Bruner, Jerome S(eymour) (1915- )

US psychologist and author who pioneered techniques for investigating infant perception. His book The Process of Education (1960) established him as a curriculum innovator who advocated the value of cognitive psychology. He criticized the radical behaviourism of B(urrhus) F(Frederic) Skinner, with its stress on physiological responses, as deficient in a proper regard for humanity's primary motivations and problems.

He was born in New York City. Educated at Duke University and Harvard, he taught psychology at Harvard 1952-72, Oxford 1972-80, and the New School for Social Research in New York City. Other influential works include Man: A Course of Study, in Toward a Theory of Instruction (1966).