Norman: Two Visual Systems -- BBS Call for Commentators

Mon Aug 13 16:27:04 EDT 2001

Dear Dr. Connectionists List User,

        Below is the abstract of a forthcoming BBS target article

            Two Visual Systems and Two Theories of Perception:
  An Attempt to Reconcile the Constructivist and Ecological Approaches

                                 by

                             Joel Norman

             http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Norman/
              http://psy.haifa.ac.il/~maga/tvs&ttp.pdf

This article has been accepted for publication in Behavioral and Brain
Sciences (BBS), an international, interdisciplinary journal providing
Open Peer Commentary on important and controversial current research in
the biobehavioral and cognitive sciences.

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To help you decide whether you would be an appropriate commentator for
this article, an electronic draft is retrievable from the online 
BBSPrints Archive, at the URL that follows the abstract below.

_____________________________________________________________

Two Visual Systems and Two Theories of Perception:
An Attempt to Reconcile the Constructivist and Ecological Approaches

Joel Norman
Department of Psychology
University of Haifa
Haifa, Israel
jnorman at psy.haifa.ac.il

   KEYWORDS: Visual perception theories, ecological, constructivist, 
             two visual systems, space perception, size perception, 
             dual-process approach 

   ABSTRACT: The two contrasting theoretical approaches to visual
perception, the constructivist and the ecological, are briefly
presented and illustrated through their analyses of space perception
and size perception.  Earlier calls for their reconciliation and
unification are reviewed.  Neurophysiological, neuropsychological, and
psychophysical evidence for the existence of two quite distinct visual
systems, the ventral and the dorsal, is presented.  These two
perceptual systems differ in their functions; the ventral systems
central function is that of identification, while the dorsal system is
mainly engaged in the visual control of motor behavior.  The strong
parallels between the ecological approach and the functioning of the
dorsal system and between the constructivist approach and the
functioning of the ventral system are noted.  It is also shown that the
experimental paradigms used by the proponents of these two approaches
match the functions of the respective visual systems.  A dual-process
approach to visual perception emerges from this analysis, with the
ecological-dorsal process transpiring mainly without conscious
awareness, while the constructivist-ventral process is normally
conscious.  Some implications of this dual-process approach to
visual-perceptual phenomena are presented, with emphasis on space
perception.   

http://www.bbsonline.org/Preprints/Norman/
http://psy.haifa.ac.il/~maga/tvs&ttp.pdf
___________________________________________________________ 

Please do not prepare a commentary yet. Just let us know, after having
inspected it, what relevant expertise you feel you would bring to bear
on what aspect of the article. We will then let you know whether it was
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