Sometimes when you are looking for a familiar face in a crowd, for example at a railway station, and you begin to worry about having missed the person, you suddenly recognise them without actually having distinguished them very clearly. Based on numerous examples, this book describes and explains the phenomenon of perceptive recognition: how with minimal information the human brain can identify not only general forms (a man, a woman, a cat, a dog, a house, and so forth), but also specific individuals who might seem scarcely distinguishable from one another, unless a large amount of information is provided. Drawing upon radio-magnetic images of the brain, experimental psychological tests, and data about cerebral lesions, the author shows how the human brain perceives things under the most varied circumstances. This study of the brain that “sees” is also an exploration of the perceived world.

Raymond Bruyer teaches experimental psychology at the University of Louvain La Neuve, Belgium.