Editing Philosophy of perception (section)

==Scientific accounts of perception==

An object at some distance from an observer will reflect light in all directions, some of which will fall upon the corneae of the [[Human eye|eyes]], where it will be focussed upon each [[retina]], forming an image. The disparity between the electrical output of these two slightly different images is resolved either at the level of the [[lateral geniculate]] nucleus or in a part of the [[visual cortex]] called 'V1'. The resolved data is further processed in the visual cortex where some areas have specialised functions, for instance area V5 is involved in the modelling of motion and V4 in adding colour. The resulting single image that subjects report as their experience is called a 'percept'. Studies involving rapidly changing scenes show the percept derives from numerous processes that involve time delays.<ref>see Moutoussis and Zeki (1997)</ref> Recent [[fMRI]] studies <ref>{{Cite journal|title=Brain decoding: Reading minds|year=2013 |doi=10.1038/502428a |last1=Smith |first1=Kerri |journal=Nature |volume=502 |issue=7472 |pages=428–430 |pmid=24153277 |s2cid=4452222 |doi-access=free |bibcode=2013Natur.502..428S }}</ref> show that dreams, imaginings and perceptions of things such as faces are accompanied by activity in many of the same areas of brain as are involved with physical sight. Imagery that originates from the senses and internally generated imagery may have a shared [[ontology]] at higher levels of cortical processing.

[[Sound]] is analyzed in term of pressure waves sensed by the [[cochlea]] in the ear. Data from the eyes and ears is combined to form a 'bound' percept. The problem of how this is produced, known as the [[binding problem]].

Perception is analyzed as a [[cognitive process]] in which [[Information processing (psychology)|information processing]] is used to transfer information into the mind where it is related to other information. Some psychologists propose that this processing gives rise to particular mental states ([[Cognitivism (psychology)|cognitivism]]) whilst others envisage a direct path back into the external world in the form of action (radical [[behaviourism]]). Behaviourists such as [[John B. Watson]] and [[B.F. Skinner]] have proposed that perception acts largely as a process between a stimulus and a response but have noted that [[Gilbert Ryle]]'s "[[ghost in the machine]] of the brain" still seems to exist. "The objection to inner states is not that they do not exist, but that they are not relevant in a functional analysis".<ref>Skinner 1953</ref> This view, in which experience is thought to be an incidental by-product of information processing, is known as [[epiphenomenalism]].

Contrary to the behaviouralist approach to understanding the elements of cognitive processes, [[gestalt psychology]] sought to understand their organization as a whole, studying perception as a process of [[figure-ground (perception)|figure and ground]].