Sensation and Perception

John Harris is Emeritus Professor of Psychology at the University of Reading, where he has taught about perception for over twenty years. Previously, he worked at the National Physical Laboratory, and later at the University of Bristol, in the Departments of Anatomy and  Psychology. He has published more than 70 articles and book chapters on aspects of visual perception and its abnormalities. He has been associated for many years with the international journal Perception, first as an Associate Editor and later as a member of the Editorial Board. Dr Jared Smith is a research fellow in mental health at St George′s. His major areas of interest are health science, behavioural medicine, and neuropsychology. Specifically, Dr Smith investigates cognitive, learning, and behavioural processes in people with clinical and/or neurological disorders, and the extent to which these processes impact on daily function and are affected by treatments including psychological-based interventions. More generally, he is interested in research involving clinical and neurological rehabilitation, especially in regard to providing evidence-based healthcare for these populations in the form of effective treatments and rehabilitation methods. Dr Smith’s current projects involve investigating: predictors of successful outcome of pain management interventions for people with chronic pain - including the influence of neurocognitive function; the benefits of pain management approaches for people with sickle cell disease; the psychosocial burden of surgically-induced nerve injury; the detection of non-credible complaints in clinical populations; and the feasibility of a navigation approach to care coordination for people with severe mental illness.

PART I: Foundations and Investigative Techniques
Chapter 1: The Nature of Perception, and Some Ways of Investigating It
Chapter 2: Research Methods in Perception
PART II: Visual and Auditory Perception
Chapter 3: Mechanisms of Early and Middle Visual Processing
Chapter 4: Seeing in Colour
Chapter 5: Seeing Pattern and Motion
Chapter 6: Hearing
PART III: The Chemical Senses and Somatosensory Perception
Chapter 7: Taste and Smell
Chapter 8: Touch and Pain
Chapter 9: Vestibular and Proprioceptive Systems
PART IV: Perceiving the World Around Us
Chapter 10: Visual and Auditory Localisation
Chapter 11: Perception and Action
Chapter 12: Eye Movements and Perception of Natural Scenes
Chapter 13: Recognising Faces
Chapter 14: Attention and Awareness
PART V: Changes in Perception
Chapter 15: Changes in Perception Through the Life-span
Chapter 16: Pathologies of Perception