Perceptual Modification: Adapting to Altered Sensory Environments is about the study of human perception using a particular research strategy: the systematic alteration of vision or audition. It is assumed that by observing how the sensory apparatus copes with this disturbance it will be possible to formulate valuable hypotheses about the structure and development of ""normal"" perception and perceptual-motor coordination. The specific goals of this book are, first, to organize the vast and confusing literature on adaptation to perceptual rearrangement and, second, to assess its contribution to the understanding of ""normal"" perception and perceptual learning. The book begins with discussions of adaptation to small prism-induced displacements of the visual field. Separate chapters follow on the proposition that adaptation to prismatic displacement and other forms of rearrangement is actually a form of learning; adaptation to inverted and reversed vision; optical tilt; illusory motions of the visual field; size-depth distortions; and distortions of form. Subsequent chapters deal with studies of auditory rearrangement; examine individual and interspecies differences in adaptability; and the study of adaptation to the visual distortions encountered by the underwater observer. The book is written for researchers and graduate students in experimental psychology. It will be of value and interest whether the reader is a specialist in the area of perceptual modification, or indeed a generalist.

An Odyssey in Learning and Perception documents a fifty-year intellectual expedition in the areas of learning and perception—always with an eye to combining them in a theory of perceptual learning and development, a theory that may be broadly applicable to humans and nonhumans, young and old. In the field of psychology, beginning in the 1950s, Eleanor J. Gibson nearly single-handedly developed the field of perceptual learning with a series of brilliant studies that culminated in the seminal work, Perceptual Learning and Development. An Odyssey in Learning and Perception brings together Gibson's scientific papers, including difficult-to-find or previously unpublished work, along with classic studies in perception and action. Gibson introduces each paper to show why the research was undertaken and concludes each section with comments linking the findings to later developments. A personal essay touches on the questions and concerns that guided her research.

"Perception is not something that happens to us, or in us," writes Alva Noë. "It is something we do." In Action in Perception, Noë argues that perception and perceptual consciousness depend on capacities for action and thought—that perception is a kind of thoughtful activity. Touch, not vision, should be our model for perception. Perception is not a process in the brain, but a kind of skillful activity of the body as a whole. We enact our perceptual experience. To perceive, according to this enactive approach to perception, is not merely to have sensations; it is to have sensations that we understand. In Action in Perception, Noë investigates the forms this understanding can take. He begins by arguing, on both phenomenological and empirical grounds, that the content of perception is not like the content of a picture; the world is not given to consciousness all at once but is gained gradually by active inquiry and exploration. Noë then argues that perceptual experience acquires content thanks to our possession and exercise of practical bodily knowledge, and examines, among other topics, the problems posed by spatial content and the experience of color. He considers the perspectival aspect of the representational content of experience and assesses the place of thought and understanding in experience. Finally, he explores the implications of the enactive approach for our understanding of the neuroscience of perception.

Published in 1983, Sensory, Experience, Adaptation, and Perception is a valuable contribution to the field of Cognitive Psychology.

Decision Processes in Visual Perception explores the relationships between the organization of a complex visual pattern by the perception system and the molecular activity involved in the discrimination of differences in magnitude or intensity between two stimulus elements. The text discusses the basic principles of discrimination, identification, and self-regulation of the perception system; demonstrates how adaptive decision modules emerge from multiple constraints; shows how combinations of simple decisions lead to complex judgmental tasks; and synthesizes traditional approaches to perception in order to clarify the crucial and pervasive role of these modules in the overall activity of perceptual organization. Psychologists, neuroscientists, molecular biologists, and physiologists will find the book invaluable.

With contributions from a collection of authors consisting of many recognizable experts in the field of virtual and adaptive environments, as well as many up and coming young researchers, this book illustrates the many ways in which psychological science contributes to and benefits from the increased development and application of these nascent systems. Discussing issues from both a user- and technology-based standpoint, the volume examins the use of human perception, cognition, and behavior. The book builds a foundation on the assumption that these systems are first and foremost human-centered technologies, in that their purpose is to complement and extend human capabilities across a wide variety of domains.

Published in 1983, Sensory, Experience, Adaptation, and Perception is a valuable contribution to the field of Cognitive Psychology.