About Us

The mission of the Gibson Institute is to conduct empirical research on cognitive rehabilitation training and cognitive assessments, and to communicate the latest research findings to the fields of education, psychology, medicine, and neuroscience through publication in scientific journals, conference presentations, technical reports, social media announcements, and website material to inform the practice of interventions for these conditions. Further, our mission is to research neuropsychological, genetic, and lifestyle factors that are associated with cognition and learning across the lifespan.

The Gibson Institute evolved from the desire to grow an empirical research base on cognitive training programs and assessments developed over the last four decades by a research team led by Dr. Ken Gibson, a pediatric optometrist specializing in vision therapy.  Beginning in the 1960s, Dr. Gibson’s original focus on developmental vision therapy expanded to include sensory motor training and comprehensive visual processing training for children and adults with developmental deficits.  After a decade of wanting to see more growth from training, Dr. Gibson studied the techniques used by an NBA basketball team to accelerate training results.  By adding intensity, loading, and targeted skill development to his already successful clinical interventions, Dr. Gibson created the Vision Information Processing (VIP) Program.

In the 1990s, he added an auditory processing component as well as training procedures that targeted long term memory, processing speed, and logic and reasoning.  Using the theory and work of Carroll, Cattell, and Horn as a springboard, Dr. Gibson restructured the program to address all of the primary cognitive skills.  While continuing to train optometrists in the VIP program, he and his team trained over 600 educators, psychologists, clinicians, and parents to deliver the more comprehensive PACE program to build cognitive skills necessary for academic success. Over the decade that followed, Dr. Gibson and his team of cognitive trainers and researchers continuously studied the results of learning and cognition research to inform the development of a math intervention, reading intervention, and reading comprehension intervention that complements the original training program.

Later, his focus turned to building an empirical research base that supports the cognitive training procedures and assessments used by PACE providers and LearningRx/BrainRx brain training centers around the world, and to the continued development and testing of cognitive training program components.  He established the Gibson Institute of Cognitive Research in April 2014 to accomplish those goals. Dr. Gibson retired in 2018.

In 2018, the team at Gibson Institute converted the organization to a nonprofit corporation in order to expand the mission beyond the support of LearningRx methodology to conduct additional research that would inform cognitive intervention practices across disciplines and to research neuropsychological, genetic, and lifestyle factors that are associated with cognition and learning across the lifespan. The institute became a 501c3 charity in 2021.

Mailing Address:
Gibson Institute of Cognitive Research
5085 List Drive, Suite 200-A
Colorado Springs, CO 80919

Phone:
719-219-0940