infant's depth perception helps prevent injuries and falls. In 1960, she placed 6-14 month old infants on a table covered with a sheet of plate glass that extended beyond the table's edge. When enticed with a favorite toy or coaxed by their mothers to crawl out beyond the table's edge onto the clear glass extension, nearly all of the babies withdrew. Thus she demonstrated that babies can distinguish depth. In 1992, Gibson was awarded the National Medal of Science, becoming one of only ten psychologists among 304 recipients of the award since 1962.« |