Jeffrey Miles Kisella-Shaw
Jeffrey Miles Kinsella-Shaw | |
|---|---|
| Residence | Storrs, Connecticut, United States |
| Nationality | USA |
| Scientific career | |
| Fields | Ecological psychology, perception and action, physical therapy |
| Institutions | University of Connecticut |
Jeffrey Miles Kinsella-Shaw (also rendered Kisella-Shaw) is an American physical therapist and researcher in ecological psychology. He is an associate professor in the Department of Kinesiology at the University of Connecticut in Storrs, where he holds the Livieri Endowed Professorship of Physical Therapy and is affiliated with the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action (CESPA).
Biography
Kinsella-Shaw holds a doctorate (PhD) and a physical therapist (PT) credential. He carried out research in the ecological tradition of perception and action, working in association with the Center for the Ecological Study of Perception and Action at the University of Connecticut and, earlier in his career, with Haskins Laboratories in New Haven, Connecticut.
At the University of Connecticut he serves as an associate professor of kinesiology and as director of the Doctor of Physical Therapy program's anatomy teaching facilities, including the Human Anatomy Learning Laboratory. He directs a movement laboratory devoted to the study of perception and action.
Work
Kinsella-Shaw's research applies the ecological approach to perception, in the tradition of James J. Gibson, to problems of human movement, motor control and motor learning. His areas of study include neurological and geriatric physical therapy, balance and falls, adult development, and the perception of affordances.
In an early and frequently cited study, "Perceiving 'Walk-on-able' Slopes" (published in the journal Ecological Psychology in 1992 with Peter Shaw and Michael T. Turvey), he examined how people perceive whether a sloping surface can support ordinary walking. Participants adjusted the inclination of a large platform until it reached what they judged to be the maximum slope for normal walking; the perceived maximum corresponded closely to the actual maximum slope on which unimpaired walking is possible. The work framed the perception of slope in terms of affordances and geographical slant rather than optical slant.
His later research has addressed haptic perception, dynamic (effortful) touch by hand and by foot, the perception of postural affordances, and changes in perceived affordances with age, applying these ideas toward an ecologically grounded approach to rehabilitation.