Gordon Ernest Legge (born January 22, 1948) is currently the Distinguished McKnight University Professor and former chair of the Department of

Psychology Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Its subject matter includes the behavior of humans and nonhumans, both consciousness, conscious and Unconscious mind, unconscious phenomena, and mental processes such as thoughts, feel ...

at the

University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...

. Legge is the director o
the Minnesota Laboratory for Low-Vision Research
Legge received a bachelor's degree in

Physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

from

MIT The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) is a private research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Established in 1861, MIT has played a significant role in the development of many areas of modern technology and sc ...

in 1971, and a master's degree in

Astronomy Astronomy is a natural science that studies celestial objects and the phenomena that occur in the cosmos. It uses mathematics, physics, and chemistry in order to explain their origin and their overall evolution. Objects of interest includ ...

from

Harvard Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher lear ...

in 1972. In 1976, Legge obtained his Ph.D. in

Experimental Psychology Experimental psychology is the work done by those who apply Experiment, experimental methods to psychological study and the underlying processes. Experimental psychologists employ Research participant, human participants and Animal testing, anim ...

from

under the direction of R.J.W. Mansfield. Legge did his postdoctoral training with Fergus Campbell at the Physiological Laboratory,

Cambridge University The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...

. In 1977, Legge joined the faculty of th
University of Minnesota
Legge studies the roles of

vision Vision, Visions, or The Vision may refer to: Perception Optical perception * Visual perception, the sense of sight * Visual system, the physical mechanism of eyesight * Computer vision, a field dealing with how computers can be made to gain und ...

in reading,

object recognition Object recognition – technology in the field of computer vision for finding and identifying objects in an image or video sequence. Humans recognize a multitude of objects in images with little effort, despite the fact that the image of the ...

, and spatial navigation. Legge's major research interest is in reading with normal vision and

low vision Visual or vision impairment (VI or VIP) is the partial or total inability of visual perception. In the absence of treatment such as corrective eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment, visual impairment may cause the individual difficul ...

(visual impairment). Legge is the author of a series of papers known as the "

Psychophysics Psychophysics is the field of psychology which quantitatively investigates the relationship between physical stimulus (physiology), stimuli and the sensation (psychology), sensations and perceptions they produce. Psychophysics has been described ...

of Reading" series, published in peer-reviewed scientific journals between 1985 and 2002. These have been summarized and reviewed in the book "Psychophysics of reading in normal and low vision", which also contains a CDROM with the original articles. Together with J. Stephen Mansfield, Legge also developed the MNREAD testbr>
which has become an internationally accepted standard test for measurement of reading acuity and reading speed in low vision clinics and clinical research. Legge also sat on the Committee on Currency Features Usable by the Visually Impaired, which reviewed the design of U.S. currency bills (banknotes) in 199

References

*Legge, G.E. (2007), Psychophysics of reading in normal and low vision, Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates. *Mansfield J., Ahn, S., Legge, G.E., & Luebker, A. (1993). A new reading-acuity chart for normal and low vision. Ophthalmic and Visual Optics/Noninvasive Assessment of the Visual System Technical Digest, 3, 232–235. *http://www1.umn.edu/twincities/index.php *http://www.psych.umn.edu/psychology *http://vision.psych.umn.edu/groups/gellab *http://vision.psych.umn.edu/users/legge/index.html Living people University of Minnesota faculty 1948 births Harvard Graduate School of Arts and Sciences alumni 21st-century American psychologists Massachusetts Institute of Technology School of Science alumni 20th-century American psychologists {{US-psychologist-stub