Perception of the Visual Environment

Abstract

This is a text book aimed at a student taking a course on visual perception. Throughout, the book considers what it means for a man, a monkey and a computer to perceive the world. After an introduction to the subject and a discussion of methods, the book deals with how the environment produces a physical effect, how the resulting "image" is processed by the brain or by computer algorithms in order to produce a perception of "something out there". The book discusses color, form, motion, distance, and also the sensing of three dimensionality. Visual perception and its role in awareness and consciousness is then discussed. The book finishes up with discussions of perceptual development, blindness, and visual disorders. Visual perception is by its very nature an interdisciplinary subject that requires a basic understanding of a range of topics from diverse fields. This book provides a very readable guide to all students whether they come from a neuroscience, psychology, cognitive science, robotics, or philosophy background. Conceptual and Philosophical Issues: What Does It Mean to Assert That an Observer Perceives? -- Psychophysical Methods: What Scientific Procedures Can Be Used to Ask an Observer What Is Being Perceived? -- The Perceptual Environment: What Is Out There to Be Perceived? -- Sensing the Environment: What Mechanisms Are Used to Sample, Image, and Transduce Physical Stimulation from the Environment? -- Perceptual Processing I. Biological Hardware:What Properties of Neural Tissues Support Perceptual Processing in Humans and Monkeys? -- Perceptual Processing II. Abstractions: How Can Perceptual Processing Be Characterized and Modeled as Flow of Abstract Information? -- Color Vision: How Are Objective Wavelengths of Light Transformed into Secondary Qualities of Percepts Called Colors? -- Form Vision: How Is Information About Shapes of Objects Transferred from the Environment to Our Percepts? -- Perception of Three-Dimensional Space: How Do We Use Information Derived from One or Both Eyes to Perceive the Spatial Layout of Our Surroundings? -- Dynamic How-Perception: How Do We Perceive and React to Change and Motion? -- Perceptual Development: Where Does the Information Come from That Allows Perceptual Systems to Become Wired Together in Such a Manner That They Can Perceive? -- Higher-Order and Subjective Aspects of Perception: How Are Low-Level Stimulus Properties Transformed into High-Level Percept Qualities?