Perceptual Coherence

The job of any sensory system is to create objects in the world out of the incoming proximal stimulus energy. The energy is neutral; it does not specify the objects itself. Thus, sensory systems must abstract the energy that does specify objects and differentiate it from the noise energy. The perceptual variables that specify objects for both listening and looking become those of contrast and correlated change across space and time, so that perceiving occurs at several spatial and temporal scales in parallel. Given that the perceptual goals and perceptual variables are equivalent, the rules of perceiving will be the same for all senses. The goal of this book is to describe these conceptual similarities and differences between hearing and seeing. Although it is mathematical and conceptually analytical, the book does not make explicit use of advanced mathematical concepts. Each chapter combines information on hearing and seeing, and gives a detailed treatment of a small number of topics. The first three chapters present introductory information, including properties of auditory and visual worlds, how receptive fields are organized to pick out those properties, and whether the receptive fields are optimized to pick up the structure of the sensory world. Each subsequent chapter considers one type of perceptual element: texture, motion, contrast and noise, color, timbre, and object segmentation. Each type of perceptual situation is described as a problem of discovering the correlated energy, and the research presented focuses on how humans manage to perceive given the complicated set of skills required. This book is intended for use in upper-division undergraduate courses in perception and sensation, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. It will fill the slot between textbooks that cover perception and sensory physiology and neuroscience, and more advanced monographs that cover one sense or topic in detail.

The job of any sensory system is to create objects in the world out of the incoming proximal stimulus energy. The energy is neutral; it does not specify the objects itself. Thus, sensory systems must abstract the energy that does specify objects and differentiate it from the noise energy. The perceptual variables that specify objects for both listening and looking become those of contrast and correlated change across space and time, so that perceiving occurs at several spatial and temporal scales in parallel. Given that the perceptual goals and perceptual variables are equivalent, the rules of perceiving will be the same for all senses. The goal of this book is to describe these conceptual similarities and differences between hearing and seeing. Although it is mathematical and conceptually analytical, the book does not make explicit use of advanced mathematical concepts. Each chapter combines information on hearing and seeing, and gives a detailed treatment of a small number of topics. The first three chapters present introductory information, including properties of auditory and visual worlds, how receptive fields are organized to pick out those properties, and whether the receptive fields are optimized to pick up the structure of the sensory world. Each subsequent chapter considers one type of perceptual element: texture, motion, contrast and noise, color, timbre, and object segmentation. Each type of perceptual situation is described as a problem of discovering the correlated energy, and the research presented focuses on how humans manage to perceive given the complicated set of skills required. This book is intended for use in upper-division undergraduate courses in perception and sensation, cognitive psychology, and neuroscience. It will fill the slot between textbooks that cover perception and sensory physiology and neuroscience, and more advanced monographs that cover one sense or topic in detail.

This book presents a comprehensive review of how acoustic waves are processed by the auditory system into structured sounds such as musical melodies, speech utterances, or environmental sounds. After an introduction, an overview is given of how the ears distribute acoustic information over a large array of frequency channels that contain the auditory information used by the central nervous system to generate a mental image of what is happening around the listener. This process, called auditory scene analysis, consists of two stages. In the first stage, auditory units are formed such as musical tones and speech syllables. Each auditory unit is perceived at a well-defined moment in time, the beat location of that auditory unit. Moreover, from this process of auditory-unit formation, the auditory attributes of these auditory units emerge, such as their timbre, their pitch, their loudness, and their perceived location. Each of these attributes is discussed in the corresponding chapter. In the second stage of auditory scene analysis, auditory-stream formation, the successive auditory units are integrated into auditory streams, i.e., temporally structured sequences of auditory units that are perceived as emanating from one and the same sound source. Examples of such auditory streams are musical melodies and the utterances of one speaker. The temporal structure of an auditory stream, its rhythm, is determined by the beat locations of its auditory units. The role played by the auditory attributes of the consecutive auditory units is discussed. The melodies of musical streams and the intonation contours of spoken utterances emerge from this process. In music, the beats of parallel streams generally fit into a metric pattern, and, depending on harmony, simultaneous tones can be perceived as consonant or dissonant. Finally, the book contains many sound examples including the MATLAB scripts with which they are generated.

Since the 1960s there is a controversial discussion about the correct explication of the concept of knowledge in epistemology, but until today no generally accepted solution to the problem of defining this concept has been found. This book contributes to the discussion in epistemology by proposing a new explication of the concept of knowledge which is spelled out in terms of coherence. The main thesis of this book is that a belief can be considered knowledge only if first, it is true and second, it coheres with the rest of the beliefs of the person holding the belief in an appropriate manner. The explication draws on the ideas of Donald Davidson, Laurence BonJour and Keith Lehrer and offers a new perspective on the old project of analyzing the concept of knowledge.

In Western Civilization Mathematics and Music have a long and interesting history in common, with several interactions, traditionally associated with the name of Pythagoras but also with a significant number of other mathematicians, like Leibniz, for instance. Mathematical models can be found for almost all levels of musical activities from composition to sound production by traditional instruments or by digital means. Modern music theory has been incorporating more and more mathematical content during the last decades. This book offers a journey into recent work relating music and mathematics. It contains a large variety of articles, covering the historical aspects, the influence of logic and mathematical thought in composition, perception and understanding of music and the computational aspects of musical sound processing. The authors illustrate the rich and deep interactions that exist between Mathematics and Music.

The Psychology of Learning and Motivation publishes empirical and theoretical contributions in cognitive and experimental psychology, ranging from classical and instrumental conditioning to complex learning and problem solving. Each chapter provides a thoughtful integration of a body of work. Includes computational models of human learning Provides contributions from ten leading researchers in the field Contains interdisciplinary perspectives on perceptual learning Synthesizes research from psychology and computer science Focuses on the specific mechanisms that drive perceptual learning

Perceptual organization comprises a wide range of processes such as perceptual grouping, figure-ground organization, filling-in, completion, perceptual switching, etc. Such processes are most notable in the context of shape perception but they also play a role in texture perception, lightness perception, color perception, motion perception, depth perception, etc. Perceptual organization deals with a variety of perceptual phenomena of central interest, studied from many different perspectives, including psychophysics, experimental psychology, neuropsychology, neuroimaging, neurophysiology, and computational modeling. Given its central importance in phenomenal experience, perceptual organization has also figured prominently in classic Gestalt writings on the topic, touching upon deep philosophical issues regarding mind-brain relationships and consciousness. In addition, it attracts a great deal of interest from people working in applied areas like visual art, design, architecture, music, and so forth. The Oxford Handbook of Perceptual Organization provides a broad and extensive review of the current literature, written in an accessible form for scholars and students. With chapter written by leading researchers in the field, this is the state-of-the-art reference work on this topic, and will be so for many years to come.

A discussion on the social complexity approach, where dialogue and stories allow for the degrees of freedom needed for the opportunities of emergence to take root. The authors focus on the experience of coherence and how such experiential lessons differ from the establishment and maintenance of categories and labels.