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Filling-in is for finding out

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 December 1998

Luiz Pessoa
Affiliation:
Department of Computer and Systems Engineering, Center of Technology, Federal University of Rio de Janeiro, Ilha do Fundao, Rio de Janeiro, RJ 21945-970, Brazilpessoa@cos.ufrj.br www.cos.ufrj.br/~pessoa
Evan Thompson
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy and Centre for Vision Research, York University, North York, Ontario, Canada M3J 1P3 evant@yorku.ca www.yorku.ca/research/vision/evant.htm
Alva Noë
Affiliation:
Department of Philosophy, University of California, Santa Cruz, Santa Cruz, CA 95064 anoe@cats.ucsc.edu www2.ucsc.edu/people/anoe/

Abstract

The following points are discussed in response to the commentaries: (1) A taxonomy of perceptual completion phenomena should rely on both phenomenological and mechanistic criteria. (2) Certain forms of perceptual completion are caused by topographically organized neural processes – neural filling-in. (3) The bridge locus, understood as the final site of perceptual experience in the brain, should be replaced by the principle that each token percept has a neural substrate that is nomically sufficient for it, all else being equal. (4) Analytic isomorphism – the view that there must be a pictorial or spatial neural-perceptual isomorphism at the bridge locus – should be rejected. Although more abstract kinds of isomorphism are central to the neural-perceptual mapping, the perceptual cannot be exhaustively explained in terms of the neural, and therefore the explanation of perception cannot be reduced to uncovering neural-perceptual isomorphisms. (5) The task of vision is to guide action in the world, not to construct a detailed world-model in the head. (6) Neural filling-in facilitates the integration of information and thereby helps the animal find out about its environment. (7) Perceptual content needs to be understood at the level of the person or animal interacting in the world.

Type
Author's Response
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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