Interpretations: Perceiving Three-Dimensional Figures: Binocular Depth Cues
The ability to see objects in three dimensions is the result of binocular depth cues. The fact that the images that strike the retina in each eye are slightly different allows our brain to merge these different inputs into a single three-dimensional...
Interpretations: Perceiving Distance, Depth and Motion
Monocular cues allow us to judge distance and depth whether we are viewing with one eye or two. For example, the image size of an object appears larger when it is close and smaller when it is far away. Parallel lines seem to come together as they mo...
Connections: Does the Brain Record Sensations Without Our Conscious Awareness?
How much of what we see or hear, taste, smell, or touch, is actually recorded by the brain without our conscious awareness? One method psychologists use to study this phenomenon is to study people who have had damage to the primary visual cortex. Cl...
Connections: Sensory Signals: Destination Cortex
The ultimate destination for sensory signals is the cerebral cortex. The cortex is a crumpled sheet, a few millimeters thick, wrapped around the exterior of the brain. In the primary visual cortex there is a hierarchy of processing with the represen...
The Great Mystery: Discounted Theories of Consciousness
Although it is widely accepted that a person's mental life is caused by neurobiological processes in the brain, we have no real understanding of how the brain gives rise to consciousness, or what brain processes are specifically responsible. The ide...
The Great Mystery: Levels of Consciousness
Researchers agree that there are various levels of consciousness, from concentrated attention at one end of the spectrum to a total lack of consciousness at the other. Most of what we do tends to be on the unconscious end of the continuum. A classic...