Contributions to the physiology of vision - part the first. On some remarkable, and hitherto unobserved phenomena of binocular vision.
Wheatstone, C. (1838)
Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society, 128,
- Nominator's statement
- In this historic paper Wheatstone described the "stereoscope", and reported that the differences in the images seen by the left and right eye's produces the sensation of depth.
comments
- Yes, a remarkable discovery, but is it "cognitive science?" The nominator talks about "sensation of depth" and it may well be true that disparity is detected at an early visual stage, prior to "cognition" as we usually think of it.
- What is "cognition?" Suppose I see some footprints separated by 2.5 feet. Because of the inch-deep mud, I reason that person was unlikely to be running, and consequently, conclude that his/her height is 5'10" -- is this cognition? Sure!" you say. Now, suppose my visual cortex "reasons": I see some shading with luminance gradient consistent with a cylinderical surface; usually the light source is from above; so I conclude that the surface is convex -- why is this NOT cognition? Must cognition involve consciousness? What is the essence of cognition?
- Weren't these supposed to be 20th-century publications?
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