Visual perception is one of the senses, consisting of the ability to detect light and interpret (see) it as the perception known as sight or naked eye vision. Vision has a specific sensory system.

There is disagreement as to whether or not this constitutes one, two or even three distinct senses. Some people make a distinction between "black and white" vision and the perception of colour, and others point out that vision using rod cells uses different physical detectors on the retina from cone cells. Some argue that the perception of depth also constitutes a sense, but others argue that this is really cognition (that is, post-sensory) function derived from having stereoscopic vision (two eyes) and is not a sensory perception as such.

The eye is the light-sensitive organ that is the first component of the sensory system. The eye's retina performs the first stages of visual perception processing, with the remaining stages of visual perception occurring in the optic nerve and the visual cortex of the brain.

Types of visual perception

• Color vision
• Black and white vision

See also

• philosophy of perception
• phi phenomenon
• optical illusions
• color and color vision
• peripheral vision
• flicker fusion and the persistence of vision
• saccade
• color blindness
• blindsight
• brightness and contrast
• binocular vision and depth perception
• binocular rivalry and multistable perception
• consciousness and visual qualia
• optometry
• phosphenes
• pattern recognition and computer vision
• primary sensory areas
• neuroscience and cognitive science
• Visual perception in dreams
• optic flow
• visual acuity
• visual aid
• visual cortex
• visual deprivation
• visual feedback
• visual field
• visual fixation
• visual pathway
• visual photoreceptor
• visual photosensitivity
• visual phototransduction
• visual pigment
• visual stimulus
• visual tectum
• visual threshold
• visual tracking

References

• Rudolph Arnheim (1954). Art and Visual Perception: A Psychology of the Creative Eye. Berkeley: University of California Press.