Field of view

Journal/Book: J Mind Behav. 1998; 19: PO Box 522 Village Station, New York, NY 10014, USA. Inst Mind Behavior Inc. 415-436.

Abstract: Two concepts of field of view are spelled out, the ordinary concept defined by the dictionary and the technical concept devised by Gibson and put to work in his ecological account of visual perceiving. The dictionary's concept refers to an area of the environ ment taken from a particular viewpoint; from this viewpoint, there are some objects visible throughout the geographical area constituting the corresponding field of view. The technical concept refers to the total large solid angle of light that projects to an animal's point of observation and is registrable by its ocular system. Consisting of photic energy, a Gibsonian field of view is neither a kind of experience nor a pan. Of the ecological environment, although a field of view instantiates stimulus information specifying properties of the environment or animal and makes visual experience possible. Being a portion of the light by which we see the environment and ourselves, a field of view may not be itself a possible object of experience - if Gibson's account of visual perceiving is on the right track. Our visual system picks up features of the light that makes up our successive fields of view, but we thereby have visual perceptual awareness of what these photic features are nomically specific to, not of the features themselves. A concept of stream of view may be preferable to a concept of field of view, for a perceiver is typically moving, rather than occupying a point of observation.

Note: Article Natsoulas T, Univ Calif Davis, Dept Psychol, Davis,CA 95616 USA

Keyword(s): PERCEPTUAL EXPERIENCE

Zurück | Weiter