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.