[photo-3d] Learning to See

[Ray Zone <r3dzone@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Herbert Maxey wrote:

> I would like to know where the data comes from. Please point me in a
> direction. I still maintain that the ability to view 3D is one of natures
> miracles and I would go so far as to say that NOT being able to see 3D is
> extremely rare.

Ray Zone responds:

Gabriel is correct.  Vision, perception and stereopsis are learned.  They
are a form of visual literacy which like speech, writing and walking itself
are acquired skills. Binocular freevision is a great example of a learned
perceptual "skill."  And there is an abundance of literature, clinical,
philosophical and otherwise on this subject.  I refer you to just a few with
the following.  All of them indicate that stereopsis, because of its linking
of the eyes and brain, is something that we learn as we acquire a repertoire
of experience that is both sensory and cerebral, at one with consciousness
itself.

from "Pediatric Ophthalmology" by L. Byerly Holt (Lea & Febiger: 1964):

"The following procedures are more specific methods of determining the stage
of visual development in pre-ambulatory infants. The basis of these tests is
optically elicited movement, the movement of the eyes toward a peripherally
appearing object, which is dependent upon some development of central
vision.  With considerable patience on the part of the examiner, such a
response may be observed in the 2 to 4 week old infant; the eyes turn toward
a flashlight or large object as if to fixate it.  By 5 to 6 weeks of age the
infant may seem to follow the object with a jerking motion of the eyes; by 4
to 6 months, this following movement appears smoother and better
coordinated."

from "Light and Vision" by Conrad G. Mueller, Mae Rudolph and the Editors of
LIFE (Time, Incorporated: 1966):

"For hundreds of years it has been clear that man's vision takes place, not
in his eyes, but in his brain."

from "Visual Thinking" by Rudolf Arnheim (Faber and Faber Limited: 1969):

"One might say that even physiologically vision imposes a conceptual order
on the material it records."

from "The Object Stares Back" by James Elkins (Simon & Schuster: 1996):

"It is difficult to break through the wall of usual seeing and begin to
discover how many other things there are to see.  It requires practice and
special information--you have to know what you're looking for--and it also
requires energy, since it involves special concentration."

A 1999 film titled "At First Sight" starring Val Kilmer provides a beautiful
example of visual learning.  Kilmer plays a man who has been blind from
birth.  An experimental procedure restores his sight to him but he is
overwhelmed because he has no perceptual vocabulary to understand what he is
seeing or to interpret the signals of the visual field.  The film shows
Kilmer learning spatial vision, slowly grasping the meaning and perception
of depth which his brain must organize from the chaotic array of visual
stimuli.  Kilmer goes to a cognitive psychologist played by Nathan Lane who
teaches him to "see" even though his eyes, at this point, are fully
functional.