Practical Vision Science: Learning Through Experimentation

By: Benjamin Balas

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Synopsis: This workbook provides a collection of experiments and observations that use physical materials (rather than digital displays or resources) to reveal fundamental properties of the human visual system.Practical Vision Science centers discovery, observation, and critical thinking. By observing and manipulating visual phenomena, readers gain insights regarding visual processing from the outside world into high-level areas of the visual cortex. The text covers geometric optics, image formation, early stages of visual processing, and inferences regarding brightness, color, depth, motion, and form. The goal is to highlight the critical role that observation of one’s own sensory experiences plays in vision science, while introducing phenomena that provide clues about the computations and constraints that shape our experience of the visual world. Each exercise can be completed with everyday materials, and the text includes discussion of key phenomena readers should be able to observe and the implications of these effects for underlying mechanisms that support visual experience in each case.Practical Vision Science is an essential text for upper undergraduate and postgraduate students of Sensation and Perception, providing the opportunity to learn by doing things rather than reading facts about the visual system on the page.