ABSTRACT

The term ‘visual perception’ covers a very wide range of psychological functions. This title, originally published in 1970, which provides a broad survey of this vast field of knowledge, would have proved a valuable general account for students taking degree courses in psychology at the time. Professor Vernon examines a large number of experiments carried out over the previous twenty years, their findings, the conclusions drawn from them, and – equally important – the still unanswered questions which some of them raised.

As the title suggests, Professor Vernon considers that – while much knowledge of the simpler perceptual processes had been gained in laboratory experiments – perhaps too little investigation had been undertaken into the more complex processes which normally determine understanding of and response to environment: the processes of identification and classification that depend to a considerable extent on learning, memory, attention, reasoning and language. An extensive bibliography is provided.

chapter I|7 pages

Introduction

chapter III|32 pages

The Perception of Form

chapter IV|10 pages

The Perception of Complex Material

chapter V|31 pages

The Arousal and Direction of Attention

chapter VI|18 pages

The Restriction and Failure of Attention

chapter VIII|28 pages

The Constancies

chapter IX|15 pages

The Perception of Movement

chapter X|13 pages

The Perception of Persons

chapter XI|27 pages

The Effect of Motivation on Perception

chapter XIII|4 pages

Conclusions