Richard Gregory
Encyclopedia
Richard Langton Gregory, CBE
, MA, D.Sc., FRSE
, FRS (24 July 1923 – 17 May 2010) was a British
psychologist
and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology
at the University of Bristol
.
.
Gregory served with the Royal Air Force
's Signals branch during World War II
, and after the war earned an RAF scholarship to the Downing College, Cambridge
. One of Sir Frederic Bartlett
's last pupils at Cambridge, Gregory admitted to having been inspired by him. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Downing in 1999.
In 1967, with Prof. Donald Michie
and Prof. Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS, 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.
He was a founding member of the Experimental Psychology Society
and served as its President in 1981-2.
He collaborated with W. E. Hick
for the latter's influential paper "On the rate of gain of information". In fact, 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".
In 1978, he founded The Exploratoryhttp://www.exploratory.org.uk,
an applied science centre in Bristol
. This was the first of its kind in the UK. In 1989, he was appointed Osher Visiting Fellow of the Exploratorium
, a similar scientific education centre in San Francisco, California
.
Gregory suggested Hermann von Helmholtz
as his hero from past psychology, describing him as "... the modern founder of the science of perception".
He appeared on, and been an advisor to, numerous science-related television programmes in the UK and worldwide. His particular interest was in optical illusions and what these revealed about human perception. He authored and edited several books, notably Eye and Brain and Mind in Science. His hobby was punning (making pun
s) and he was also a guest on Desert Island Discs
.
He died on 17 May 2010 at the Bristol Royal Infirmary
, having suffered a stroke a few days earlier, surrounded by family and friends.
, (marriage dissolved 1976). Gregory is survived by two children (Mark and Romilly Gregory), two grandchildren (Luutsche Ozinga and Kiran Rogers) and his long term companion Priscilla Heard.
Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is an order of chivalry established on 4 June 1917 by George V of the United Kingdom. The Order comprises five classes in civil and military divisions...
, MA, D.Sc., FRSE
Royal Society of Edinburgh
The Royal Society of Edinburgh is Scotland's national academy of science and letters. It is a registered charity, operating on a wholly independent and non-party-political basis and providing public benefit throughout Scotland...
, FRS (24 July 1923 – 17 May 2010) was a British
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
psychologist
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology
Neuropsychology studies the structure and function of the brain related to specific psychological processes and behaviors. The term neuropsychology has been applied to lesion studies in humans and animals. It has also been applied to efforts to record electrical activity from individual cells in...
at the University of Bristol
University of Bristol
The University of Bristol is a public research university located in Bristol, United Kingdom. One of the so-called "red brick" universities, it received its Royal Charter in 1909, although its predecessor institution, University College, Bristol, had been in existence since 1876.The University is...
.
Life and career
Richard Gregory was born in London, the son of Christopher Clive Langton Gregory and Helen Patricia. His father was an astronomer and the first Director of the University of London ObservatoryUniversity of London Observatory
The University of London Observatory at Mill Hill in London is an astronomical teaching observatory, part of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at University College London....
.
Gregory served with the Royal Air Force
Royal Air Force
The Royal Air Force is the aerial warfare service branch of the British Armed Forces. Formed on 1 April 1918, it is the oldest independent air force in the world...
's Signals branch during World War II
World War II
World War II, or the Second World War , was a global conflict lasting from 1939 to 1945, involving most of the world's nations—including all of the great powers—eventually forming two opposing military alliances: the Allies and the Axis...
, and after the war earned an RAF scholarship to the Downing College, Cambridge
Downing College, Cambridge
Downing College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge. The college was founded in 1800 and currently has around 650 students.- History :...
. One of Sir Frederic Bartlett
Frederic Bartlett
Sir Frederic Charles Bartlett FRS was a British psychologist and the first professor of experimental psychology at the University of Cambridge. He was one of the forerunners of cognitive psychology...
's last pupils at Cambridge, Gregory admitted to having been inspired by him. He was made an Honorary Fellow of Downing in 1999.
In 1967, with Prof. Donald Michie
Donald Michie
Donald Michie was a British researcher in artificial intelligence. During World War II, Michie worked for the Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park, contributing to the effort to solve "Tunny," a German teleprinter cipher.-Early life and career:Michie was born in Rangoon, Burma...
and Prof. Christopher Longuet-Higgins FRS, he founded the Department of Machine Intelligence and Perception, a forerunner of the Department of Artificial Intelligence at the University of Edinburgh
University of Edinburgh
The University of Edinburgh, founded in 1583, is a public research university located in Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. The university is deeply embedded in the fabric of the city, with many of the buildings in the historic Old Town belonging to the university...
. He was Head of the Bionics Research Laboratory, Professor of Bionics, and Department Chairman 1968-70.
He was a founding member of the Experimental Psychology Society
Experimental Psychology Society
The Experimental Psychology Society is an academic society which facilitates research into experimental psychology and communication between experimental psychologists. It is based in the United Kingdom....
and served as its President in 1981-2.
He collaborated with W. E. Hick
W. E. Hick
William Edmund Hick was a British psychologist, who was a pioneer in the new sciences of experimental psychology and ergonomics in the mid-20th century....
for the latter's influential paper "On the rate of gain of information". In fact, 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".
In 1978, he founded The Exploratoryhttp://www.exploratory.org.uk,
an applied science centre in Bristol
Bristol
Bristol is a city, unitary authority area and ceremonial county in South West England, with an estimated population of 433,100 for the unitary authority in 2009, and a surrounding Larger Urban Zone with an estimated 1,070,000 residents in 2007...
. This was the first of its kind in the UK. In 1989, he was appointed Osher Visiting Fellow of the Exploratorium
Exploratorium
The Exploratorium is a museum in San Francisco with over 475 participatory exhibits, all of them made onsite, that mix science and art. It also aims to promote museums as informal education centers....
, a similar scientific education centre in San Francisco, California
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
.
Gregory suggested Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann von Helmholtz
Hermann Ludwig Ferdinand von Helmholtz was a German physician and physicist who made significant contributions to several widely varied areas of modern science...
as his hero from past psychology, describing him as "... the modern founder of the science of perception".
He appeared on, and been an advisor to, numerous science-related television programmes in the UK and worldwide. His particular interest was in optical illusions and what these revealed about human perception. He authored and edited several books, notably Eye and Brain and Mind in Science. His hobby was punning (making pun
Pun
The pun, also called paronomasia, is a form of word play which suggests two or more meanings, by exploiting multiple meanings of words, or of similar-sounding words, for an intended humorous or rhetorical effect. These ambiguities can arise from the intentional use and abuse of homophonic,...
s) and he was also a guest on Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs
Desert Island Discs is a BBC Radio 4 programme first broadcast on 29 January 1942. It is the second longest-running radio programme , and is the longest-running factual programme in the history of radio...
.
He died on 17 May 2010 at the Bristol Royal Infirmary
Bristol Royal Infirmary
The Bristol Royal Infirmary, also known as the BRI, is a large teaching hospital situated in the centre of Bristol, England. It has links with the medical faculty of the nearby University of Bristol, and the Faculty of Health and Social Care at the University of the West of England, also in...
, having suffered a stroke a few days earlier, surrounded by family and friends.
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 (l977). 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 (l970), London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson. [in 6 languages].
- Illusion in Nature and Art (1973), (ed with Sir Ernst GombrichErnst GombrichSir Ernst Hans Josef Gombrich, OM, CBE was an Austrian-born art historian who became naturalized British citizen in 1947. He spent most of his working life in the United Kingdom...
), 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 (l984). (Macmillan Scientific Book Club choice). Transl. Italian, La Mente nella, Scienze, Mondadori (1985).
- Odd Perceptions [essays] (l986), London: Methuen. Paperback (1988) Routledge. (2nd edition 1990-91).
- Creative Intelligences (1987), (ed with Pauline Marstrand), London: Frances Pinter. ISBN 0861876733.
- Oxford Companion to the Mind (1987), (ed.) 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
Degrees
| Year | Degree |
|---|---|
| 1950 | M.A. (Cantab) |
| 1983 | D.Sc. (Bristol) |
Honorary Degrees
| Year | Honorary degree |
|---|---|
| 1990 | D. Univ. (Open) D. Univ. (Stirling) |
| 1993 | LL.D (Bristol) |
| 1996 | D.Sc. (East Anglia) D.Sc. (Exon Exon An exon is a nucleic acid sequence that is represented in the mature form of an RNA molecule either after portions of a precursor RNA have been removed by cis-splicing or when two or more precursor RNA molecules have been ligated by trans-splicing. The mature RNA molecule can be a messenger RNA... ) |
| 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, the daughter of novelist Nigel BalchinNigel Balchin
Nigel Balchin was an English novelist and screenwriter particularly known for his novels written during and immediately after World War II: Darkness Falls From the Air, The Small Back Room and Mine Own Executioner.-Life:He was born Nigel Marlin Balchin in Potterne, Wiltshire to...
, (marriage dissolved 1976). Gregory is survived by two children (Mark and Romilly Gregory), two grandchildren (Luutsche Ozinga and Kiran Rogers) and his long term companion Priscilla Heard.
External links
- Professor Richard Gregory on-line
- Richard Gregory - Why I Tell Jokes video and telling his life story at Web of Stories (video)
- The Psycholgist Obituary
- Daily Telegraph Obituary
- The Exploratory in Bristol
- Richard Gregory: a life of science and delight - reflections on his life by Sue Blackmore in The GuardianThe GuardianThe Guardian, formerly known as The Manchester Guardian , is a British national daily newspaper in the Berliner format...
- The Hollow-Face illusionHollow-Face illusionThe Hollow-Face illusion is an optical illusion in which the perception of a concave mask of a face appears as a normal convex face....
(also known as hollow-mask illusion) in a version using Charlie Chaplin's head has become known to a wide audience.