'This book is beautifully written throughout. It is clear, concise and interesting, and never makes the mistake of glossing over or avoiding important issues. I know of no other book that, in each new edition, succeeds in maintaining its coherence and its identity, while keeping pace with the changing emphasis of contemporary approaches to vision.' - Mike Harris, University of Birmingham 'The extensive revisions to the text give the book a clear edge in offering an up-to-date view of developments in the field in a very digestible form. The new edition provides the most up-to-date text on vision in the market.' - George Mather, University of Sussex
The new edition of this comprehensive text continues to provide a detailed and up-to-date account of research on visual perception, while maintaining the emphasis of earlier editions on the functional context of vision. Reflecting recent theoretical developments, the book is organised around the distinction between two broad functions of vision, to provide awareness and to control action. In Part I, the account of visual processing in the brain has been extensively updated, and evidence from neuroimaging and neuropsychology has been integrated into a critical account of the 'two pathways' theory of visual cortex. The revision of chapters in Part II has given particular attention to recent advances in integrating psychophysical, physiological and computational approaches to problems such as the perception of surfaces and of motion. With the help of new illustrations, full introductions are provided to the key mathematical concepts used in these areas. In Part III, three new chapters draw on evidence from both animal and human behaviour to cover optic flow and locomotion, the timing of actions, and perception of the social world.
The concluding chapter considers critically the wider theoretical implications of the distinction between awareness and action as separate functions of vision. This book will be an invaluable resource for both undergraduate and postgraduate students of psychology, biology, physiology and neuroscience, as well as researchers in the fields of visual neuroscience, visual perception and animal behaviour.