The Vision Revolution by Mark Changizi

The Vision Revolution by Mark Changizi

In The Vision Revolution, Mark Changizi, prominent neuroscientist and vision expert, addresses four areas of human vision and provides explanations for why we have those particular abilities, complete with a number of full-color illustrations to demonstrate his conclusions and to engage the reader. Written for both the casual reader and the science buff hungry for new information, The Vision Revolution is a resource that dispels commonly believed perceptions about sight and offers answers drawn from the field's most recent research.

Changizi focuses on four why questions:
1. Why do we see in color?
2. Why do our eyes face forward?
3. Why do we see illusions?
4. Why does reading come so naturally to us?

The Vision Revolution explores phenomena such as cyclopses, peeking and many more you hadn't even thought to wonder about. Changizi shows how deeply involved these evolutionary aspects of our vision are in why we see the way we do--and what the future holds for us.

The Vision Revolution is a book that finally gives attention to what before has been largely neglected by other works on human vision--a book that looks at the why.

"A friendly tone, colorful everyday examples and many helpful figures will draw readers--science buffs or not--down the rabbit hole of cognitive theory and keep them there, dazzled" -- from Publishers Weekly online (starred review), May 11, 2009 "... the novel ideas that Mr. Changizi outlines in The Vision Revolution--together with the evidence he does present--may have a big effect on our understanding of the human brain. Their implication is that the environments we evolved in shaped the design of our visual system according to a set of deep principles. Our challenge now is to see them clearly." --The Wall Street Journal, June 19, 2009 "Throughout the book, Changizi peppers his explanations with quick, fascinating visual exercises that help to drive his points home ... Changizi's theories are appealing and logical, and he backs them with good circumstantial evidence. ... One thing is certain: The Vision Revolution will make you wonder the next time you notice someone blush, catch a ball or finish reading a magazine page." --Scientific American MIND, July 2009 "Changizi focuses on why humans have evolved such visual 'superpowers' as color vision and binocularity. His answers are surprising, overturning theories that have dominated primatology since the 1970s ... Readers, however, need not be well versed in academic debates to enjoy Changizi's lucid explanations. Filled with optical illusions and simple experiments for the reader to perform, this book may be the most fun you'll have learning about human cognition and evolution." --Barnes & Noble Spotlight Review, July 13, 2009 "... most imaginative, creative and entertaining ... This book will no doubt offer a revolutionary view on our daily experience of visual perception." --Shinsuke Shimojo, Professor in Biology/Computation and Neural Systems, California Institute of Technology "Changizi has the unique ability to draw the reader into asking the most fundamental questions of 'why' rather than the more mundane ones of 'how'..." --Romi Nijhawan, Reader in Psychology, Sussex University "This is a book that will open your eyes to the amazing feats of visual perception." --Michael A. Webster, Foundation Professor of Psychology, University of Nevada, Reno "... [Changizi] fleshes out his findings and provides a fresh take on many key issues in perception." --Robert Deaner, Assistant Professor of Psychology, Grand Valley State University "... a book full of invention and originality. ... If you want to learn how to think outside of the box, then this is a book for you." --Peter Lucas, Professor of Anthropology, George Washington University "... one of the most original accounts of vision ... novel ideas that are sure to radically change your mind about the way vision works." --Stanislas Dehaene, head of the CEA Cognitive Neuroimaging Laboratory

Mark Changizi is an evolutionary neurobiologist who is trying to figure out why humans think, feel, and see the way we do. His research is focused on why we experience in color, why we see illusions, why we have forward-facing eyes, why letters are structured the way they are, why the brain is arranged the way it is, why animals have as many limbs and fingers as they have, and why the dictionary is organized the way it is. He attended Thomas Jefferson High School for Science and Technology before going to the University of Virginia to study physics and mathematics and then the University of Maryland to pursue a PhD in mathematics. He received a coveted Sloan-Swartz Fellowship in Theoretical Neurobiology at Caltech in 2002, and in 2007, he joined the Department of Cognitive Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute as an assistant professor. In 2010, he became the Director of Human Cognition at 2ai Laboratories, a new research institute.

He has over 30 scientific journal articles to his credit, some of which have been featured in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Newsweek, and Wired. The Brain From 25,000 Feet (Kluwer 2003), The Vision Revolution (BenBella 2009), and Harnessed (BenBella 2011) are his three works.

SKU	Unavailable
ISBN 13	9781935251767
ISBN 10	1935251767
Title	The Vision Revolution
Author	Mark Changizi
Condition	Unavailable
Binding Type	Paperback
Publisher	BenBella Books
Year published	2010-06-08
Number of pages	240
Cover note	Book picture is for illustrative purposes only, actual binding, cover or edition may vary.