First published in 1995, The Visual Brain in Action remains a seminal publication in the cognitive sciences. For this new edition, a very substantial and illustrated epilogue has been added to the book in which Milner and Goodale review the key developments that support or challenge the views that were put forward in the first edition.

First published in 1995, The Visual Brain in Action remains a seminal publication in the cognitive sciences. It presents a model for understanding the visual processing underlying perception and action, proposing a broad distinction within the brain between two kinds of vision: conscious perception and unconscious 'online' vision. It argues that each kind of vision can occur quasi-independently of the other, and is separately handled by a quite different processing system. In the 11 years since publication, the book has provoked (...) considerable interest and debate - throughout both cognitive neuroscience and philosophy, while the field has continued to flourish and develop. -/- For this new edition, the text from the original edition has been left untouched, standing as a coherent statement of the authors' position. However, a very substantial epilogue has been added to the book in which Milner and Goodale review some of the key developments that support or challenge the views that were put forward in the first edition. The new chapter summarizes developments in various relevant areas of psychology, neuroscience and behaviour. It notably supplements the main text by updating the reader on the contributions that have emerged from the use of functional neuroimaging, which was in its infancy when the first edition was written. Neuroimaging, and functional MRI in particular, has revolutionized the field over the past 11 years by allowing investigators to plot in detail the patterns of activity within the visual brains of behaving and perceiving humans. The authors show how its use now allows scientists to test and confirm their proposals, based as they then were largely on evidence accrued from primate neuroscience in conjunction with studies of neurological patients. (shrink)

According to the dominant computational approach in cognitive science, cognitive agents are digital computers; according to the alternative approach, they are dynamical systems. This target article attempts to articulate and support the dynamical hypothesis. The dynamical hypothesis has two major components: the nature hypothesis (cognitive agents are dynamical systems) and the knowledge hypothesis (cognitive agents can be understood dynamically). A wide range of objections to this hypothesis can be rebutted. The conclusion is that cognitive systems may well be dynamical systems, (...) and only sustained empirical research in cognitive science will determine the extent to which that is true. (shrink)

In past and modern psychophysics there are several unresolved methodological and philosophical problems of human and animal perception, including the outstanding question of the relational basis of whole psychophysics. Here the main issue is discussed: if, and to what extent, there are viable bridges between the traditional “gestalt” oriented approaches and the modern perceptual-cognitive perspectives in psychophysics. Thereby the key concept of psychological “frame of reference” is presented by pointing to Hermann Ebbinghaus' geometric-optical illusions, on the one hand, and Max (...) Wertheimer's treatment of the traditional transposition phenomenon, on the other hand. A much-needed theoretical reorientation of future research may help to overcome the philosophical narrowness of present-day human and comparative psychophysics. (shrink)

Excerpt from Grundzu ge der Psychologie Das vorliegende Buch ist zur Einfuhrung bestimmt, allerdings zur Einfuhrung in das Studium der Dinge und nicht blo Bin eine erste und allgemeine Kenntnis von ihnen. Es war ursprunglich bei weitem nicht so umfangreich geplant, wie es sich nun darstellt, aber als ich an die Ausfuhrung ging, bin ich sehr bald in diese grolzere Breite hineingedrangt worden. Zum Teil gewi Baus rein individuellen Grunden, zum Teil aber auch wohl, weil sich auf solche Weise die (...) Sache selbst ihr Recht verschafft hat. Die Psychologie ist in den letzten Jahrzehnten ungemein rasch fortgeschritten in der Kenntnis des seelischen Lebens im Kleinen und Einzelnen. Manches davon, was uns sehr wichtig erscheint, wird vermutlich einer spateren und reiferen Einsicht ziemlich unwichtig vorkommen. Gleichwohl kann man, nachdem dieses Wissen einmal erarbeitet ist, auch beim ersten llerantreten an die Psychologie nur dann in eine richtige Stellung ru ihr kommen, wenn man von ihm in einem grosseren Umfangs Kenntnis nimmt. Von groBter Wichtigkeit ist doch, da Bman gleich von vornherein von einem lebendigen BewuBtsein der erstaunlichen Reichhaltigkeit und Verwicklung des seelischen Lebens durchdrungen werde, und das ist nicht anders zu erreichen. AuBerdem: man kann mit Vorteil kurz sein, wo man sich auf vieles Feststehende nnd allgemein anerkannte berufen kann, an das im Einzelfalle nur mit einem Wort erinnert zu werden braucht. Wie wenig ist dessen in der Psychologie. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.". (shrink)