Will understanding vision require a wholly empirical paradigm?
Based on electrophysiological and anatomical studies, a prevalent conception is that the visual system recovers features of the world from retinal images to generate perceptions and guide behavior. This paradigm, however, is unable to explain why visual perceptions differ from physical measurements, or how behavior could routinely succeed on this basis. An alternative is that vision does not recover features of the world, but assigns perceptual qualities empirically by associating frequently occurring stimulus patterns with useful responses on the basis of survival and reproductive success. The purpose of the present article is to briefly describe this strategy of vision and the evidence for it.
Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University , Durham, NC, USA ; Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore , Singapore, Singapore ; Department of Neurobiology, Duke University , Durham, NC, USA.
Dale
D
Purves
Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore , Singapore, Singapore.
Yaniv
Y
Morgenstern
Duke Institute for Brain Sciences, Duke University , Durham, NC, USA ; Neuroscience and Behavioral Disorders Program, Duke-NUS Graduate Medical School Singapore , Singapore, Singapore.
William T
WT
Wojtach
empirical theory; evolution; feature detection; images; reflex; vision