Causality and the eye

[daverupa]

http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/ ... 010813.php

"Our study reveals that causality can be computed at an early level in the visual system," said Martin Rolfs, who conducted much of the research as a post-doctoral fellow in NYU's Department of Psychology. "This finding ends a long-standing debate over how some visual events are processed: we show that our eyes can quickly make assessments about cause-and-effect—without the help of our cognitive systems."

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The finding, the researchers concluded, provides strong evidence that in some cases, the understanding of action – causality, animacy, and intention – is encoded on a perceptual level rather than on a cognitive one.