W H R Rivers (1864-1922): the founder of research in cross-cultural perception

This paper presents a brief review of Rivers's contribution to psychology, especially to his cross-cultural studies of the basic perceptual processes of vision, and examines the lasting influence of his findings. It reports b riefly on the scientific milieu in which Rivers carried out his work and tr aces the growth of his interest in the psychology of perception from the ea rly days of his medical work to his appointment as a foundation lecturer of two English universities, London and Cambridge. It is argued that Rivers's contribution has been undervalued by psychologists.