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

561 Pages·2013·14.66 MB·English

by  Albertazzi

Handbook of
Experimental Phenomenology
“Systematic concern with visual appearances is as old as modern science but it has
not been pursued with the consistency accorded to visual processing. Galileo
interrogated appearances in contrast to the optical approach heralded in his day by
Kepler and Scheiner. Now the study of appearances is enjoying a renaissance due
in no small part to the novel techniques of experimental phenomenology so clearly
expounded in this book.”
Nicholas Wade, Emeritus Professor, University of Dundee
“Liliana Albertazzi’s Handbook of Experimental Phenomenology is the first of its
kind, and brings together an internationally distinguished group of researchers.
‘Experimental phenomenology’ was primarily a development within European
psychology, and includes the pioneering research of David Katz on color vision
and touch, of Albert Michotte on perceived causality, permanence, and ‘reality,’
and of Edgar Rubin on reversible figures. As a distinctive ‘school,’ it has
continued to flourish in Italy, thanks to the leadership of Gaetano Kanizsa and
Paolo Bozzi.
Although several of the contributors to this handbook would not identify
themselves with experimental phenomenology, they do share, as Albertazzi rightly
points out, a fundamental concern: ‘a focus on the subjective, valence, and
meaningful aspects of experience and their endeavor to provide a scientific
explanation of them which is as rigorous as those of the kindred disciplines of
psychophysics and neuroscience.’ This handbook will be a significant resource both
for phenomenological psychology and for the psychology of perception.”
Alan Costall, Professor of Theoretical Psychology, University of Portsmouth
“This handbook brings together a distinguished collection of thinkers and
researchers who address the subjective nature of visual perception as a science in its
own right and who have developed a variety of new methods and concepts to
investigate it. This could become an important book that redresses the balance of
discussion and debate about what ‘seeing’ is, and its role in our mental lives.”
Mark Georgeson, Professor of Vision Sciences, Aston University,
Birmingham
Handbook of
Experimental Phenomenology
Visual Perception of Shape,
Space and Appearance
Edited by Liliana Albertazzi
A John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., Publication
This edition first published 2013
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Handbook of Experimental Phenomenology : Visual Perception of Shape, Space and Appearance /
Edited by Liliana Albertazzi.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-119-95468-2 (cloth)
1. Visual perception. 2. Psychophysics. 3. Phenomenological psychology. I. Albertazzi, Liliana.
BF241.H33 2013
152.14'2–dc23
2012045560
A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.
Cover image: Franz Marc, Fighting Forms (Abstract Forms I), 1914. © Pinakothek der Moderne Kunst,
Munich / Photo akg-images.
Cover design by Cyan Design
Set in 10/12.5 pt Galliard by Toppan Best-set Premedia Limited
1 2013
Contents
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 Neuroscientific 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
vi Contents
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
About the Editor
Liliana Albertazzi is Principal Investigator at the University of Trento Center for the
Mind and Brain (CIMeC), where she coordinates studies and a series of events on
the analysis of cognitive spaces, and Associate Professor at the Department of Human-
ities. While her primary training was in philosophy, with a focus on phenomenology,
during the past 20 years she has laid the foundations of the science of appearances
from both the theoretical and the experimental point of view. Her research interests
include the emergence of semantic structures, visual awareness, and qualitative per-
ceiving. She has published five books, about 150 peer-reviewed papers and book
chapters, and has been editor of 21 books.