In psychology, visual perception is the ability to interpret information from visible light reaching the eyes. Psychology (from Greek grc ψῡχή psȳkhē, "breath life soul" and grc -λογία -logia) is an Academic and Eyes are organs that detect Light, and send signals along the Optic nerve to the visual areas of the brain The resulting perception is also known as eyesight, sight or vision. In Psychology and the Cognitive sciences perception is the process of attaining awareness or understanding of sensory Information. The various physiological components involved in vision are referred to collectively as the visual system. The visual system is the part of the Nervous system which allows organisms to see.

Visual system

Main article: Visual system

The visual system in humans allows individuals to assimilate information from the environment. The visual system is the part of the Nervous system which allows organisms to see. The act of seeing starts when the lens of the eye focuses an image of its surroundings onto a light-sensitive membrane in the back of the eye, called the retina. The lens is a transparent biconvex structure in the Eye that along with the Cornea, helps to Refract Light to be focused The vertebrate retina is a light sensitive part inside the inner layer of the Eye. The retina is actually part of the brain that is isolated to serve as a transducer for the conversion of patterns of light into neuronal signals. The brain is the center of the Nervous system in animals All Vertebrates and the majority of Invertebrates have a brain A transducer is a device usually electrical, electronic, Electro-mechanical, Electromagnetic, Photonic, or Photovoltaic The lens of the eye focuses light on the photoreceptive cells of the retina, which detect the photons of light and respond by producing neural impulses. A photoreceptor, or photoreceptor cell, is a specialized type of Neuron (nerve cell found in the Eye 's Retina that is capable of In Physics, the photon is the Elementary particle responsible for electromagnetic phenomena In Neurophysiology, the action potential is a self-regenerating Wave of Electrochemical activity that allows Nerve cells to carry a signal These signals are processed in a hierarchical fashion by different parts of the brain, from the retina to the lateral geniculate nucleus, to the primary and secondary visual cortex of the brain. @@@ main@@@ - title Hierarchy@@@ keywords structure; sociology; information@@@ review@@@ - The lateral geniculate nucleus ( LGN) of the Thalamus is a part of the Brain, which is the primary processor of visual information received from the The term visual cortex refers to the primary visual cortex (also known as striate cortex or The brain is the center of the Nervous system in animals All Vertebrates and the majority of Invertebrates have a brain

Study of visual perception

The major problem in visual perception is that what people see is not simply a translation of retinal stimuli (i. e. , the image on the retina). Thus people interested in perception have long struggled to explain what visual processing does to create what we actually see.

Early studies on visual perception

The visual dorsal stream (green) and ventral stream (purple) are shown. The dorsal stream is a pathway for visual information that flows through the Visual cortex, the part of the Brain which provides visual processing The primate visual system consists of numerous diverse areas of the Cerebral cortex called the Visual cortex. Much of the human cerebral cortex is involved in vision. The cerebral cortex is a structure within the Brain that plays a key role in Memory, Attention, perceptual Awareness, Thought,

There were two major Greek schools, providing a primitive explanation of how vision is carried out in the body.

The first was the "emission theory" which maintained that vision occurs when rays emanate from the eyes and are intercepted by visual objects. Emission theory or extramission theory is the proposal that Visual perception is accomplished by rays of Light emitted by the Eyes This If we saw an object directly it was by 'means of rays' coming out of the eyes and again falling on the object. A refracted image was, however, seen by 'means of rays' as well, which came out of the eyes, traversed through the air, and after refraction, fell on the visible object which was sighted as the result of the movement of the rays from the eye. This theory was championed by scholars like Euclid and Ptolemy and their followers. Euclid ( Greek:.) fl 300 BC also known as Euclid of Alexandria, is often referred to as the Father of Geometry Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca

The second school advocated the so called the 'intromission' approach which sees vision as coming from something entering the eyes representative of the object. With its main propagators Aristotle, Galen and their followers, this theory seems to have touched a little sense on what really vision is, but remained only a speculation lacking any experimental foundation.

Leonardo DaVinci: The eye has a central line and everything that reaches the eye through this central line can be seen distinctly.

Ibn al-Haytham (Alhacen), the "father of optics", pioneered the scientific study of the psychology of visual perception in his influential Book of Optics in the 1000s, being the first scientist to argue that vision occurs in the brain, rather than the eyes. TemplateInfobox Muslim scholars --> ( Arabic: ابو علی، حسن بن حسن بن هيثم Latinized Science (from the Latin scientia, meaning " Knowledge " or "knowing" is the effort to discover, and increase human understanding The Book of Optics ( Arabic: Kitab al-Manazir, Latin: De Aspectibus or Opticae Thesaurus Alhazeni A scientist, in the broadest sense refers to any person that engages in a systematic activity to acquire Knowledge or an individual that engages in such practices He pointed out that personal experience has an effect on what people see and how they see, and that vision and perception are subjective. He explained possible errors in vision in detail, and as an example, describes how a small child with less experience may have more difficulty interpreting what he/she sees. For a little child however ugly a mother is , it does not matter to it as the definition of beauty is not that well defined for the little child as it is with any other adult . He also gives an example of an adult that can make mistakes in vision because of how one's experience suggests that he/she is seeing one thing, when he/she is really seeing something else. This can be easily related to the famous saying " Beauty lies in the eye's of the person who sees it ". That is a flower which may appear beautiful for one adult , may not appeal that much to the other . ^[1] Al-Haytham carried out many investigations and experiments on visual perception, translated and extended the work of Ptolemy on binocular vision and commented on the anatomical works of Galen. In scientific inquiry an experiment ( Latin: Ex- periri, "to try out" is a method of investigating particular types of research questions or Claudius Ptolemaeus ( Greek: Klaúdios Ptolemaîos; after 83 &ndash ca Binocular vision is vision in which both Eyes are used together Galen ( Greek: Γαληνός Galēnos; Latin: Claudius Galenus, Aelius Galenus, Claudius Aelius Galenus, or ^[2][3]

Leonardo DaVinci,1452-1519, was the first to recognize the special optical qualities of the eye. Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci ( April 15 1452 – May 2 1519 was an Italian Polymath, having been a scientist Mathematician, Engineer He wrote "The function of the human eye, . . . was described by a large number of authors in a certain way. But I found it to be completely different. "

His main experimental finding was that there is only a distinct and clear vision at the line of sight, the optical line that ends at the fovea. The fovea, also known as the fovea centralis, is a part of the Eye, located in the center of the Macula region of the Retina. Although he did not use these words literally he actually is the father of the modern distinction between foveal vision and peripheral vision. The foveal system of the human eye is the only part of the Retina that permits 100% visual acuity VisiCorp 's VisiOn was a short-lived but influential Graphical user interface -based Operating environment program for IBM PC compatible Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze

Unconscious inference

Hermann von Helmholtz is often credited with the first study of visual perception in modern times. The term modern period or modern era (sometimes also modern times) is the period of history that followed the Middle Ages between c Helmholtz examined the human eye and concluded that it was, optically, rather poor. The poor quality information gathered via the eye seemed to him to make vision impossible. He therefore concluded that vision could only be the result of some form of unconscious inferences: a matter of making assumptions and conclusions from incomplete data, based on previous experiences. Inference is the act or process of deriving a Conclusion based solely on what one already knows

Inference requires prior experience of the world: examples of well-known assumptions - based on visual experience - are:

• light comes from above
• objects are normally not viewed from below
• faces are seen (and recognized) upright ^[4]

The study of visual illusions (cases when the inference process goes wrong) has yielded much insight into what sort of assumptions the visual system makes. This article is about visual perception See Optical Illusion (Album for information about the Time Requiem album

Another type of the unconscious inference hypothesis (based on probabilities) has recently been revived in so-called Bayesian studies of visual perception. Proponents of this approach consider that the visual system performs some form of Bayesian inference to derive a perception from sensory data. Bayesian inference is Statistical inference in which evidence or observations are used to update or to newly infer the Probability that a hypothesis may be true Models based on this idea have been used to describe various visual subsystems, such as the perception of motion or the perception of depth. In Physics, motion means a constant change in the location of a body Depth perception is the visual ability to perceive the world in three Dimensions Although any animal capable of moving around its environment must be able to ^[5][6]

Gestalt theory

Main article: Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychologists working primarily in the 1930s and 1940s raised many of the research questions that are studied by vision scientists today. Gestalt psychology (also Gestalt of the Berlin School) is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic Gestalt psychology (also Gestalt of the Berlin School) is a theory of mind and brain that proposes that the operational principle of the brain is holistic

The Gestalt Laws of Organization have guided the study of how people perceive visual components as organized patterns or wholes, instead of many different parts. Gestalt is a German word that translates to "configuration or pattern". According to this theory, there are six main factors that determine how we group things according to visual perception: Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Symmetry, Common fate and Continuity.

One of the reasons why Gestalt laws have often been disregarded by cognitive psychologists is a lack of understanding the nature of peripheral vision. Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze It is true that visual perception only takes place during fixations.

But during fixations not only the high definition foveal vision at the fixation point, but also the peripheral vision is functioning. The foveal system of the human eye is the only part of the Retina that permits 100% visual acuity Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze Due to its lack of acuity and relative independence of eye position (due to its extreme wide angle) it is an image compressing system.

While foveal vision is very slow (only 3 to 4 high quality telescopic images per second), peripheral vision is very inaccurate but also very fast (up to 90 images per second - permitting to see the flicker of the European 50Hz TV images). The foveal system of the human eye is the only part of the Retina that permits 100% visual acuity Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze Elements of the visual field are thus grouped automatically according to laws like Proximity, Similarity, Closure, Symmetry, Common fate and Continuity.

Analysis of Eye-Movements

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During the 1960s the technical development permitted the continuous registration of eye movements during reading^[7] in picture viewing ^[8] and later in visual problem solving ^[9] and when headset-cameras became available, also during driving. ^[10]

The picture to the left shows what may happen during the first two seconds of visual inspection. While the background is out of focus, representing the peripheral vision, the first eye movement goes the boots of the man (just because they are very near the starting fixation and have a reasonable contrast). Peripheral vision is a part of vision that occurs outside the very center of gaze

The following fixations jump from face to face. They might even permit comparisons between faces.

It may be concluded that the icon face is a very attractive search icon within the peripheral field of vision. The foveal vision adds detailed information to the peripheral first impression. The foveal system of the human eye is the only part of the Retina that permits 100% visual acuity

The cognitive and computational approaches

The major problem with the Gestalt laws (and the Gestalt school generally) is that they are descriptive not explanatory. For example, one cannot explain how humans see continuous contours by simply stating that the brain "prefers good continuity". Computational models of vision have had more success in explaining visual phenomena and have largely superseded Gestalt theory. Computational neuroscience is an interdisciplinary science that links the diverse fields of Neuroscience, Cognitive science, Electrical engineering, More recently, the computational models of visual perception have been developed for Virtual Reality systems - these are closer to real life situation as they account for motion and activities which populate the real world. ^[11] Regarding Gestalt influence on the study of visual perception, Bruce, Green & Georgeson conclude:

"The physiological theory of the Gestaltists has fallen by the wayside, leaving us with a set of descriptive principles, but without a model of perceptual processing. Indeed, some of their "laws" of perceptual organisation today sound vague and inadequate. What is meant by a "good" or "simple" shape, for example?" ^[12]

In the 1980's David Marr developed a multi-level theory of vision, which analysed the process of vision at different levels of abstraction. David Courtnay Marr ( January 19, 1945 - November 17, 1980) was a British Neuroscientist and Psychologist. In order to focus on the understanding of specific problems in vision, he identified (with Tomaso Poggio) three levels of analysis: the computational, algorithmic and implementational levels. Tomaso A Poggio is the Eugene McDermott Professor in the Department of Brain and Cognitive Sciences McGovern Institute and the MIT Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence Laboratory

The computational level addresses, at a high level of abstraction, the problems that the visual system must overcome. The algorithmic level attempts to identify the strategy that may be used to solve these problems. Finally, the implementational level attempts to explain how these problems are overcome in terms of the actual neural activity necessary.

Marr suggested that it is possible to investigate vision at any of these levels independently. Marr described vision as proceeding from a two-dimensional visual array (on the retina) to a three-dimensional description of the world as output. His stages of vision include:

• a 2D or primal sketch of the scene, based on feature extraction of fundamental components of the scene, including edges, regions, etc. Note the similarity in concept to a pencil sketch drawn quickly by an artist as an impression.
• a 2-1/2 D sketch of the scene, where textures are acknowledged, etc. Note the similarity in concept to the stage in drawing where an artist highlights or shades areas of a scene, to provide depth.
• a 3 D model, where the scene is visualized in a continuous, 3-dimensional map. ^[13]

Marr unfortunately died of leukemia in Cambridge, Massachusetts at the age of 35, but his theory provides an important framework for the continued investigation of vision. Leukemia or leukaemia (Greek leukos λευκός, "white" aima αίμα, "blood" is a Cancer of the Blood Cambridge Massachusetts is a City in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts, United States.

See also

• Color vision
• Motion perception
• Depth perception
• Visual illusion

Disorders/Dysfunctions

• Achromatopsia
• Color blindness
• Scotopic Sensitivity Syndrome

Related Disciplines

• Psychophysics
• Neuroscience
• Cognitive Science
• Optometry
• Ophthalmology

References

External links

• Empiristic theory of visual gestalt perception
• Visual Perception 3 - Cultural and Environmental Factors
• Gestalt Laws
• Summary of Kosslyn et al.'s theory of high-level vision
• The Organization of the Retina and Visual System
• Dr Trippy's Sensorium A website dedicated to the study of the human sensorium and organisational behaviour
• Effect of Detail on Visual Perception by Jon McLoone, The Wolfram Demonstrations Project.