Principles of Visual Attention (Paperback)  | Released: 15 Oct 2008

The nature of attention is one of the oldest and most central problems in psychology. A huge amount of research has been produced on this subject in the last half century, especially on attention in the visual modality, but a general explanation has remained elusive. Many still view attention research as a field that is fundamentally fragmented. This book takes a different perspective and presents a unified theory of visual attention. The TVA model explains the many aspects of visual attention by just two mechanisms for selection of information: filtering and pigeonholing. These mechanisms are described in a set of simple equations, which allow TVA to mathematically model a large number of classical results in the attention literature. The theory explains psychological and neuroscientific findings by the same equations; TVA is a complete theory of visual attention, linking mind and brain. Aimed at advanced students and professional researchers, Principles of Visual Attention contains a detailed review of the most important research done on attention in vision, spanning cognitive psychology, brain imaging, patient studies, and recordings from single cells in the visual cortex. The book explains the TVA model and shows how it accounts for attentional effects observed across all the research areas described. Principles of Visual Attention offers a uniquely integrated view on a central topic in cognitive neuroscience.About the Author: Claus Bundesen is Professor of Cognitive Psychology at the University of Copenhagen, Director of the Center for Visual Cognition at the University of Copenhagen, and Director of the Danish Research School of Psychology. He is the President of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology and a member of the Executive Committee of the International Association for the Study of Attention and Performance. He has been Editor in Chief of the European Journal of Cognitive Psychology and a member of the editorial board of Visual Cognition. Currently he is a member of the editorial boards of Psychological Review and Psychological Research. His achievements include measurement of effects of visual size in pattern recognition and apparent movement and development of mathematical models of selective attention in vision. Thomas Habekost received his Ph.D. in 2005 (University of Copenhagen) for a thesis on attention disturbances after right hemisphere stroke, in which he developed and applied a newtesting method based on TVA theory. He has since extended the TVA based testing method to study other patient groups as well as the normal aging process. He has also contributed to the development of the NTVA theory, especially its applications to the single-cell literature on attention.