Handbook of Experimental Phenomenology: Visual Perception of Shape, Space and Appearance

While the scientific study of vision is well–advanced and its concepts are widely agreed, there is still no universally accepted theory of qualitative visual appearances. Using such a theory, what we generally call objects in perception would effectively become collections of secondary qualities such as shape, direction, colour, transparency and luminosity, unified by the mind of the perceiver. Visual perception would thus become integrated into cognitive psychology, allowing for a more systematic and more broadly useful view than that offered by highly focused neuropsychological research. Leading researchers around the world have taken up this challenge, and a body of knowledge has emerged as the new and interdisciplinary field of experimental phenomenology. This state–of–the–art handbook presents that knowledge, along with contextual material and new developments centered on the analysis of appearances. This emerging field has relevance and potential applications across a wide range of disciplines, and the stellar contributor list includes cognitive scientists, physicists, experimental psychologists, architectural designers, mathematicians and philosophers.

About the Editor vii About the Contributors ix Preface xiii Experimental Phenomenology: An Introduction 1 Liliana Albertazzi Part I Linking Psychophysics and Qualities 37 1 Inferential and Ecological Theories of Visual Perception 39 Joseph S. Lappin 2 Public Objects and Private Qualia: The Scope and Limits of Psychophysics 71 Donald D. Hoffman 3 The Attribute of Realness and the Internal Organization of Perceptual Reality 91 Rainer Mausfeld 4 Multistable Visual Perception as a Gateway to the Neuronal Correlates of Phenomenal Consciousness: The Scope and Limits of Neuroscientifi c Analysis 119 Theofanis I. Panagiotaropoulos and Nikos K. Logothetis 5 Phenomenal Qualities and the Development of Perceptual Integration 145 Mariann Hudák, Zoltan Jakab, and Ilona Kovács Part II Qualities in Space, Time, and Motion 163 6 Surface Shape, the Science and the Looks 165 Jan J. Koenderink 7 Experimental Phenomenology of Visual 3D Space: Considerations from Evolution, Perception, and Philosophy 181 Dhanraj Vishwanath 8 Spatial and Form–Giving Qualities of Light 205 Sylvia C. Pont 9 Image Motion and the Appearance of Objects 223 Katja Dörschner 10 The Role of Stimulus Properties and Cognitive Processes in the Quality of the Multisensory Perception of Synchrony 243 Argiro Vatakis Part III Appearances 265 11 Appearances From a Radical Standpoint 267 Liliana Albertazzi 12 How Attention Can Alter Appearances 291 Peter U. Tse, Eric A. Reavis, Peter J. Kohler, Gideon P. Caplovitz, and Thalia Wheatley 13 Illusion and Illusoriness: New Perceptual Issues and New Phenomena 317 Baingio Pinna 14 Qualitative Inference Rules for Perceptual Transparency 343 Osvaldo Da Pos and Luigi Burigana 15 The Perceptual Quality of Color 369 Anya Hurlbert 16 The Aesthetic Appeal of Visual Qualities 395 Gert van Tonder and Branka Spehar Part IV Measurement and Qualities 415 17 Psychophysical and Neural Correlates of the Phenomenology of Shape 417 Irving Biederman 18 What Are Intermediate–Level Visual Features? 437 Steven W. Zucker 19 Basic Colors and Image Features: The Case for an Analogy 449 Lewis D. Griffin 20 Measuring the Immeasurable: Quantitative Analyses of Perceptual Experiments 477 Luisa Canal and Rocco Micciolo 21 The Non–Accidentalness Principle for Visual Perception 499 Agnès Desolneux, Lionel Moisan, and Jean–Michel Morel Name Index 515 Subject Index 529

Liliana Albertazzi is a Principal Investigator at the Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMEC), and Professor at the Department of Humanities of Trento University, Italy. Her research investigates phenomenal qualities, and the nature of perceptual space/time and visual operations. She has led a major international project to develop an accurate descriptive theory of appearances on an experimental basis. She is the editor of Perception Beyond Inference: The Information Content of Visual Processes (2011).