Perception beyond Inference

Description

Proposing a new paradigm for perceptual science that goes beyond standard information theory and digital computation.

This book breaks with the conventional model of perception that views vision as a mere inference to an objective reality on the basis of “inverse optics.” The authors offer the alternative view that perception is an expressive and awareness-generating process. Perception creates semantic information in such a way as to enable the observer to deal efficaciously with the chaotic and meaningless structure present at the physical boundary between the body and its surroundings. Vision is intentional by its very nature; visual qualities are essential and real, providing an aesthetic and meaningful interface to the structures of physics and the state of the brain. This view brings perception firmly in line with ethology and modern evolutionary biology and suggests new approaches in all disciplines that study, or require an understanding of, the ontology of mind.

The book is the joint effort of a multidisciplinary group of authors. Topics covered include the relationships among stimuli, neuronal processes, and visual awareness. After considering the mind-dependent growing of information, the book treats time and dynamics; color, shape, and space; language and perception; perception, art, and design.Preface vii
Acknowledgments xi
Introduction 1
Liliana Albertazzi, Gert J. van Tonder, and Dhanraj Vishwanath
1 Vision and Information 27
Jan J. Koenderink I Time and Dynamics 59
2 Riddle of the Past, Puzzle for the Future 61
Ilona Kovács
3 Extending Prägnanz: Dynamic Aspects of Mental Representation and Gestalt Principles 75
Timothy L. Hubbard
4 Informing through an Imperfect Retina 109
Gert J. van Tonder
5 Perceptual Organization in the Visual Cortex 137
Shinsuke Shimojo
II Color, Shape, and Space 157
6 The Perception of Material Qualities and the Internal Semantics of the Perceptual System 159
Rainer Mausfeld
7 Visual Information in Surface and Depth Perception: Reconciling Pictures and Reality 201
Dhanraj Vishwanath
8 Good Continuation in Layers: Shading Flows, Color Flows, Surfaces, and Shadows 241
Ohad Ben-Shahar and Steven W. Zucker
9 Illusory Contours and Neon Color Spreading Reconsidered in the Light of Petter’s Rule 261
Baingio Pinna
III Language and Perception 285
10 From Grouping to Visual Meanings: A New Theory of Perceptual Organization 287
Baingio Pinna and Liliana Albertazzi
11 The Perceptual Roots of Metaphor 345 Liliana Albertazzi
IV Perception in Art, Design, and Computation 391
12 Becoming Information: Paul Cézanne and Prägnanz 393
Amy Ione
13 Becoming: Generative Art and the Production of Information 411
Ernest Edmonds
Contributors 421
Author Index 423
Subject Index 435Liliana Albertazzi is Associate Professor in the Faculty of Cognitive Science at Trento University, Italy.
Gert J. van Tonder is Professor of Vision Research and Adjunct Professor at the Laboratory of Visual Psychology, Department of Architecture and Design, at Kyoto Institute of Technology.
Dhanraj Vishwanath is RCUK (Research Councils UK) Academic Fellow in the School of Psychology at the University of St. Andrews, Scotland.US

Additional information