Wolfgang Pauli was certainly interested in psychology

[ah87]

I know it's an area that mostly psychologists/cognitive scientists/neuroscientists are into. Wolfgang Pauli was certainly interested in psychology and of course there are the works of Penrose and Stapp on consciousness which no one knows what to make of. . .

"The only acceptable point of view appears to be the one that recognizes both sides of reality—the quantitative and the qualitative, the physical and the psychical—as compatible with each other, and can embrace them simultaneously."
(Pauli 1955, p. 208)

This quote should probably be interpreted differently, but an understanding of the physical properties (for example, optics) of the objects that are perceived should be a very important step in understanding how we perceive our physical surroundings. One also might wonder if there's a scientific discipline bridging psychology/psychophysics (not so much neuroscience) and physics.

I've heard and read about (maybe once or twice) physicists studying perception, but haven't been able to find much. Maybe there's an area of physics that covers this sort of thing. I would really appreciate it if someone could point me to it.

Thanks!

 

[Hernik]

We see with the brain. We construct a model of the world inside our heads. By use of our memory and expectations we create a visual idea of our surroundings. And we only use the optic input to correct and refresh this construction. We see what we ecspect to see unless we are contradited by our senses.

So there is a very long way from the optic input in the eyes to how we experience the world. The gap is huge. Many sciences bridge the gap: bio-chemistry of course i one. Any science that is involved in trying to understand and model how the brain works.

 

[sir-pinski]

Thank you for bringing up this interesting topic. It is true that Wolfgang Pauli, as a theoretical physicist, was also interested in psychology and the mind-body problem. He even collaborated with Swiss psychologist Carl Jung in developing the concept of synchronicity. Interestingly, there has been a growing interest in the intersection of physics and psychology in recent years. This field is known as "quantum psychology" or "quantum cognition," and it explores the potential quantum nature of human consciousness and perception. While there is still much debate and skepticism surrounding this field, it is a fascinating area of research that is gaining more attention from both physicists and psychologists.

As for your question about a specific discipline bridging psychology/psychophysics and physics, there is actually a field called "psychophysics" that studies the relationship between physical stimuli and psychological perception. It is an interdisciplinary field that combines principles from both physics and psychology to understand how the brain processes sensory information. Psychophysicists use various experimental methods to measure the relationship between physical stimuli and the resulting psychological responses.

In addition, there are also physicists who study perception and consciousness from a more theoretical perspective, using principles from quantum mechanics and other areas of physics. One prominent example is the work of physicist Roger Penrose and his theory of "orchestrated objective reduction" (Orch OR), which proposes that consciousness arises from quantum processes in the brain.

Overall, the intersection of physics and psychology is a complex and ongoing field of study, and it is likely that we will continue to see more research and collaboration between these two disciplines in the future.