A physicist who made contributions to a diverse range of fields (thermodynamics, nerve physiology, visual perception, and aesthetics). Lived from 1821-1894 and is famous for unconscious inference and the ophthalmoscope. 

University of Michigan - Ann Arbor

Helmholtz recognized that the image on the retina is ambiguous (the pattern on the retina could be from many things: the inverse projection problem). He posited that the brain uses unconscious inference to determine what the pattern likely is, based on other evidence about the environment.

Helmholtz's Theory of Unconscious Inference

Goldstein, E. B. (2014). Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience. Nelson Education.


Cognitive psychology: Connecting mind, research and everyday experience

Hermann von Helmholtz

We perceive the object that is deemed most likely to cause the stimuli through unconscious inference

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