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Information-Processing Approaches to Visual Perception

by Ralph Norman Haber

Answering the need for a compendium on information processing approaches to visual perception, this collection of readings includes material covering a wide range in perception. All of the selections, most of which were originally published with the last two or three years, deal with the translation of visual stimulation into perceptual experience, its storage in the memory, and its retrieval for report. The articles reflect the recent focus of research on the separate stages of processing and upon the interrelationships of the various stages. In his introduction to the collected material, Dr. Haber examines the information-processing approach in some detail and outlines several of the most salient areas of research. Topics are grouped according to traditional treatments of visual perception as a temporal process, but many of the articles are far from traditional and are included because of their fresh insights into aspects of processing. Among the nontraditional selections are papers on short-term storage, visual memory, simultaneity, reaction time, scanning and searching, sequential and repetitive effects, encoding and retrieval, and attention.