Chapter 5

What was Ibn al-Haytham's evidence that we see only because light enters the eyes, not by sending out sight rays?

If someone electrically stimulated the auditory receptors in your ear, what would you perceive?

If it were possible to flip your entire brain upside down, without breaking any of the connections to sense organs or muscles, what would happen to your perceptions of what you see, hear, and so forth?

You sometimes find that you can see a faint star on a dark night better if you look slightly to the side of the star instead of straight at it. Why?

If you found a species with a high ratio of cones to rods in its retina, what would you predict about its way of life?

When a television set is off, its screen appears gray. When you watch a program, parts of the screen appear black, even though more light is actually showing on the screen than when the set was off. What accounts for the black perception?

Why is color vision deficiency a better term than color blindness?

As we progress from bipolar cells to ganglion cells to later cells in the visual system, are receptive fields ordinarily larger, smaller, or the same size? Why?

What are the differences between the parvocellular and magnocellular systems?

What is an example of an unconscious response to visual information?

How could a researcher determine whether a given neuron in the visual cortex is simple or complex?

What early experience would cause a kitten or human child to lose stereoscopic depth perception?

What causes astigmatism?

If an infant is born with dense cataracts on both eyes and they are surgically removed years later, how well does the child see at first?

Suppose someone can describe an object in detail but stumbles and fumbles when trying to walk toward it and pick it up. Which is probably damaged, the dorsal path or the ventral path?

The brain has no specialized areas for perceiving flowers, cloches, or food. For what items does it have specialized areas?

Under what circumstance does someone with an intact brain become motion blind, and what accounts for the motion blindness?