Description

How the human visual system determines the lightness of a surface, that is, its whiteness, blackness, or grayness, remains--like vision in general--a mystery. In fact, we have not even been able to create a machine that can determine, through an artificial vision system, whether an object is white, black, or gray. Although the photoreceptors in the eye are driven by light, the light reflected by a surface does not reveal its shade of gray. Depending upon the level of illumination, a surface of any shade of gray can reflect any amount of light.

In Seeing Black and White Alan Gilchrist ties together over 30 years of his own research on lightness, and presents the first comprehensive, historical review of empirical work on lightness, covering the past 150 years of research on images ranging from the simple to the complex. He also describes and analyzes the many theories of lightness--including his own--showing what each can and cannot explain. Gilchrist highlights the forgotten-yet-exciting work done in the first third of the twentieth century, describing several crucial experiments and examining the brilliant but nearly unknown work of the Hungarian gestalt theorist, Lajos Kardos.

Gilchrists review also includes a survey of the pattern of lightness errors made by humans, many of which result in delightful illusions. He argues that because these errors are not random, but systematic, they are the signature of our visual software, and so provide a powerful tool that can reveal how lightness is computed. Based on this argument and the concepts of anchoring, grouping, and frames of reference, Gilchrist presents a new theoretical framework that explains an unprecedented array of lightness errors. As both the first comprehensive overview of research on lightness and the first unified presentation of Gilchrists new theoretical framework Seeing Black and White will be an invaluable resource for vision scientists, cognitive psychologists, and cognitive neuroscientists.

Reviews

"This book provides readers with a comprehensive understanding of what is currently known about the visual perception of light...The section describing the various lightness errors and illusions is well written and very interesting."--Doody's

"It is a truly excellent monograph on lightness perception, one of the most basic areas in what is most often termed sensation and perception ...The book is certain to become a class in that area."--PsycCRITIQUES

"...Part history lesson, part lesson in good science, Gilchrists book is a labour of love; a polemic that is both warning and lesson to the lazy researcher; an exemplar of what it means to dedicate yourself to the pursuit of a question. Gilchrists command of his subject enables him to guide the reader through a rich history of research, to point out the needless repetition, and to show how the errors we make can uncover the software of the brain, before neatly arriving at his anchoring theory of lightness perception."--The Psychologist

Product Details

448 pages; 4 halftones, 120 line illus.; 6-1/8 x 9-1/4; ISBN13: 978-0-19-518716-8ISBN10: 0-19-518716-4

About the Author(s)