Richard Gregory
Richard Gregory FRSE | |
---|---|
Born | Richard Langton Gregory 24 July 1923 London, England |
Died | 17 May 2010 , England | (aged 86)
Spouses | Margaret Hope Pattison Muir
(m. 1953; div. 1966)Freja Mary Balchin
(m. 1967; div. 1976) |
Partner | Priscilla Heard |
Children | 2 |
Awards | Michael Faraday Prize (1992) |
Scientific career | |
Fields | Psychology, neuropsychology |
Institutions | University of Bristol |
Website | richardgregory |
Richard Langton Gregory,
Life and career
Richard Gregory was born in London. He was the son of
Gregory served with the Royal Air Force's Signals branch during World War II, and after the war earned an RAF scholarship to Downing College, Cambridge.[3] He was made an Honorary Fellow of Downing in 1999.[citation needed]
In 1967, with Prof. Donald Michie and Prof. Christopher Longuet-Higgins, he founded the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception, a forerunner of the Department of Artificial Intelligence, at the University of Edinburgh. He was Head of the Bionics Research Laboratory, Professor of Bionics, and Department Chairman 1968–70. Gregory was founding editor of the journal Perception (1972), which emphasized phenomenology and novel percepts produced by new stimuli.[4] He was a founding member of the Experimental Psychology Society and served as its president in 1981–1982.
He collaborated with W. E. Hick for the latter's influential paper "On the rate of gain of information". He commented: "I was the only subject for his gain of information experiment to complete the course, as he was the only other subject and he packed it in when the apparatus fell apart."[5]
In 1981, he founded
Gregory has called Hermann von Helmholtz one of his major inspirations.[8]
He appeared on, or was an advisor to, numerous science-related television programmes in the UK and worldwide. His particular interest was in
Having suffered a stroke a few days earlier, he died on 17 May 2010 at the Bristol Royal Infirmary, surrounded by family and friends.
Lectures
In 1967, he delivered the Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on The Intelligent Eye.
Contribution
Gregory's main contribution to the discipline was in the development of
According to Gregory, Helmholtz should take the credit for realising that perception is not just a passive acceptance of stimuli, but an active process involving memory and other internal processes.[10]
Gregory progressed this idea with a key
Gregory's ideas ran counter to those of the American
Works
- Recovery from Early Blindness: A Case Study (1963), with Jean Wallace, Exp. Soc. Monogr. No.2. Cambridge: Heffers. {C & M of P. pp. 65–129}.
- Eye and Brain: The Psychology of Seeing (1966), London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. [in twelve languages]. Second Edition (1972). Third Edition (1977). Fourth Edition (1990). USA: Princeton University Press; (1994) Oxford: Oxford University Press. Fifth Edition (1997) Oxford University Press and (1998) Princeton University Press.
- The Intelligent Eye (1970), London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. [in 6 languages].
- Illusion in Nature and Art (1973), (ed. with Sir Ernst Gombrich), London: Duckworth.
- Concepts and Mechanisms of Perception (1974), London: Duckworth. [collected papers].
- Mind in Science: A History of Explanations of Psychology and Physics (1981), London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson; USA: CUP. Paperback, Peregrine (1984). (Macmillan Scientific Book Club choice). Transl. Italian, La Mente nella Scienze, Mondadori (1985).
- Odd Perceptions [essays] (1986), London: Methuen. Paperback (1988) Routledge. (2nd edition 1990–91).
- Creative Intelligences (1987), (ed. with Pauline Marstrand), London: Frances Pinter. ISBN 0-86187-673-3.
- Oxford Companion to the Mind (1987), (ed., with Zangwill, O.), Oxford: OUP. [translated into Italian, French, Spanish. In TSP Softbacks, and other Book Clubs]. (Paperback 1998).
- Evolution of the Eye and Visual System (1992), (ed. with John R. Cronly-Dillon), vol. 2 of Vision and Visual Dysfunction. London: Macmillan.
- Even Odder Perceptions (1994), [essays]. London: Routledge.
- The Artful Eye (1995), (ed. with J. Harris, P. Heard and D. Rose). Oxford: OUP
- Mirrors in Mind (1997), Oxford: W. H. Freeman/Spektrum. (1998) Penguin.
- The Mind Makers (1998), London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson.
- Seeing Through Illusions (2009), OUP.
- Main journal publications at http://www.richardgregory.org/
Degrees
Year | Degree |
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1950 | M.A. (Cantab) |
1983 | D.Sc. (Bristol) |
Honorary degrees
Year | Honorary degree |
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1990 | D. Univ. (Open) D. Univ. (Stirling) |
1993 | LL.D (Bristol) |
1996 | D.Sc. (East Anglia) D.Sc. (Exon) |
1998 | D.Univ. (York) D.Sc. (U.M.I.S.T.) |
1999 | D.Sc. (Keele) |
2000 | D.Sc. (Edinburgh) |
Family
In 1953, he married Margaret Hope Pattison Muir, one son, one daughter (marriage dissolved 1966). In 1967, he married Freja Mary Balchin,
See also
References
- "Richard Gregory: Curriculum Vitae". Retrieved 30 July 2005.
- ^ Brennan, J. (7 July 2010). "Richard Gregory (1923–2010)". The Psychologist. 23: 541.
- ISSN 0080-4606.
- ^ "Richard Gregory: experimental psychologist". The Times. 19 May 2010. Retrieved 23 May 2010.
- ^ "Professor Richard Gregory". The UCL Centre for the History of Medicine. University College London. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ Gregory, R. L. "Reflections on Early Days: Past Perceptions". Experimental Psychology Society. Retrieved 11 November 2017.
- ^ "The Exploratory – History". www.exploratory.org.uk. Retrieved 8 August 2016.
- ^ "The Exploratory – History". www.exploratory.org.uk. Retrieved 24 December 2018.
- ^ "One on One with Richard Gregory", The Psychologist, vol. 21, no 6, June 2008, p. 568.
- ^ "Richard Gregory, Desert Island Discs – BBC Radio 4". BBC. Retrieved 28 December 2016.
- ISBN 0-19-866124-X
- ISBN 0-691-04837-1
- ISBN 0-297-00021-7
- ISBN 0-7156-0556-9
- ^ Transcript of interview with Gregory in "Today's Neuroscience, Tomorrow's History" Archive, Wellcome Trust 2008
- PMID 16700285.
- ^ GRO Register of Marriages: JUN 1967 5d 1808 ST PANCRAS – Richard L. Gregory = Freja M. Balchin
- ^ "Professor Richard Gregory". Telegraph. 24 May 2010. Retrieved 13 October 2015.
External links
- Media related to Richard Gregory at Wikimedia Commons
- Professor Richard Gregory on-line
- Richard Gregory – Why I Tell Jokes video and telling his life story at Web of Stories (video)
- Daily Telegraph Obituary
- The Exploratory in Bristol
- Richard Gregory: a life of science and delight – reflections on his life by Sue Blackmore in The Guardian
- The Hollow-Face illusion (also known as hollow-mask illusion) in a version using Charlie Chaplin's head has become known to a wide audience.
- Richard Gregory on the History of Modern Biomedicine Research Group website