Proceedings of the Fifth International School on Neural Networks "E.R. Caianiello" on Visual Attention MechaProceedings of the Fifth International School on Neural Networks "E.R. Caianiello" on Visual Attention Mechanisms, held 23-28 October 2000 in Vietri sul Mare, Italy.nisms, held 23-28 October 2000 in Vietri sul Mare, Italy. The book covers a number of broad themes relevant to visual attention, ranging from computer vision to psychology and physiology of vision. The main theme of the book is the attention processes of vision systems and it aims to point out the analogies and the divergences of biological vision with the frameworks introduced by computer scientists in artificial vision.

An attempt to derive a comprehensive theory of attention from both neurobiological and psychological data.

This 5000-page masterwork is literally the last word on the topic and will be an essential resource for many. Unique in its breadth and detail, this encyclopedia offers a comprehensive and highly readable guide to a complex and fast-expanding field. The five-volume reference work gathers more than 10,000 entries, including in-depth essays by internationally known experts, and short keynotes explaining essential terms and phrases. In addition, expert editors contribute detailed introductory chapters to each of 43 topic fields ranging from the fundamentals of neuroscience to fascinating developments in the new, inter-disciplinary fields of Computational Neuroscience and Neurophilosophy. Some 1,000 multi-color illustrations enhance and expand the writings.

Edited by a leading scholar in the field, Eye Movements and Visual Cognitionpresents an up-to-date overview of the topics relevant to understanding the relationship between eye movements and visual cognition, particularly in relation to scene perception and reading. Cognitive psychologists, neuropsychologists, educational psychologists, and reading specialists will find this volume to be an authoritative source of state-of-the art research in this rapidly expanding area of study.

In order to produce coherent behaviour in a complex world, forms of visual attention are necessary in order for us to select appropriate objects for action. Over the past ten years, there have been considerable advances in research into visual attention, with many of these advances linked to interdisciplinary research in experimental psychology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology and functional imaging. This work has begun to allow us to understand not only the functional properties of visual attention, but also how attentional processes are localized in the brain: the cognitive neuroscience of visual attention. This special issue draws together research from leading figures in this field, to highlight recent progress in understanding how selective processes operate in perception and action.

The derivation, exposition, and justification of the Selective Tuning model of vision and attention. Although William James declared in 1890, "Everyone knows what attention is," today there are many different and sometimes opposing views on the subject. This fragmented theoretical landscape may be because most of the theories and models of attention offer explanations in natural language or in a pictorial manner rather than providing a quantitative and unambiguous statement of the theory. They focus on the manifestations of attention instead of its rationale. In this book, John Tsotsos develops a formal model of visual attention with the goal of providing a theoretical explanation for why humans (and animals) must have the capacity to attend. He takes a unique approach to the theory, using the full breadth of the language of computation—rather than simply the language of mathematics—as the formal means of description. The result, the Selective Tuning model of vision and attention, explains attentive behavior in humans and provides a foundation for building computer systems that see with human-like characteristics. The overarching conclusion is that human vision is based on a general purpose processor that can be dynamically tuned to the task and the scene viewed on a moment-by-moment basis. Tsotsos offers a comprehensive, up-to-date overview of attention theories and models and a full description of the Selective Tuning model, confining the formal elements to two chapters and two appendixes. The text is accompanied by more than 100 illustrations in black and white and color; additional color illustrations and movies are available on the book's Web site.