Summary
This book presents an analysis of limits in perception from the vantage point of the physicist, the engineer, the psychophysicist, the psychologist and the theorist. Limits in perception find their causal explanation at many logically and/or physically different levels. Some of the most fundamental bottlenecks are due to the quantum mechanical and atomistic structure of the microworld. Other simple constraints are due to the material constitution of sensory organs. For instance, the fact that the eye is predominantly composed of water limits both the optical quality and the available spectral window. The engineer uses knowledge on such limits to design equipment that optimizes human performance in daily life. Examples include room acoustics and visual displays. Psychophysicists and psychologists deal with limits on a quite different logical level. These limits constrain much of our perceptually guided behaviour. The book includes chapters on such topics as movement perception, binocular vision, illusory phenomena, language and perception, the perception of time. A few concluding chapters on fundamental limits imposed by information theoretical constraints on the coding and representation of sensed structure are included. Limits in Perception will be important reading material for scientists and/or engineers in the following fields: perception, experimental psychology, sensory biology, physics, neuroscience, human engineering, artificial intelligence, robotics, ophthalmology, audiology, psychonomics and ergonomics, remote sensing.
Table of Contents
List of contributors
Preface: Maarten Bouman and the limits of perception
List of publications by M.A. Bouman
List of doctoral dissertations supervised by M.A. Bouman
PART 1: A PHYSICIST'S APPROACH TO THE LIMITS IN PERCEPTION
Development and present status of the quantum concept in visual psychophysics
Peter Zuidema
The physical constraints of color vision
Johannes J. Vos and Pieter L. Walraven
Limits of the visual spectrum
Johannes J. Vos and Dirk van Norren
Limits of the eye-optics
Aart van Meeteren and Johannes J. Vos
PART 2: AN ENGINEER'S APPROACH TO THE LIMITS IN PERCEPTION
The modulation transfer function in audition
Reinier Plomp, Tammo Houtgast and Herman J.M. Steeneken
Interchangeability of space and time in perception
Gerjan van der Wildt
Perceptual limits in man-machine communication
Floris L. van Nes
PART 3: PSYCHOPHYSICAL APPROACHES TO THE LIMITS IN PERCEPTION
Limits in spatio-temporal correlation and the perception of visual movement
Andrea J. van Doorn, Jan J. Koenderink and Wim A. van de Grind
Limits in vision with two eyes
Charles M.M. de Weert
On the hierarchy of sensory processes
Gert van den Brink
PART 4: PSYCHOLOGICAL APPROACHES TO THE LIMITS IN PERCEPTION
Some perceptual limitations on talking about space
Willem J.M. Levelt
The functional visual field revisited
Andries F. Sanders and Tilly J.M. Houtmans
Concatenation of short time intervals
John A. Michon, Annie Bruinsma and Wim J. Riedel
PART 5: THEORETICAL APPROACHES TO THE LIMITS IN PERCEPTION
Visual adaptation and response saturation
Jan Walravan and J. Mathé Valeton
Decomposition and neuroreduction of visual perception
Wim A. van de Grind
The concept of local sign
Jan J. Koenderink
Subject index
Editor(s) Bio
van Doorn\, ; van de Grind\, ; Koenderink\,