Syllabus - Perception - Spring 1998
Michael K. McBeath
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Course:
PSYC 31141
Instructor:
Dr. Mike McBeath
Call No.:
16211 (M.W.) & 16212 (T.Th.)
Office:
Rm. 315C, Kent Hall
Section:
....002 (M.W.) & ....003 (T.Th.)
Office Hours:
Mon.Wed.: 11:00-11:30, 3:30-5:30
Location:
Rm. 119, Kent Hall
Lab Instruct.:
Joe Wayand
Time:
Mon. Wed. Fri. 9:55-10:45 a.m.
Lab Instr.Off.:
Rm 221, Kent Hall
Prerequisite:
PSYC 21621
Lab In.Off.Hrs.:
To be arranged

Text:

  1. Coren, S., Ward, L.M., & Enns, J.T. (1994). Sensation and Perception (4th ed.). Fort Worth, TX: Harcourt Brace.
  2. Extra reading packet. Contains four sets of articles. (1) Dynamic sound perception. (2) Extra sensory perception. (3) Tracking research. (4) Lab writing guidelines.

Goals of Course:

Grading:

Evaluation Details:

  1. Exams will be open notes, closed book and no Xeroxes. Questions will be principally multiple choice and possibly short answer. Dates of exams are Friday February 20th & Friday March 20th. The final exam is from 10:15 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Thursday May 14th. There will be no exemptions for missing an exam except for certified medical conditions. The material covered on exams will not be cumulative, but you are responsible for all contents of lectures and readings, each of which will include some independent material.
  2. Laboratory grading will be done by the laboratory instructor based on participation and writing performance in laboratory exercises. The laboratory instructor will provide details.
  3. For your final project, you need to make a perception display, poster, or demonstration suitable for presentation in a ÒPerception MuseumÓ, due Monay April 20th. Project grades will be based on professional appearance, creativity, and appropriateness of project for display at a museum. It is expected that each project will have some kind of explanation placard suitable for mounting. Projects will be put on display on the third floor of Kent Hall during the final two weeks of the semester. The best projects will be permanently kept for display and possibly used as demonstration pieces in future classes.
  4. Extra credit points will be offered at various times throughout the course for bringing in stories, articles, art, and music that demonstrate specific perceptual issues. For example, extra credit points will be given for turning in a comic relevant to perception, laboratory research, taking classes, or academia in general.

Special Requests:

  1. Stop by my office and visit me sometime.
  2. Ask at least one question in class during the semester.

Important Dates:


Lecture and Reading Schedule
Section I: Measurement, Basic Perception, & Low Level Vision
Outline of Material to be Covered
Readings
A. Introduction to study of perception. Alternate approaches.
  • 1: Introduction, philosophy, syllabus, & McBeath research.
  • 2: Perspectives on studying perception. Why we care.
  • 3: Theories of Perception. The seven blind people story.
Chapter 1
B. Psychophysics and methods of measurement.
  • 4: Intro. to psychophysics: Thresholds & their measurement.
  • 5: Signal Detection Theory: Unbiased sensitivity measure.
  • 6: Psychophysical Laws: Weber, Fechner, and Stevens.
  • 7: Scaling and measurement characteristics.
Chapter 2
C. The visual system: Physics and physiology.
  • 8: Physics of light. Physiology of the eye, cortical pathways.
  • 9: Receptive fields: Retina through cortex (Hubel & Wiesel).
Chapter 3
D. Basic visual properties 1: Brightness & spatial frequency.
  • 10: Psychophysical measures & laws of brightness & acuity.
  • 11: Spatial frequency and contrast: Stimulus descriptors.
Chapter 4
E. Basic visual properties 2: Color vision.
  • 12: Color space representations. Color processing theories.
  • 13: Color factors, irregularities, and the influence of motion.
Chapter 5


Section II: Audition
Outline of Material to be Covered
Readings
F. The auditory system: Physics and physiology.
  • 14: Introduction: Physics of sound , terms, Fourier addition.
  • 15: Physiology of ear, cochlea, and auditory pathways.
Chapter 6
G. Hearing: Detection, localization, & dimensions of sound.
  • 16: Detection, discrimination, and localization of sound.
  • 17: Psychophysical dimensions: Loudness & timbre.
  • 18: Pitch perception: influ. of loudness. Helix & dynamic models.
Chapter 7
H. Dynamic sound perception and scene analysis.
  • 19: Scene analysis. Auditory Gestalt principles of organization.
Extra reading #1:
Dynamic Pitch Perception
I. Music perception.
  • 20: Notation, intervals, rhythm, contour, & form.
  • 21: Theory of music, scales, tuning, and chords.
Chapter 12 (1st half)
Extra reading #2:
Music Perception
J. Speech perception.
  • 22: Phonemes, spectrograms, formants.
  • 23: Speech II: Is speech special? Development. Models.
Chapter 12 (2nd half)


Section III: Space, Form, & Event Perception
Outline of Material to be Covered
Readings
K. Extrasensory perception: A scientific controversy.
  • 24: History, models,research, controversy, & contrasting conclusions.
Extra reading #3 & #4:
History/Debate Parapsych.
L. Space, size, depth, and location perception.
  • 25: Introduction to space perception. Definitions, models.
  • 26: Pictorial, monocular depth and location cues.
  • 27: Physiological, binocular, and motion based depth cues.
Chapter 10
M. Form, orientation, and object perception.
  • 28: 3-D representation. Form perception and organization.
  • 29: Gestalt laws of perceptual organization. 3-D Symmetry.
  • 30: Theories of object identification and recognition.
Chapter 11
N. Time, cycle, motion, and event perception.
  • 31: Time, cycle, & motion perception. ÒFilling inÓ principle & biases.
  • 32: Biological motion/event processing and animal tracking.
  • 33: Tracking baseballs: Locating pitches and outfield flies.
Chapter 13
Extra reading #5 & #6:
Animal GuidanceMechanisms
Baseball Location Perception
O. Constancy and illusions.
  • 34: Perceptual constancies: Regularity of stimuli in world.
  • 35: 3-D constancy illusions: Basketball hoop and slant.
Chapter 14
P. Attention and high level processing.
  • 36: Attention and spotlight search analogy.
  • 37: Film: Perception from applied human factors perspective.
  • 38: Art perception and NOVA Vision film.
  • 39: High level representation. Consensus for 7 blind people.
Chapter 15

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