John M Findlay and Iain D Gilchrist
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780198524793
- eISBN:
- 9780191711817
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780198524793.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
More than one third of the human brain is devoted to the processes of seeing — vision is after all the main way in which we gather information about the world. But human vision is a dynamic process ...
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More than one third of the human brain is devoted to the processes of seeing — vision is after all the main way in which we gather information about the world. But human vision is a dynamic process during which the eyes continually sample the environment. Where most books on vision consider it as a passive activity, this book focuses on vision as an ‘active’ process. It goes beyond most accounts of vision where the focus is on seeing, to provide an account of seeing AND looking. The book starts by pointing out the weaknesses in our traditional approaches to vision and the reason we need this new approach. It then gives a thorough description of basic details of the visual and oculomotor systems necessary to understand active vision. The book goes on to show how this approach can give a new perspective on visual attention, and how the approach has progressed in the areas of visual orienting, reading, visual search, scene perception, and neuropsychology. Finally, the book summarizes progress by showing how this approach sheds new light on the old problem of how we maintain perception of a stable visual world.Less
More than one third of the human brain is devoted to the processes of seeing — vision is after all the main way in which we gather information about the world. But human vision is a dynamic process during which the eyes continually sample the environment. Where most books on vision consider it as a passive activity, this book focuses on vision as an ‘active’ process. It goes beyond most accounts of vision where the focus is on seeing, to provide an account of seeing AND looking. The book starts by pointing out the weaknesses in our traditional approaches to vision and the reason we need this new approach. It then gives a thorough description of basic details of the visual and oculomotor systems necessary to understand active vision. The book goes on to show how this approach can give a new perspective on visual attention, and how the approach has progressed in the areas of visual orienting, reading, visual search, scene perception, and neuropsychology. Finally, the book summarizes progress by showing how this approach sheds new light on the old problem of how we maintain perception of a stable visual world.
Bernard J. Baars
- Published in print:
- 1997
- Published Online:
- May 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780195102659
- eISBN:
- 9780199864126
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195102659.001.1
- Subject:
- Neuroscience, Sensory and Motor Systems, Behavioral Neuroscience
The study of conscious experience has seen remarkable strides in the last ten years, reflecting important technological breakthroughs and the enormous efforts of researchers. Although still embroiled ...
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The study of conscious experience has seen remarkable strides in the last ten years, reflecting important technological breakthroughs and the enormous efforts of researchers. Although still embroiled in debate, scientists are now beginning to find common ground in their understanding of consciousness, which may pave the way for a unified explanation of how and why we experience and understand the world around us. This book brings the subject to life with a metaphor that has been used to understand consciousness since the time of Aristotle—the mind as theater. Here consciousness is seen as a “stage” on which our sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings play to a vast, silent audience (the immensely complicated inner-workings of the brain's unconscious processes). Behind the scenes, silent context operators shape conscious experience; they include implicit expectations, self systems, and scene setters. Using this framework, the book presents compelling evidence that human consciousness rides on top of biologically ancient mechanisms. In humans it manifests itself in inner speech, imagery, perception, and voluntary control of thought and action. Topics like hypnosis, absorbed states of mind, adaptation to trauma, and the human propensity to project expectations on uncertainty, all fit into the expanded theater metaphor.Less
The study of conscious experience has seen remarkable strides in the last ten years, reflecting important technological breakthroughs and the enormous efforts of researchers. Although still embroiled in debate, scientists are now beginning to find common ground in their understanding of consciousness, which may pave the way for a unified explanation of how and why we experience and understand the world around us. This book brings the subject to life with a metaphor that has been used to understand consciousness since the time of Aristotle—the mind as theater. Here consciousness is seen as a “stage” on which our sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings play to a vast, silent audience (the immensely complicated inner-workings of the brain's unconscious processes). Behind the scenes, silent context operators shape conscious experience; they include implicit expectations, self systems, and scene setters. Using this framework, the book presents compelling evidence that human consciousness rides on top of biologically ancient mechanisms. In humans it manifests itself in inner speech, imagery, perception, and voluntary control of thought and action. Topics like hypnosis, absorbed states of mind, adaptation to trauma, and the human propensity to project expectations on uncertainty, all fit into the expanded theater metaphor.
Adam Watt
- Published in print:
- 2009
- Published Online:
- September 2009
- ISBN:
- 9780199566174
- eISBN:
- 9780191721519
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199566174.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, 20th-century and Contemporary Literature, European Literature
This book, through close analysis of the scenes of reading in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, offers an invigorating new study of the novel and previously unacknowledged paths through it. ...
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This book, through close analysis of the scenes of reading in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, offers an invigorating new study of the novel and previously unacknowledged paths through it. After considering key childhood ‘Primal Scenes’ which mark the act of reading as revelatory and potentially traumatic, the book then examines the interwoven strands of the novel's narrative of reading: scenes where the narrator reads and where others provide ‘lessons in reading’ are shown to be intricately connected within the narrator's considerations of intelligence, sense experience, knowledge, and desire. These scenes offer us a phenomenology of reading, whose illuminations, wrong turns, and over-determinations often bewilder the narrator and lead us to interrogate our own understanding of the act we accomplish as we read A la recherche. This book emphasizes the complexities and contradictions with which reading is riven, and which connect it repeatedly to the experience of involuntary memory. Reading is shown to be frequently fraught with heady instability—‘délire’—of a highly revealing sort, from which narrator and readers alike have much to learn. The book's final chapter shows how the narrator's critical energies, turned contemplatively inwards in the Guermantes's library, are subsequently turned outwards for a final interpretive effort—the reading of his now aged acquaintances at the ‘Bal de têtes’—in a shift that provides the narrator not only the confidence to begin his work of art, through the translation of his impressions but also the humility to face, undeterred, the approach of death.Less
This book, through close analysis of the scenes of reading in Proust's A la recherche du temps perdu, offers an invigorating new study of the novel and previously unacknowledged paths through it. After considering key childhood ‘Primal Scenes’ which mark the act of reading as revelatory and potentially traumatic, the book then examines the interwoven strands of the novel's narrative of reading: scenes where the narrator reads and where others provide ‘lessons in reading’ are shown to be intricately connected within the narrator's considerations of intelligence, sense experience, knowledge, and desire. These scenes offer us a phenomenology of reading, whose illuminations, wrong turns, and over-determinations often bewilder the narrator and lead us to interrogate our own understanding of the act we accomplish as we read A la recherche. This book emphasizes the complexities and contradictions with which reading is riven, and which connect it repeatedly to the experience of involuntary memory. Reading is shown to be frequently fraught with heady instability—‘délire’—of a highly revealing sort, from which narrator and readers alike have much to learn. The book's final chapter shows how the narrator's critical energies, turned contemplatively inwards in the Guermantes's library, are subsequently turned outwards for a final interpretive effort—the reading of his now aged acquaintances at the ‘Bal de têtes’—in a shift that provides the narrator not only the confidence to begin his work of art, through the translation of his impressions but also the humility to face, undeterred, the approach of death.
Travis D. Stimeling
- Published in print:
- 2011
- Published Online:
- September 2011
- ISBN:
- 9780199747474
- eISBN:
- 9780199896981
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199747474.001.0001
- Subject:
- Music, Popular, History, American
This book explores the roles that music, as a sounding phenomenon with culturally specific meanings, played in mediating the experiences of a community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and ...
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This book explores the roles that music, as a sounding phenomenon with culturally specific meanings, played in mediating the experiences of a community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and fans who viewed country music as part of their collective heritage. These same people sought to reclaim the sounds of country music to articulate a distinctively Texan musical counterculture that has had an indelible impact on the production and consumption of country music. Arguing that the sounds of a scene function as relatively stable and extremely powerful signifiers for scene participants, this book explores how music performs important cultural work within a music scene by helping participants to construct personal and collective identities, to imbue music scenes with a sense of place, and to relate to people who are not active within the scene.Less
This book explores the roles that music, as a sounding phenomenon with culturally specific meanings, played in mediating the experiences of a community of musicians, entrepreneurs, journalists, and fans who viewed country music as part of their collective heritage. These same people sought to reclaim the sounds of country music to articulate a distinctively Texan musical counterculture that has had an indelible impact on the production and consumption of country music. Arguing that the sounds of a scene function as relatively stable and extremely powerful signifiers for scene participants, this book explores how music performs important cultural work within a music scene by helping participants to construct personal and collective identities, to imbue music scenes with a sense of place, and to relate to people who are not active within the scene.
MacDonald P. Jackson
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- January 2010
- ISBN:
- 9780199260508
- eISBN:
- 9780191717635
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199260508.001.0001
- Subject:
- Literature, Shakespeare Studies
‘That very great play, Pericles’, as T. S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto ...
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‘That very great play, Pericles’, as T. S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto of 1609, but was not included in the First Folio (1623) collection of his plays. This book examines rival theories about the quarto's origins and offers compelling evidence that Pericles is the product of collaboration between Shakespeare and the minor dramatist George Wilkins, who was responsible for the first two acts and for portions of the ‘brothel scenes’ in Act 4. Pericles serves as a test case for methodologies that seek to define the limits of the Shakespeare canon and to identify co-authors. A wide range of metrical, lexical, and other data is analysed. Computerized ‘stylometric’ texts are explained and their findings assessed. A concluding chapter introduces a new technique that has the potential to answer many of the remaining questions of attribution associated with Shakespeare and his contemporaries.Less
‘That very great play, Pericles’, as T. S. Eliot called it, poses formidable problems of text and authorship. The first of the Late Romances, it was ascribed to Shakespeare when printed in a quarto of 1609, but was not included in the First Folio (1623) collection of his plays. This book examines rival theories about the quarto's origins and offers compelling evidence that Pericles is the product of collaboration between Shakespeare and the minor dramatist George Wilkins, who was responsible for the first two acts and for portions of the ‘brothel scenes’ in Act 4. Pericles serves as a test case for methodologies that seek to define the limits of the Shakespeare canon and to identify co-authors. A wide range of metrical, lexical, and other data is analysed. Computerized ‘stylometric’ texts are explained and their findings assessed. A concluding chapter introduces a new technique that has the potential to answer many of the remaining questions of attribution associated with Shakespeare and his contemporaries.
John M. Henderson
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195305487
- eISBN:
- 9780199894260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305487.003.0004
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter reviews the evidence supporting the view that representations are retained and combined across eye movements and over extended time. In particular, it considers representations that are ...
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This chapter reviews the evidence supporting the view that representations are retained and combined across eye movements and over extended time. In particular, it considers representations that are generated over three time periods: across fixations (transsaccadic memory), over multiple fixation-saccade cycles (active online scene memory), and over the longer term (long-term scene memory). It highlights recent experiments on saccadic eye movements and visual memory. It argues that a composite scene representation that includes relatively detailed (although not sensory or iconic) visual information is generated and retained in memory across eye movements and over time as a natural consequence of active, dynamic scene perception.Less
This chapter reviews the evidence supporting the view that representations are retained and combined across eye movements and over extended time. In particular, it considers representations that are generated over three time periods: across fixations (transsaccadic memory), over multiple fixation-saccade cycles (active online scene memory), and over the longer term (long-term scene memory). It highlights recent experiments on saccadic eye movements and visual memory. It argues that a composite scene representation that includes relatively detailed (although not sensory or iconic) visual information is generated and retained in memory across eye movements and over time as a natural consequence of active, dynamic scene perception.
Andrew Hollingworth
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195305487
- eISBN:
- 9780199894260
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305487.003.0005
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
This chapter reviews research examining visual memory for complex, natural environments. It is divided into two main sections. The first concerns the use of visual memory to construct online ...
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This chapter reviews research examining visual memory for complex, natural environments. It is divided into two main sections. The first concerns the use of visual memory to construct online representations of natural scenes (i.e., the representation produced as one is actively viewing a scene). The second concerns longer-term scene memory stored after a scene is no longer in view.Less
This chapter reviews research examining visual memory for complex, natural environments. It is divided into two main sections. The first concerns the use of visual memory to construct online representations of natural scenes (i.e., the representation produced as one is actively viewing a scene). The second concerns longer-term scene memory stored after a scene is no longer in view.
Steven J. Luck and Andrew Hollingworth (eds)
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- September 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195305487
- eISBN:
- 9780199894260
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195305487.001.0001
- Subject:
- Psychology, Cognitive Psychology
Vision and memory are two of the most intensively studied topics in psychology and neuroscience, and the intersection between them — visual memory — is emerging as a fertile ground for research. ...
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Vision and memory are two of the most intensively studied topics in psychology and neuroscience, and the intersection between them — visual memory — is emerging as a fertile ground for research. Certain memory systems appear to specialize in maintaining visually encoded information. Vision provides the primary input to more general memory systems. These more general systems link and integrate visual memory with other perceptual and cognitive processes. As a result, visual perception cannot be understood independently of visual memories, which support the mapping of perceptual input onto existing knowledge structures that guide and constrain perceptual selection. This book provides an account of visual memory systems. The chapters provide both a broad overview of each topic and a summary of the latest research. They also present new perspectives that advance our theoretical understanding of visual memory and suggest directions for future research. After an introductory overview by the editors, chapters address visual sensory memory (iconic memory), visual short-term memory, and the relationship between visual memory and eye movements. Visual long-term memory is then reviewed from several different perspectives, including memory for natural scenes, the relationship between visual memory and object recognition, and associative learning. The final chapters discuss the neural mechanisms of visual memory and neuropsychological deficits in visual memory.Less
Vision and memory are two of the most intensively studied topics in psychology and neuroscience, and the intersection between them — visual memory — is emerging as a fertile ground for research. Certain memory systems appear to specialize in maintaining visually encoded information. Vision provides the primary input to more general memory systems. These more general systems link and integrate visual memory with other perceptual and cognitive processes. As a result, visual perception cannot be understood independently of visual memories, which support the mapping of perceptual input onto existing knowledge structures that guide and constrain perceptual selection. This book provides an account of visual memory systems. The chapters provide both a broad overview of each topic and a summary of the latest research. They also present new perspectives that advance our theoretical understanding of visual memory and suggest directions for future research. After an introductory overview by the editors, chapters address visual sensory memory (iconic memory), visual short-term memory, and the relationship between visual memory and eye movements. Visual long-term memory is then reviewed from several different perspectives, including memory for natural scenes, the relationship between visual memory and object recognition, and associative learning. The final chapters discuss the neural mechanisms of visual memory and neuropsychological deficits in visual memory.
Paul Borgman
- Published in print:
- 2008
- Published Online:
- May 2008
- ISBN:
- 9780195331608
- eISBN:
- 9780199868001
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195331608.003.0011
- Subject:
- Religion, Biblical Studies
For Homer's audience, the resourceful Odysseus—“known before all men for the study of crafty designs”—is predictable, always the same, always on brilliant display. David, on the other hand, remains ...
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For Homer's audience, the resourceful Odysseus—“known before all men for the study of crafty designs”—is predictable, always the same, always on brilliant display. David, on the other hand, remains mysterious to the story's audience for great portions of the narrative, acting often in a surprising manner. The biblical writer develops character; the Homeric writer demonstrates character. The divine in each story play roles appropriate to each hero, while reflecting their authors' respective sense of character and moral universe. In fact, the relationship of hero to the divine has much to do with the diametrically opposed characterizations of David and Odysseus within their respective stories, and the gulf between implied moral universes. Because of the goddess Athene, Odysseus becomes more of what he has always been. Because of the biblical God, on the other hand, David changes, becoming known to others—and to himself—only as the story unfolds. David and Odysseus inhabit worlds that could not be more different. A brief exploration of notable cave scenes from their respective stories helps to shine a spotlight on the complexity of David, of his God, and of the relationship between the two.Less
For Homer's audience, the resourceful Odysseus—“known before all men for the study of crafty designs”—is predictable, always the same, always on brilliant display. David, on the other hand, remains mysterious to the story's audience for great portions of the narrative, acting often in a surprising manner. The biblical writer develops character; the Homeric writer demonstrates character. The divine in each story play roles appropriate to each hero, while reflecting their authors' respective sense of character and moral universe. In fact, the relationship of hero to the divine has much to do with the diametrically opposed characterizations of David and Odysseus within their respective stories, and the gulf between implied moral universes. Because of the goddess Athene, Odysseus becomes more of what he has always been. Because of the biblical God, on the other hand, David changes, becoming known to others—and to himself—only as the story unfolds. David and Odysseus inhabit worlds that could not be more different. A brief exploration of notable cave scenes from their respective stories helps to shine a spotlight on the complexity of David, of his God, and of the relationship between the two.
Roland Enmarch
- Published in print:
- 2013
- Published Online:
- January 2014
- ISBN:
- 9780197265420
- eISBN:
- 9780191760471
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- British Academy
- DOI:
- 10.5871/bacad/9780197265420.003.0006
- Subject:
- Classical Studies, Literary Studies: Classical, Early, and Medieval
‘Laments’ have long been recognised as an important and long-lived part of Egyptian written culture, appearing in widely differing contexts, including as captions to mourning scenes in tombs from the ...
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‘Laments’ have long been recognised as an important and long-lived part of Egyptian written culture, appearing in widely differing contexts, including as captions to mourning scenes in tombs from the Old Kingdom onwards, as liturgical laments uttered by Isis and Nephthys in mortuary texts, and as an important component of the literary style of Middle Egyptian pessimistic literature. The heterogeneous nature of these sources presents problems in arriving at a satisfactory definition for a ‘lament’ genre as a whole, and raises questions as to just how closely related these different written traditions are. While the style of literary laments in particular has often been described as originating from funerary dirges, the evidence for this is chronologically problematic and other generic influences have alternatively been posited. This chapter establishes stylistic and structural criteria to enable a more detailed analysis of the different kinds of lament, and their possible interrelationship.Less
‘Laments’ have long been recognised as an important and long-lived part of Egyptian written culture, appearing in widely differing contexts, including as captions to mourning scenes in tombs from the Old Kingdom onwards, as liturgical laments uttered by Isis and Nephthys in mortuary texts, and as an important component of the literary style of Middle Egyptian pessimistic literature. The heterogeneous nature of these sources presents problems in arriving at a satisfactory definition for a ‘lament’ genre as a whole, and raises questions as to just how closely related these different written traditions are. While the style of literary laments in particular has often been described as originating from funerary dirges, the evidence for this is chronologically problematic and other generic influences have alternatively been posited. This chapter establishes stylistic and structural criteria to enable a more detailed analysis of the different kinds of lament, and their possible interrelationship.
