A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness
J. O'Regan, and A. Noë. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24 (05):
939-973(2002)
Abstract
Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see,
the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the
experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal
representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It
is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The out-
side world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the gov-
erning laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting
for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Sev-
eral lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor
adaptation, visual “filling in,” visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.
%0 Journal Article
%1 oregan2002sav
%A O'Regan, J.Kevin
%A Noë, Alva
%D 2002
%I Cambridge Univ Press
%J Behavioral and Brain Sciences
%K action blindness change cognition consciousness experience perception qualia sensation sensorimotor visual
%N 05
%P 939-973
%T A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness
%U http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~noe/oregan.noe.pdf
%V 24
%X Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see,
the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the
experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal
representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It
is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The out-
side world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the gov-
erning laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting
for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Sev-
eral lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor
adaptation, visual “filling in,” visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.
@article{oregan2002sav,
abstract = { Many current neurophysiological, psychophysical, and psychological approaches to vision rest on the idea that when we see,
the brain produces an internal representation of the world. The activation of this internal representation is assumed to give rise to the
experience of seeing. The problem with this kind of approach is that it leaves unexplained how the existence of such a detailed internal
representation might produce visual consciousness. An alternative proposal is made here. We propose that seeing is a way of acting. It
is a particular way of exploring the environment. Activity in internal representations does not generate the experience of seeing. The out-
side world serves as its own, external, representation. The experience of seeing occurs when the organism masters what we call the gov-
erning laws of sensorimotor contingency. The advantage of this approach is that it provides a natural and principled way of accounting
for visual consciousness, and for the differences in the perceived quality of sensory experience in the different sensory modalities. Sev-
eral lines of empirical evidence are brought forward in support of the theory, in particular: evidence from experiments in sensorimotor
adaptation, visual “filling in,” visual stability despite eye movements, change blindness, sensory substitution, and color perception.
},
added-at = {2008-10-01T02:10:50.000+0200},
author = {O'Regan, J.Kevin and Noë, Alva},
biburl = {https://www.bibsonomy.org/bibtex/21ceab5a8452e5ef92164580fb462d3ab/yish},
interhash = {f8d3e326ffa6135e78d89da0544653b3},
intrahash = {1ceab5a8452e5ef92164580fb462d3ab},
journal = {Behavioral and Brain Sciences},
keywords = {action blindness change cognition consciousness experience perception qualia sensation sensorimotor visual},
number = 05,
pages = {939-973},
publisher = {Cambridge Univ Press},
timestamp = {2008-10-01T02:10:50.000+0200},
title = {A sensorimotor account of vision and visual consciousness},
url = {http://ist-socrates.berkeley.edu/~noe/oregan.noe.pdf},
volume = 24,
year = 2002
}