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Moral Moments


An Immortal Pair Passes


by Joel Marks



Last December the surviving member of an extraordinary duo of American psychologists passed away.
Eleanor Jack Gibson was 92; her husband, James Jerome Gibson, had predeceased her by 23 years at the
age of 75.
 

Eleanor Gibson, known to colleagues as 'Jackie,' was the doyenne among experimentalists in the field
of developmental psychology. Prior to her work it was commonly accepted by the experts that a human infant,
unlike the young of other species, required a long period of maturation before it could perceive even
the simplest aspects of its surroundings. This made sense in light of the assumption that we end up smarter
than other animals, in part because we have a longer time to take everything in, while they must fend
for themselves relatively quickly.


…