Perception of the Visual Environment

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-x

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2. Conceptual and Philosophical Issues: What Does It Mean to Assert That an Observer Perceives?

   Pages 1-24

3. Psychophysical Methods: What Scientific Procedures Can Be Used to Ask an Observer What Is Being Perceived?

   Pages 25-54

4. The Perceptual Environment: What Is Out There to Be Perceived?

   Pages 55-86

5. Sensing the Environment: What Mechanisms Are Used to Sample, Image, and Transduce Physical Stimulation from the Environment?

   Pages 87-120

6. Perceptual Processing I.Biological Hardware:What Properties of Neural Tissues Support Perceptual Processing in Humans and Monkeys?

   Pages 121-160

7. Perceptual Processing II. Abstractions: How Can Perceptual Processing Be Characterized and Modeled as Flow of Abstract Information?

   Pages 161-190

8. Color Vision: How Are Objective Wavelengths of Light Transformed into Secondary Qualities of Percepts Called Colors?

   Pages 191-221

9. Form Vision: How Is Information About Shapes of Objects Transferred from the Environment to Our Percepts?

   Pages 222-256

10. Perception of Three-Dimensional Space: How Do We Use Information Derived from One or Both Eyes to Perceive the Spatial Layout of Our Surroundings?

    Pages 257-294

11. Dynamic How-Perception: How Do We Perceive and React to Change and Motion?

    Pages 295-327

12. Perceptual Development: Where Does the Information Come from That Allows Perceptual Systems to Become Wired Together in Such a Manner That They Can Perceive?

    Pages 328-361

13. Higher-Order and Subjective Aspects of Perception: How Are Low-Level Stimulus Properties Transformed into High-Level Percept Qualities?

    Pages 362-377

14. Back Matter

    Pages 379-407

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detailed historical description of how the facts presented here were or- inally discovered. The text strives to explain in a manner that can be grasped by undergraduates the major ideas and scienti?c discoveries that have allowed us to understand perception as it occurs in humans. A similarly hard choice was deciding how many citations to include to the primary scienti?c literature. Almost every paragraph in this book could have numerous citations to published studies or references to the names of individuals who developed the ideas being discussed. However, speci?c citations are not included in the text, which only refers to a few individual scientists by name, thereby neglecting a vast army of other researchers who made the discoveries summarized here. In some cases, particularly when describing a very speci?c ?nding or set of studies by contemporary workers, the name of the author in whose lab the study was conducted is mentioned. However, the inclusion of num- ous citations or names of scientists interfered with the primary goal of introducing the major concepts and facts in an uncluttered manner. Also, at times, complex results had to be simpli?ed in a manner that remains true to the spirit of the original research ?ndings, but may differ enough in some speci?c details that a speci?c citation might give offense rather than credit. To compensate, a limited list of suggested readings appears at the end of each chapter.

• Flow
• Form
• Neuroscience
• Perception
• algorithms
• robot
• robotics
• sensing
• tissue
• visual perception

• Yerkes Regional Primate Center, Emory University, Atlanta, USA

  Ronald G. Boothe

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