Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

A Science of Qualities

  • Thematic Issue Article: Quality & Quantity
  • Published:
Biological Theory Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

The apparent dichotomy between qualitative versus quantitative dimensions in science intersects with the domain of several disciplines, as well as different research fields within one and the same discipline. The perception of qualitative as “poor quantitative,” however, is methodologically unsustainable, because there are perfectly rigorous ways to conduct qualitative research. A somehow different question is whether a science of qualities per se is possible: that is, whether a science of appearances can be devised, what its observables are, and its methodological implications. The article deals with this last issue, and especially from the point of view of experimental phenomenology. The weakness of the current approach to perception is discussed, and an alternative view that goes beyond veridicalism is presented. The analysis tackles crucial issues such as color and spatial appearances, the qualitative dimension of perceived depth, and the role of visual meaningful gestalten as information tools for the survival of living beings in the environment. If developed, a science of the qualitative dimensions of appearances may contribute to revising the ecological theory of perception by making its natural semantics more explicit.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Albertazzi L (2006a) Introduction to visual spaces. In: Albertazzi L (ed) Visual thought. The depictive space of perception. Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam, pp 3–34

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L (2006b) Visual qualities. Drawing on canvas. In: Albertazzi L (ed) Visual thought. The depictive space of perception. Benjamins Publishing, Amsterdam, pp 165–194

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L (2012) Qualitative perceiving. J Conscious Stud 19(11–12):37–47

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L (2013a) Experimental phenomenology: an introduction. In: Albertazzi L (ed) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, pp 1–36

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L (2013b) Appearances from an experimental viewpoint. In: Albertazzi L (ed) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, pp 267–290

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L (2015) Spatial elements in visual awareness. Challenges for an intrinsic ‘geometry’ of the visible. In: Niveleau C-E, Métraux A (eds) The bounds of naturalism: experimental constraints and phenomenological requiredness. Special issue of Philosophiae Scientia (in press)

  • Albertazzi L, Poli R (2014) Multi-leveled objects: color as a case study. Front Psychol 5:5–92. doi:10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00592

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L, van Tonder G, Vishwanath D (2010) Information in perception. In: Albertazzi L, van Tonder G, Vishwanath D (eds) Perception beyond inference. The information content of perceptual processes. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 1–26

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L, Canal L, Da Pos O et al (2012) The hue of shapes. J Exp Psychol 39(1):37–47. doi:10.1037/a0028816

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L, Canal L, Malfatti M, Micciolo R (2013) The hue of concepts. Perception 42(12):1344–1352. doi:10.1068/p7576

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L, Canal L, Dadam J, Micciolo R (2014a) The semantics of biological forms. Perception 43(12):1365–1376. doi:10.1068/p7794

    Google Scholar 

  • Albertazzi L, Malfatti M, Canal L, Micciolo R (2014b) The hue of angles. Was Kandinsky right? Art Percept 3:81–92. doi:10.1163/22134913-00002025

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Allen C, Bekoff M (1997) Species of mind: the philosophy and biology of cognitive ethology. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Anderson NH (2001) Empirical direction in design and analysis. Erlbaum, Mahwah

    Google Scholar 

  • Attneave F (1968) Triangles as ambiguous figures. Am J Psychol 81:447–453

  • Barry S (2009) Fixing my gaze. Basic Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Bohm D (1994) Thought as a system. Routledge, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Boi L, Flament D, Salanskis J-M (eds) (1992) 1830–1930: a century of geometry. Epistemology, history and mathematics. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • Boynton RM (1979) Human color vision. Holt, Rinehart and Winston, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Brainard DH (1995) Colorimetry. In: Bass M, Van Stryland E, Williams D (eds) Handbook of optics: fundamentals, techniques, and design, vol 1. 26.1–26.54, 2nd edn. McGraw-Hill, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Canal L, Micciolo R (2013) Measuring the immeasurable: quantitative analyses of perceptual experiments. In: Albertazzi L (ed) Handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearances. Wiley-Blackwell, Chichester, pp 477–498

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Changizi MA, Zhang Q, Shimojo D (2006) Bare skin, blood and the evolution of primate colour vision. Biol Lett 2(2):217–221

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chemero A (2003) An outline of a theory of affordances. Ecol Psychol 15:181–195

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Da Pos O, Albertazzi L (2010) It is in the nature of the colors. Seeing Perceiving 23:39–73

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Da Pos O, Pietto ML (2010) Highlighting the quality of light sources. Proceedings of the 2nd CIE expert symposium on appearance ‘When appearance meets lighting,’ 8–10 September. Gent, Belgium

  • Dadam J, Albertazzi L, Da Pos O et al (2012) Morphological patterns and their colour. Percept Mot Skills 114:1–15

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • De Moulpied AR (1924) The quest for colour. A short survey on the story of colour in relation to man’s needs and environment. Benn, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Fechner GT (1860) Elemente der Psychophysik. Breitkopf & Härtel, Leipzig

    Google Scholar 

  • Fogden M, Fogden P (1974) Animals and their colors: camouflage, warning coloration, courtship and territorial display. Crown, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Fox DL (1979) Natural coloration of living things. University of California Press, Berkeley

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujita K (1996) Linear perspective and the Ponzo illusion: a comparison between rhesus monkeys and humans. J Psychol Res 38:136–145

    Google Scholar 

  • Fujita K, Blough DS, Blough PM (1991) Pigeons see the Ponzo illusion. Anim Learn Behav 19:283–293

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Fujita K, Blough DS, Blough PM (1993) Effects of the inclination of context lines on perception of the Ponzo illusion by pigeons. Anim Learn Behav 21:29–34

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • G Galilei ([1623]1957) The assayer (trans: Drake S). In: Discoveries and opinions of Galileo. Doubleday, New York, pp 237–238

  • Gazzaniga MS, Richard BI, George RM (1997) Cognitive neuroscience. The biology of the mind. Norton, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Gibson JJ (1979) The ecological approach to visual perception. Houton Mifflin, Boston

    Google Scholar 

  • Gregory R (2009) Seeing through illusions. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Guan D-D, Luo MR (1999) A colour-difference formula for assessing large colour differences. Color Res Appl 24:344–355. doi:10.1002/(SICI)1520-6378(199910)24:5<344:AID-COL6>3.0.CO;2-X

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Hawking S, Mlodinow M (2010) The grand design. Bantam Books, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Hering EE ([1920]1964) Outlines of a theory of the light sense (trans: Hurvich LM, Jameson D). Harvard University Press, Cambridge [Trans. of Zur Lehre vom Lichtsinn]

  • Huffman DA (1971) Impossible objects as nonsense sentences. In: Meltzer B, Michie D (eds) Machine intelligence 6. Elsevier, New York, pp 295–324

    Google Scholar 

  • Hume D (1975) Enquiries concerning human understanding and concerning the principles of morals, 3rd edn (Selby-Bigge LA, ed; revised by P H Nidditch). Clarendon Press, Oxford

  • Hurlbert A (2013) The perceptual quality of color. In: Albertazzi L (ed) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, pp 369–394

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

  • Jaśkowski P (2014) What determines simultaneity and order perception? In: Arstila V, LLoyd D (eds) Subjective time. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 379–408

    Google Scholar 

  • Jürgens UM, Nikolić D (2012) Ideasthesia: conceptual processes assign similar colours to similar shapes. Transl Neurosci 3:22–27. doi:10.2478/s13380-012-0010-4

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kanay R (2014) Illusory distortions of subjective time perception. In: Arstila V, LLoyd D (eds) Subjective time. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 343–354

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanizsa G (1979) Organization in vision. Praeger, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Kanizsa G (1991) Vedere e pensare. Il Mulino, Bologna

  • Katz D (1935) The world of colour. Kegan Paul, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Koenderink JJ (2013) Surface shape, the science, and the look. In: Albertazzi L (ed) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, pp 165–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Koenderink J, Albertazzi L, van Doorn AJ et al (2010) Does monocular visual space contain planes? Acta Psychol 134(1):40–47

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Koenderink JJ, van Doorn A, Wagemans J (2011) Depth. I-perception 2(6):541–564. doi:10.1068/i0438aap

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kubovy M, Wagemans J (1995) Grouping by proximity and multistability in dot lattices: a quantitative gestalt theory. Psychol Sci 6:225–234

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kuehni RG (2003) Theories, technologies, instrumentalities of color: anthropological and historiographic perspectives. Color Res Appl 28:231–233. doi:10.1002/col.10151

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Kulpa Z (1987) Putting order in the impossible. Perception 16:201–214

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lakoff G (1987) Women, fire and dangerous things. What categories reveal about the mind. University of Chicago Press, Chicago

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz K (1973) Die Rückseite des Spiegels. Piper, Munich

    Google Scholar 

  • Lorenz K ([1941]1982). Kant’s doctrine of the a priori in the light of contemporary biology. In: Plotkin HC (ed) Learning, development, and culture: essays in evolutionary epistemology. Wiley, Chichester, pp 121–143. English trans of Lorenz K (1941) Kants Lehre vom apriorischen im Lichte gegenwärtiger Philosophie. Blätter für Deutsche Philosophie 15: 94–125

  • Mac Lane S (1986) Mathematics. Form and function. Springer, New York

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Marks LE (1974) Sensory processes. The new psychophysics. Academic Press, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Marr D (1982) Vision: a computational investigation into the human representation and processing of visual information. W H Freeman, New York

    Google Scholar 

  • Mausfeld R (2010) The perception of material qualities and the internal semantics of the perceptual system. In: Albertazzi L, van Tonder G, Vishwanath D (eds) Perception beyond inference. The information content of perceptual processes. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 159–200

    Google Scholar 

  • Mausfeld R (2013) The attribute of realness and the internal organization of perceptual reality. In: Albertazzi L (ed) The Wiley Blackwell handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, pp 91–118

  • Meier B (2013) Semantic representation of synesthesia. Theoria et Historia Scientiarum 10:125–134

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Metzger W (1941) Psychologie: die Entwicklung ihrer Grundannahmen seit der Einführung des Experiments. Steinkopff, Dresden

    Book  Google Scholar 

  • Metzger W (2009) Laws of seeing (trans: Spillmann L). MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Murari M, Rodà A, Da Pos O et al (2014) How blue is Mozart? Non verbal sensory scales for describing music qualities. In: Georgaki A, Kouroupetroglou G (eds) Proceedings of ICMC|SMC|2014, 14–20 September, Athens, Greece

  • Nakamura N, Watanabe S, Fujita K (2009) Further analysis of perception of reversed Müller-Lyer figures for pigeons (Columba livia). Percept Mot Skills 108:239–250

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Nakamura N, Watanabe S, Fujita K (2014) A reversed Ebbinghaus-Tichner illusion in bantams (Gallus gallus domesticus). Anim Cogn 17:471–481

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Osgood CE (1956) Method and theory in experimental psychology. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Osgood CE, Suci G, Tannenbaum P (1957) The measurement of meaning. University of Illinois Press, Urbana

    Google Scholar 

  • Palmer SE, Bucher NM (1982) Textural effects in perceived pointing of ambiguous triangles. J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform 8:693–708

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Penrose LS, Penrose R (1958) Impossible objects: a special type of visual illusions. Br J Psychol 49:31–33

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Pepperberg IM, Vicinay J, Cavanagh P (2008) Processing of the Müller-Lyer illusion by a grey parrot (Psittacus erithacus). Perception 37:765–781

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Perkins DN, Cooper RG (1980) How the eye makes up what the light leaves out. In: Hagen MA (ed) The perception of pictures, vol II. Academic Press, New York, pp 95–130

    Google Scholar 

  • Poli R (2001) The basic problem of the theory of levels of reality. Axiomathes 12(3–4):261–283

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Poli R (2006) Levels of reality and the psychological stratum. Revue Internationale de Philosophie 61(2):163–180

    Google Scholar 

  • Pöppel E, Bao Y (2014) Temporal windows as a bridge from objective to subjective time. In: Arstila V, LLoyd D (eds) Subjective time. MIT Press: Cambridge, pp 241–262

  • Pratt CC (1989) The spatial character of high and low tones. J Exp Psychol 13:278–285

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Ramachandran VS (2003) Foreword. In: Pessoa L, De Weerd P (eds) Filling-In. From perceptual completion to cortical reorganization. Oxford University Press, Oxford, pp xi–xxii

  • Rausch E (1966) Das Eigenschaftsproblem in der GT der Wahrnehmung. In: Metzger W (ed) Handbuch der Psychologie. Hogrefe, Göttingen, pp 866–953

    Google Scholar 

  • Rock I (1983) The logic of perception. MIT Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Rosa Salva O, Rugani R, Cavazzana A et al (2013) Perception of the Ebbinghaus illusion in four-day-old domestic chicks (Gallus gallus). Anim Cogn 16:895–906

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rosch E, Lloyd BB (1978) Cognition and categorization. Lawrence Erlbaum, Hillsdale

    Google Scholar 

  • Rothenberg D (2012) Survival of the beautiful. Bloomsbury, London

    Google Scholar 

  • Seeger A (1987) Why Suyá sing: a musical anthropology of an Amazonian people. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge

    Google Scholar 

  • Shapiro A, Todorovic D (eds) (2014) Compendium of visual illusions. Oxford University Press, Oxford

    Google Scholar 

  • Simner J, Mulvenna C, Sagiv N et al (2006) Synaesthesia: the prevalence of atypical cross-modal experiences. Perception 35:1024–1033

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sovrano VA, Albertazzi L, Rosa Salva O (2013) The Ebbinghaus illusion in a fish (Kenotoca eiseni). Anim Cogn. doi:10.1007/s10071-014-0821-5

    Google Scholar 

  • Spence C (2011) Crossmodal correspondences: a tutorial review. Atten Percept Psychophys 73:971–995. doi:10.3758/s13414-010-0073-7

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Spillmann W (1985) The concept of lightness ratio of hues in colour combination theory. In: Proceedings of the 5th AIC congress, Monte Carlo, Monaco, pp 1–6

  • Stevens SS (1957) On the psychophysical law. Psychol Rev 64:153–181

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Timney B, Keil K (1996) Horses are sensitive to pictorial depth cues. Perception 25:1121–1128

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tinbergen N (1963) On aims and methods of ethology. Zeitschrift für Tierpsychologie 20:410–433

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tomson SN, Narayan M, Allen GI, Eagleman D (2013) Neural networks of colored sequence synesthesia. J Neurosci 33:14098–14106

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tudusciuc O, Nieder A (2010) Comparison of length judgments and the Müller-Lyer illusion in monkeys and humans. Exp Brain Res 207:221–231

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vishwanath D (2005) The epistemological status of vision science and its implications for design. Axiomathes 3(15):399–486. doi:10.1007/s10516-0044-5445-y

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vishwanath D (2010) Visual information in surface and depth perception. In: Albertazzi L, van Tonder G, Vishwanath D (eds) Perception beyond inference. The information content of perceptual processes. MIT Press, Cambridge, pp 201–240

    Google Scholar 

  • Vishwanath D (2013) Experimental phenomenology of visual 3D space: considerations from evolution, perception and philosophy. In: Albertazzi L (ed) The Wiley Blackwell Handbook of experimental phenomenology. Visual perception of shape, space and appearance. Blackwell-Wiley, Chichester, pp 181–204

  • Vishwanath D (2014) Towards a new theory of stereopsis. Psychol Rev 121(2):151–178

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Vishwanath D, Hibbard PB (2013) Seeing in 3-D with just one eye: stereopsis without binocular vision. Psychol Sci 24:1673–1685

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • von Helmholtz H (1867) Handbuch der Physiologischen Optik. Voss, Hamburg. English edition: Helmholtz H von (1962) Handbook of physiological options (trans: Southall JCP). Dover, New York

  • von Uexküll J (1909) Umwelt und Innenwelt der Tiere. Springer, Berlin

    Google Scholar 

  • von Uexküll J ([1934]1992) A stroll through the world of animals and men: A picture book of invisible worlds. Semiotica 89(4):319–391

  • Wackermann J (2010) Psychophysics as science of primary experience. Philos Psychol 23(2):189–206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Wackermann J, Kastner K (2010) Determinants of filled/empty optical illusion: search for the locus of maximal effect. Acta Neurobiol Exp 70:99

    Google Scholar 

  • Walsham G (1993) Interpreting information systems in organizations. Wiley, Chichester

    Google Scholar 

  • Ward J, Li R, Salih S, Sagiv N (2007) Varieties of grapheme-colour synaesthesia: a new theory of phenomenological and behavioural differences. Conscious Cogn 16(4):913–931

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Weeks JR (1985) The shape of space: how to visualize surfaces and three-dimensional manifolds. Marcel Dekker, New York

  • Wertheimer M (1938) Laws of organization in perceptual forms. In: Ellis WE (ed) A source book of gestalt psychology. Routledge, London, pp 71–94

    Chapter  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Center for Mind/Brain Sciences (CIMeC) & Department of Humanities, University of Trento, Trento, Italy

    Liliana Albertazzi

Authors
  1. Liliana Albertazzi
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Liliana Albertazzi.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Albertazzi, L. A Science of Qualities. Biol Theory 10, 188–199 (2015). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0213-3

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13752-015-0213-3

Keywords

Search

Navigation