Perception: The Basics

This book combines approaches from philosophy psychology and neuroscience in the study of perception. In addition to appealing to readers from all three of these disciplines Perception: The Basics is a perfect introduction for students and general readers. Its interdisciplinary coverage of all aspects of perception does not require familiarity with either abstract philosophical concepts or neuroscientific knowledge. Besides addressing the classic questions of how perception works the book highlights the intricate connections between perception and action as well as perception that is not triggered by sensory input like mental imagery dreaming and hallucination. Further the book balances out an overemphasis on vision in the literature by giving almost equal coverage to all the sense modalities (although some examples are easier to present in visual form). Questions that are discussed in detail include: What is the function of perception? Is perception an unbiased way of learning about the world? What is the difference between the different sense modalities like seeing hearing smelling etc. ? What is the connection between perception and action? What is the relation between perception mental imagery dreaming and hallucination? With helpful chapter summaries and a comprehensive final bibliography Perception: The Basics is sure to be the first-stop for anyone trying to better understand this important area of interdisciplinary research.