Speaker
Elissa Rodkey (York University, Psychology)
Title
Historiographic Issues Presented by Eleanor Gibson’s Visual Cliff
Abstract
Eleanor Gibson's visual cliff experiment stands out among her achievements; it features in most contemporary introductory psychology textbooks and has become one of the landmark studies used initiate students into the discipline. The study's popularity has meant the accretion of various fabrications and embellishments on the visual cliff story, further reinforcing its mythic status. I chose Gibson's visual cliff as the subject for my master's thesis and initially planned to organize my material by contrasting the origin myth with the historical record. However, as I have progressed in my research, I have become aware of multiple viable alternative approaches to the material, such reading the visual cliff thorough the lens of intellectual history, cultural history, feminist history, revisionist history, or popularized science. In this presentation I explore what is offered by these alternative approaches, and in the process I raise several historiographical and methodological questions which have relevance for historical projects in general.
Note
Please note that this is an alternative format presentation. While Elissa will be focusing on historiographic issues in the colloquium presentation, exploring various alternative approaches to the visual cliff, (i.e. intellectual history, feminist history, or popularized science), the paper being circulated in advance contains the background material on Gibson's cliff which will be necessary for such a discussion. Please read the paper with historiographic and methodological concerns in mind. The paper should be read prior to attending the colloquium. If you wish to attend, but have not yet received a copy of the paper, please contact the Colloquium Coordinator, Laura Ball, at lcball@yorku.ca.