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Double, double, toil and trouble – fire burn, and theory bubble!

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 August 2003

Birgitta Dresp*
Affiliation:
Etude des Mécanismes Cognitifs et Dynamique du Langage, UMR 5596 CNRS–Université Lumière, Lyon 2, France

Abstract:

Lehar's Gestalt Bubble model introduces a computational approach to holistic aspects of three-dimensional scene perception. The model as such has merit because it manages to translate certain Gestalt principles of perceptual organization into formal codes or algorithms. The mistake made in this target article is to present the model within the theoretical framework of the question of consciousness. As a scientific approach to the problem of consciousness, the Gestalt Bubble fails for several reasons. This commentary addresses three of these: (1) the terminology surrounding the concept of consciousness is not rigorously defined; (2) it is not made evident that three-dimensional scene perception requires consciousness at all; and (3) it is not clearly explained by which mechanism(s) the “picture-in-the-head,” supposedly represented in the brain, would be made available to different levels of awareness or consciousness.

Type
Open Peer Commentary
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2003

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References

Note

1. After Shakespeare, Macbeth.