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Ulric Neisser Quotes
1928–2012 Germany
Ulric Gustav Neisser (December 8, 1928 – February 17, 2012) was a German-born American cognitive psychologist, and Professor at Cornell University from 1960 to 1983 and at Emory University from 1983 to 1988.
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Cognitive processes surely exist, so it can hardly be unscientific to study them.
To cope with this difficulty [of limited capacity], even a mechanical recognition system must have some way to select portions of the incoming information for detailed analysis.
Paying attention is not just analyzing carefully; rather, it is a constructive act... What we build has only the dimensions we have given it.
p. 96; As cited in: A.H.C. Van der Heijden (1996)
If we allow several figures to appear at once, the number of possible input configurations is so very large that a wholly parallel mechanism, giving a different output for each of them, is inconceivable.
To deal with the whole visual input at once, and make discriminations based on any combination of features in the field, would require too large a brain, or too much "previous experience" to be plausible.
The fact that the span of apprehension averages only four or five... probably results from the high rate of encoding. In a tachistoscopic experiment the subject must read the fading icon as rapidly as possible.
Attention is not a mysterious concentration of psychic energy; it is simply an allotment of analyzing mechanisms to a limited region of the field. To pay attention to a figure is to make certain analyses of, or certain constructions in, the corresponding part of the icon.