David-
Yes you are explaining it correctly. There is no "image" in the brain,
only a pattern of neural firing. Unfortunately, most intro textbooks
like to use analogies: "the eye is like a camera", "the brain is like a
computer" etc. I make a point of telling my students that these
analogies are clearly wrong and misleading. I think that by
underscoring the _diferences_ between the eye/brain and a
camera/computer students develop a clearer understanding about how these
structures actually work.
All best,
Don.
On Thu, 18 May 2000, DAVID KREINER wrote:
> Speaking of problems with textbooks, what do you think of how some
> textbooks indicate that the brain must compensate for the inversion of
> the images on the retinas by turning the image back over? For
> example, Bernstein & Nash (1999, p. 77) say, "The brain rearranges
> this upside-down and reversed image so that people can see the object
> as it is." (BTW, I like the Bernstein & Nash book very much.)
> Zimbardo makes a similar statement in the Discovering Psychology
> segment on S&P. I have been telling my students that, because the
> brain does not deal with images, only neural responses, the
> orientation on the retina doesn't matter. What matters is that there
> is a consistent mapping between the distal stimulus and the neural
> signal in the brain. (A pair of goggles made by Jim Matiya provide a
> nice demonstration of this.) The analogy I use is that if you were
> receiving a morse code signal, it wouldn't matter to you whether the
> sender had the signal box upside down or right side up - it's only the
> code that matters. Am I explaining this correctly, or is the book
> correct?
>
> David Kreiner
> Professor of Psychology
> Central Missouri State University
> Warrensburg MO 64093
> Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> Phone: 660 543-8076
> Fax: 660 543-8505
>
********************************************************************
Don Allen email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Dept. of Psychology voice: (604)-323-5871
Langara College fax: (604)-323-5555
100 W. 49th Ave.
Vancouver, B.C.
Canada, V5Y 2Z6
********************************************************************
