Richard Gregory

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Richard Langton Gregory, CBE, MA, D.Sc., FRSE, FRS (born 1923-07-24) is a British psychologist and Emeritus Professor of Neuropsychology at the University of Bristol.

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 comments "... 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 "Exploratory", a "hands-on" 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.

He has appeared on, and been an advisor to, numerous science-related television programmes in the UK and worldwide. His particular interest is in optical illusions and what these reveal about human perceptions. He has authored and edited several books, notably "Eye and brain", and "Mind in Science". His hobby is punning (making puns). He has also been a guest on Desert Island Discs.