ABSTRACT
Three disciplines with different aims have an interest in understanding the process of visual recognition. Two of these work in a way which is essentially analytic. Simulations of the visual world may take the ambitious approach of creating an exact copy of the optic array which reaches the eyes from a real world scene. Visual recognition is shown most obviously in a situation where a name is assigned to an object in the visual world. Recognition is always a function that is best performed in central vision. Thus another preliminary to recognition is the necessary orienting to the object that is to be recognized. James J. Gibson is a controversial figure who adopted a very idiosyncratic approach to visual perception. In a series of books he cast doubt on much traditional perceptual thinking and put forward his own ‘ecological’ approach. While he is recognized as having had many insights, his work has also been subject to a variety of criticisms.
