Visual Perception

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Academic Press, Dec 2, 2012 - Science - 492 pages
Visual Perception explores fundamental topics underlying the field of visual perception, including the perception of brightness and color, the physics of light, and the optics of the eye. Although the text leans heavily on physical and physiological concepts, explanations of the relevant physics and physiology are considered. This book is organized into 16 chapters and begins with an overview of the relationship between information assimilation and the physiology of the visual system based on data gathered both in physiological and perceptual experiments. More specifically, this text discusses the nature of the human perceptual system in terms of the kinds of information that are assimilated from the world, and how this selection of information is governed by the structure of receptors and the neural circuits that are connected to them. The relationships between symbols and their corresponding physical and physiological variables are also examined. Finally, the book addresses the presence of strong lateral inhibition in the visual system and how it fits the concept of evolution. This book is aimed at undergraduate and graduate students, regardless of their academic backgrounds.
 

Contents

CHAPTER I INTRODUCTION
1
CHAPTER II THE EXPERIMENT OF HECHT SCHLAER AND PIRENNE
6
CHAPTER III THE PHYSICS OF LIGHT
27
CHAPTER IV QUANTAL FLUCTUATIONS
68
CHAPTER V THE ACTION OF LIGHT ON ROD PIGMENTS
90
CHAPTER VI THE EXCITATION OF RODS
117
CHAPTER VII CONES AND CONE PIGMENT
135
CHAPTER VII COLOR VISION I DISCRIMINATIONS AMONG WAVELENGTH MIXTURES
155
CHAPTER XIV TEMPORAL PROPERTIES OF THE VISUAL SYSTEM
384
CHAPTER XV STIMULUS GENERALIZATION
419
CHAPTER XVI SPECULATIONS ON HIGHER PROCESSES
434
VISUAL ANGLE
444
FILTER TRANSMISSION VERSUS DENSITY
446
HOW TO BUILD AN OPHTHALMOSCOPE
447
DEMONSTRATION OF COLOR CONTRAST COLORED SHADOWS
453
REFERENCES
455

CHAPTER IX COLOR VISION II RETINAL COLOR SYSTEMS
199
CHAPTER X COLOR VISION III THE PERCEPTION OF COLOR
224
CHAPTER XI THE PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF BRIGHTNESS I SPATIAL INTERACTION IN THE VISUAL SYSTEM
268
CHAPTER XII PSYCHOPHYSIOLOGY OF BRIGHTNESS II MODULATION TRANSFER FUNCTIONS
311
CHAPTER XIII BRIGHTNESS AND COLOR CONSTANCY
365
SUGGESTED GENERAL READINGS
462
Author Index
465
Subject Index
469
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