chapter 3: applying the new view of seeing or using the sensorimotor account of consciousness to...
TRANSCRIPT
Chapter 3: Applying the New View of Seeing
or
Using the Sensorimotor Account of Consciousness to explain why we
don't experience the problems described in Chapter 1
Quick Recap
Chapter 2: A New View of Seeing
Experience of Seeing
Illusion of seeing the whole scene Not from the continuity of an internal representation Consists in accessible interrogation of the world
Seeing distinct from remembering/imagining
Richness, Bodiliness, (Partial) Insubordinateness, Grabbiness
Retinal Image Inversion
Vision Inversion Goggles
Immediately after vision inversion
Erismann and Kohler: Inversion goggles (55s)
After perceived re-inversion
Erismann and Kohler: Inversion goggles (30s)
His global internal conscious experience
has re-inverted.He can now interact.
He has gained familiarity with the sensorimotor couplings
for some interactionswith some objects.He now feels he
perceives them correctly.
Dr. Theodor Erismann (1883-1961)
J. Kevin O'Regan
The myth of upright vision
Experiment Subjects spent 6-10 days with inverted vision. They performed non-trivial orientation awareness tasks.
Result No global re-inversion reported Some subjects reported they felt inverted in the world. Mirror text was always read faster. No change in retinotopic visual cortex reported from fMRI. Subjects reported “increasing ambiguity of the visual image” Re-inversion was much quicker. The Brain 10 Perception Inverted Vision(1m)
Prediction of the Sensorimotor Theory
There is no single coordinate reference. Inverted images can be understood amongst
non-inverted images.
Famous Faces
Shout out the names of the following people as soon as you recognise
them.
Who is this?
Who is this?
Who is this?
Who is this?
Who is this?
Who is this?
Who is this?
Answers
1.Pope Benedict XIII
2.George W. Bush
3.Barak Obama
4.Madonna
5.David Attenborough
6.Angelina Jolie
7.Mark Bishop
Look again.
Look again.
Look again.
Look again.
Look again.
Look again.
Look again.
Blind Spot & Retinal Scotoma
The brain doesn't compensate for aberrations, we have learned to ignore them.
We do not experience aberrations, but we can be made aware of them.
J. Kevin O'Regan
The brain arrives at the interpretationthat you are touching either sideof your nose, which is detailed
in your internal representations.
Daniel C. Dennett
It is the act of nottouching certain partsthat gives your faceits characteristic feel
But isn't vision different to touch?
Not according to the sensorimotor approach.They're both exploratory activities.
Touch either side of your nose. Do you feel it vanish?
Awareness of Aberrations
To experience sensory aberrations you must actively attend to missing information that was previously accessible to interrogation.
The existence of aberrations is fundamental for learning sensorimotor contingencies.
Conclusion
Sensorimotor account of consciousness can explain or at least accommodate observed phenomena.
Functional limits of sense organs define the sensorimotor relationships.
Aberrations don't present themselves as seeing is an active interrogation of the world.
“Image processing” mechanisms exist, but not for refining representations.