Seeing and Visualizing

Over the past thirty years, Zenon Pylyshyn has played a leading role in developing theories of high-level visual cognition. In this book, he brings together his long-standing interests in the modularity of visual processing, the relations between visual attention, spatial indexing, and 'seeing', and the relationship between imagery and vision. The work not only summarizes his influential views, but also raises important questions for future research. It will be of considerable relevance to all interested in high-level vision, from psychologists to computer scientists and philosophers.

Glyn Humphreys, University of Birmingham

Pylyshyn's book is an impressive achievement and a refreshing approach to vision science. Written with characterisitic flair and erudition, the book provides a comprehensive synthesis of research and theory in the field. Pylyshyn combines masterful exposition with incisive critical evaluations, including his own significant experimental contributions and theoretical analyses. Sensitive to key philosophical and methodological issues, Pylyshyn offers a radical critique of receieved views and dispels deeply entrenched and misconceptions to which much theorizing about vision has fallen victim.

Peter Slezak, Program in Cognitive Science, University of New South Wales

Pylyshyn's work is cognitive science at its best, briging detailed experimental results to bear upon a number of important theoretical questions, all in amiably clear prose. Anyone interested not only in the nature of vision, but in imagistic experience, attention, or demonstrative reference, will find here a wealth of relevant data and argument. Although Pylyshyn is largely concerned to defend his own theory of 'visual indices,' he is quite sensitive to competing views, as well as to the (sometimes misleading) deliverances of introspection. I emphatically recommend the book not only to the specialist, but to anyone wanting an up-to-date text on the topic generally.

Georges Rey, Professor of Philosophy, University of Maryland

Pylyshyn's book is to be commended as a thorough and persuasive defense of the information-processing approach to vision and visualizing. It should be essential reading for psychologists, cognitive scientists, and philosophers.

Paul Coates

Metapsychology

Seeing and Visualizing offers a persuasive account of why visual perception and visual imagery do not depend on internal pictorial representations, and puts forward the deeply counterintuitive notion that the machinery of visual thinking does not use mental pictures at all. Pylyshyn's masterful defense of this idea is a 'must-read' not only for committed Fodorians but also for those who believe that mental representations resemble the things they depict. The book is challenging and provocative—and even occasionally infuriating—but always thoughtful and immensely readable. I recommend it to anyone who has ever wondered about how we see and visualize the world.

Mel Goodale, Canada Research Professor in Visual Neuroscience, University of Western Ontario