This book defines the terminology used in the fields of sensation and perception and describes the biological and physical bases required for understanding sensory experiences. It offers more specifically an introduction to the study of psychophysics, auditory perception, visual perception, and attention, and discusses the basic concepts and mechanisms used to interpret different perceptual phenomena. Featured topics in this book: Laws of psychophysics, including the discrimination law of Weber and Stevens’ power law. Psychophysical methods and signal detection theory. Hearing music and speech. Color, form and depth perception The role of attention in perception. Sensory disorders. Psychology of Perception is an essential resource for undergraduate and graduate students interested in studying sensation and perception.

An argument that there are perceptual mechanisms that retrieve information in cognitively and conceptually unmediated ways and that this sheds light on various philosophical issues. In Cognition and Perception, Athanassios Raftopoulos discusses the cognitive penetrability of perception and claims that there is a part of visual processes (which he calls “perception”) that results in representational states with nonconceptual content; that is, a part that retrieves information from visual scenes in conceptually unmediated, “bottom-up,” theory-neutral ways. Raftopoulos applies this insight to problems in philosophy of science, philosophy of mind, and epistemology, and examines how we access the external world through our perception as well as what we can know of that world. To show that there is a theory-neutral part of existence, Raftopoulos turns to cognitive science and argues that there is substantial scientific evidence. He then claims that perception induces representational states with nonconceptual content and examines the nature of the nonconceptual content. The nonconceptual information retrieved, he argues, does not allow the identification or recognition of an object but only its individuation as a discrete persistent object with certain spatiotemporal properties and other features. Object individuation, however, suffices to determine the referents of perceptual demonstratives. Raftopoulos defends his account in the context of current discussions on the issue of the theory-ladenness of perception (namely the Fodor-Churchland debate), and then discusses the repercussions of his thesis for problems in the philosophy of science. Finally, Raftopoulos claims that there is a minimal form of realism that is defensible. This minimal realism holds that objects, their spatiotemporal properties, and such features as shape, orientation, and motion are real, mind-independent properties in the world.

This volume takes a contemporary and novel look at how people see the world around them. We generally believe we see our surroundings and everything in it with complete accuracy. However, as the contributions to this volume argue, this assumption is wrong: people’s view of their world is cloudy at best. Social Psychology of Visual Perception is a thorough examination of the nature and determinants of visual perception, which integrates work on social psychology and vision. It is the first broad-based volume to integrate specific sub-areas into the study of vision, including goals and wishes, sex and gender, emotions, culture, race, and age. The volume tackles a range of engaging issues, such as what is happening in the brain when people look at attractive faces, or if the way our eyes move around influences how happy we are and could help us reduce stress. It reveals that sexual desire, our own sexual orientation, and our race affect what types of people capture our attention. It explores whether our brains and eyes work differently when we are scared or disgusted, or when we grow up in Asia rather than North America. The multiple perspectives in the book will appeal to researchers and students in range of disciplines, including social psychology, cognition, evolutionary psychology, and neuroscience.

Paul Rookes and Jane Willson explain perception and perceptual processes in a way that almost anyone can understand. The study of perception, or how the brain processes information from the senses , has fascinated psychologists and philosophers for a long time. Perception takes the key research areas and presents the arguments and findings in a clear, concise form, enabling the reader to have a quick working knowledge of the area. This clear and informative text discusses sensation and perception then looks at theories and explanations of perception. The way visual perception is structured is examined, followed by an analysis of the development of perceptual processes. The authors then consider individual social and cultural variations in perceptual organisation. Perception will be particularly useful to students new to higher-level study. With its helpful textbook features to assist in examination and learning techniques, it should interest all introductory psychology students.

How do people perceive time? This book presents a wealth of contemporary and classical research, including some of the history and philosophy of time perception. Influential internal clock-based models of time perception receive an in-depth but non-technical introduction and discussion. The role of cognition and emotion in perceiving time is also explored, as well as questions derived from time experience in daily life, such as why time seems to pass more quickly in one situation rather than another. Classical and modern research on timing in children is reviewed, as well as work on time perception and time experience in older people. Leading recent models of animal timing are also discussed in a non-mathematical way.

Developments in the field of timing and time perception have multiplied the number of relevant questions regarding psychological time, and helped to provide answers and open many avenues of thought. This book brings together presentations of many of the main ideas, findings, hypotheses and theories that experimental psychology offers to the field.