ABSTRACT
There are various ways in which we perceive: touch, hearing, taste, smell and vision. In this chapter we shall focus primarily on vision, simply because most research has been carried out on this sense. It is amazing that we are able to see. If we reflect for a moment, it seems astonishing that in our heads we should have a lens covering a light chamber that has a light-sensitive surface at its rear (called the retina). It is further remarkable that this light-sensitive surface is able to transduce the light energy into neuronal signals that can be interpreted by the brain. Perhaps most remarkable of all, however, is that the brain can make sense of this information, in such a way that we experience seeing things in the world. This ‘making sense of…’ is what we call perception.
