About the Book
The human body has long inspired artists, philosophers, musicians, and writers. Researchers in the psychological sciences, however, have only relatively recently begun to acknowledge the role the body plays in perception and cognition. With the general notion of cognition recently broadening to include its embodied nature, researchers' accounts of perception have increasingly come to include the body's special status as a window on the world and to accommodate the
specific perceptual requirements for identifying, interpreting, and interacting with other bodies. This volume presents a comprehensive overview of the rapid progress that has been made in
understanding the human body and its relationship to perception. It will help to unify the relevant research from several independent areas of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience and facilitate the development of an integrated framework for the study of human-body perception. Its sections cover the four major lines of research that have contributed and will continue to contribute to this new framework: body and multimodal perception, body representation, perception of biological
motion, and intention and action in body perception. Each chapter provides a state-of-the-art account of exciting theoretical developments and empirical advances, and section introductions integrate the
chapters and establish each section's place in the broader context of human-body-perception research. This volume will be an invaluable guide for student and professional researchers in visual perception, cognitive psychology, and cognitive neuroscience.
Table of Contents:
1: Günther Knoblich, Ian Thornton, Marc Grosjean, and Maggie Shiffrar: 1. Human Body Perception from the Inside Out: Integrating Perspectives on Human Body Perception,
SECTION 1
2: Marc Grosjean: An introduction to body and multimodal perception,
3: Nicholas P. Holmes and Charles Spence: Beyond the body schema: Visual, prosthetic, and technological contributions to bodily perception and awareness,
4: Angelo Maravita: From "body in the brain" to "body in space": Sensory and intentional components of body representation,
5: Elisabetta Làdavas and Alessandro Farnè: Multisensory representation of peripersonal space,
6: Marc O. Ernst: A Bayesian view on multimodal cue integration,
Section 2
7: Maggie Shiffrar: . Body-based views of the world: An introduction to body representations,
8: F. de Vignemont, M. Tsakiris, and P. Haggard: Body mereology,
9: Peter Brugger: From Phantom Limb to Phantom Body: Varieties of Extracorporeal Awareness,
10: Margaret Wilson: Covert Imitation: How the Body Schema Acts as a Prediction Device,
11: Catherine L. Reed, Valerie E. Stone, and John E. McGoldrick: Not Just Posturing: Configural processing of the human body,
Section 3
12: Ian M. Thornto: Of bodies, brains and models: Studying the perception of biological motion,
13: Ian M. Thornton: Biological Motion: Point-light Walker and Beyond,
14: Jeannine Pinto: Developing body representations: A review of infants' responses to biological motion displays
15: Martin A. Giese: Computational Principles for the Recognition of Biological Movements: Model-based versus feature-based approaches,
16: Emily D. Grossman: Evidence for a Network of Brain Areas Involved in Perception of Biological Motion,
Section 4
17: Günther Knoblich: An introduction to intention and action in body perception: The body as the actor's tool,
18: Wolfgang Prinz: Representational Foundations of Intentional Action,
19: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore: When the other influences the self: Interference between perception and action,
20: Chris Moore: Representing intentional relations and acting intentionally in infancy: Current insights and open questions,
Review :
"This volume is an indispensable resource for anyone interested in body perception. No other work brings together so comprehensively and so adroitly the rapidly growing evidence on the many, often surprising, ways that perception of the body interacts with and affects a wide range of perceptual, cognitive, and motor activities. Many of the major advances in this field have been made by the contributors to this book. Their skill, coupled with the editors' deft
organization of the volume as a whole, leaves one confident that this work will remain close at hand for many generations to come." --David A. Rosenbaum, Distinguished Professor of Psychology,
Pennsylvania State University
"At one time, psychology considered information processing as an abstract process, defined without regard to the physical characteristics of people. A new, more powerful way of considering interactions with the world starts with the human body, and interprets cognitive and perceptual processes as interactions of the body with its environment. Here the world's leading experts in this new way of doing perceptual psychology assemble an international and
interdisciplinary team to explain body-based perception at every level, from the body sense itself to intention and action in a body-based perspective. The volume is destined to become the 'bible' of body-based
perception for the next generation of perceptual psychologists and neuroscientists." --Bruce Bridgeman, Professor of Psychology and Psychobiology, University of California, Santa Cruz
Knoblich and colleagues have artfully organized a collection of wonderfully written chapters that manages to contiguously span multi-sensory integration, self-perception, biological motion, imitation, action, and intention--all in the service of elucidating how the human mind perceives its own and others' bodies. With a delicate balance of cognitive and ecological psychology, neuropsychology, neurophysiology, and cognitive neuroscience, the book documents the
privileged role of the human body in human perception and the special relationship between perception of one's own body and perception of other human bodies. In the burgeoning theoretical frameworks of
body perception, of embodied cognition, and of social cognitive neuroscience, this generous volume will serve as a cornucopian resource for many years to come." --Michael Spivey, Associate Professor of Psychology, Cornell University
"Of all our everyday activities, surely none can be more important than knowing about people, ourselves included. Indeed, this is why the nascent field of social neuroscience is burgeoning, and it's why this book is important and timely. By integrating multiple research perspectives on body perception, these chapters--contributed by leaders in the field--provide a comprehensive overview of work on the cognitive and neuronal bases of human body perception,
including self-awareness. Anyone already in the field will greatly appreciate the synthesis, and those just discovering the field will become hooked when they read this book." --Randolph Blake, Centennial
Professor of Psychology, Vanderbilt University
"This volume offers some of the keys that will eventually release us fromt eh Cartesian prison of spirits, which Descartes bestowed on us some 360 years ago."--PsycCRITIQUES
