Encyclopedia of Perception (PDF)

The field of perception is devoted to explaining the operation of the senses and the experiences and behaviors resulting from stimulation of the senses. Perceptual processes such as recognizing faces, seeing color, hearing music, and feeling pain represent the actions of complex mechanisms, yet we usually do them easily. The Encyclopedia of Perception presents a comprehensive overview of the field of perception through authoritative essays written by leading researchers and theoreticians in psychology, the cognitive sciences, neuroscience, and medical disciplines. It presents two parallel and interacting approaches: the psychophysical, or determining the relationship between stimuli in the environment and perception, and the physiological, or locating the biological systems responsible for perception. Are there any processes not associated with perception? Surely there are, but the pervasiveness of perception is truly impressive, and the phenomena of perception and its mechanisms are what this encyclopedia is about.Key FeaturesContains 16 pages of color illustration and photography to accompany the entriesOffers a varied and broad list of topics, including basic research as well as methodologies, theoretical approaches, and real-world applications of perceptual researchEmphasizes human perception but includes ample research because of its importance in its own right and because of what this research tells us about human perceptionWritten by recognized experts from many disciplines but for an audience with no previous background in perception-students and members of the general public alikeKey ThemesActionAttentionAuditionChemical SensesCognition and PerceptionComputers and PerceptionConsciousnessDisorders of PerceptionIllusory PerceptionsIndividual Differences (Human) and Comparative (Across Species; Not Including Ageing, Disorders, and Perceptual Development)MethodsPerceptual Development/ExperiencePhilosophical ApproachesPhysiological ProcessesSense InteractionSkin and Body SensesTheoretical ApproachesVisual Perception