| Perception and Illusion: Historical Perspectives 2005 Edition Contributor(s): Wade, N. J. (Author) |
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ISBN: 0387227229 ISBN-13: 9780387227221 Publisher: Springer OUR PRICE: $104.49 Product Type: Hardcover - Other Formats Published: December 2004 Annotation: This volume traces the history of thinking about perception from its early philosophical roots to the modern laboratory. Some of the questions it considers have been asked since antiquity - Is what we see the truth? Are everyone??'s perceptual experiences the same? What is the nature of infants??? perception? What kinds of mistakes are made in perceiving? Can perceptual experience be communicated to others? The author sets the groundwork with an explanation of the five senses and how science has come to observe them. He also explores the idea of perceptual error which becomes the lens through which the study of perception is viewed. This examination of perception is described in chapters devoted to historical periods from the Greeks to the present time following themes of adaptation and how the senses are linked to an intricately organized brain which not only helps us perceive what is necessary for survival, but also creates links from the patterns of sensory stimulation to language and thought. |
| Additional Information |
| BISAC Categories: - Psychology | History - Psychology | Clinical Psychology - Science |
| Dewey: 152.14 |
| LCCN: 2004056968 |
| Series: Library of the History of Psychological Theories |
| Physical Information: 0.84" H x 5.87" W x 8.37" (1.13 lbs) 250 pages |
| Descriptions, Reviews, Etc. |
| Publisher Description: Our contact with the world is through perception, and therefore the study of the process is of obvious importance and signi?cance. For much of its long history, the study of perception has been con?ned to natural- tic observation. Nonetheless, the phenomena considered worthy of note have not been those that nurture our survival--the veridical features of perception--but the oddities or departures from the common and c- monplace accuracies of perception. With the move from the natural world to the laboratory the oddities of perception multiplied, and they received ever more detailed scrutiny. My general intention is to examine the interpretations of the perc- tual process and its errors throughout history. The emphasis on errors of perception might appear to be a narrow approach, but in fact it enc- passes virtually all perceptual research from the ancients until the present. The constancies of perception have been taken for granted whereas - partures from constancies (errors or illusions) have fostered fascination. |