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Dewey Decimal Number: 152.14 EAN: 9780393046694 Edition: 1 ISBN: 0393046699 Label: W. W. Norton & Company Manufacturer: W. W. Norton & Company Number Of Items: 1 Number Of Pages: 294 Publication Date: 1998-10 Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company Studio: W. W. Norton & Company Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Visual intelligence, cognitive scientist Donald Hoffman writes, is the power that people use to "construct an experience of objects out of colors, lines, and motions." And what an underappreciated ability it is, too; despite the fact that the visual process uses up a considerable chunk of our brainpower, we're only just learning how it works. Hoffman aptly demonstrates the mysterious constructive powers of our eye-brain machines using lots of simple drawings and diagrams to illustrate basic rules of the visual road. Many of the examples are familiar optical illusions--perspective-confounding cubes, a few lines that add up to a more complex shape than seems right. Hoffman also takes a cue from Oliver Sacks, employing anecdotes about people with various specific visual malfunctions to both further his mechanical explanation of visual intelligence and drive home how important this little-understood aspect of cognition can be in our lives. An especially intriguing example involves a boy, blind from birth, who is surgically given the power to see. At first, he is completely unable to visually distinguish objects familiar by touch, such as the cat and the dog. Other poignant examples show clearly how image construction is normally linked to our emotional well-being and sense of place. Visual Intelligence is a fascinating, confounding look (as it were) at an aspect of human physiology and psychology that very few of us think about much at all. --Therese Littleton Product Description: We have long known about IQ and are beginning to appreciate emotional intelligence; yet there is another fundamental dimension of intelligence that shapes our experience. Our visual intelligence engages roughly half the brain's cortex and goes largely unnoticed. Far from a passive recorder of a pre-existing world, the eye actively constructs every aspect of our visual experience. In an informal style, Donald Hoffman presents the scientific evidence for vision's constructive powers. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - How our senses create realityI got turned onto this book in graduate school, but never got around to reading it until now. But having read it, I'd have to say it's a fascinating book about vision and the cognitive functions of the brain that help people construct what they see. The author also briefly discusses the sense of touch and how it constructs reality, but the main focus is on vision. What I really liked was the explanation behind optical illusions. I didn't agree with everything the author wrote, because ... Read More Rating:  - great bookSmart investigation on the basic rules of vision. great book. smooth reading and really intresting. Rating: - FascinatingA discussion of the "grammar" of vision - the mind's eye, imagination and "making sense." A must read for poets interested in the relationship between image and meaning. Rating: - excellent bookA brillant book. It delivers not only the phenomenon, as many books about this subject do, but relevant and useful explanations why these phenomenons occur. Especially the insights about grouping and visual splitting in parts at concave cusps were most enlightening to me. Rating: - Excellent Introduction and Reference MaterialGot this book out of our company library and found very easy to read, insightful and helpful in understanding the basics of human perception. Information on how we filter information is very helpful in designing a range of systems for humans to use. I've recommended this book to my peers at work and have bought a private copy for myself. |
