Perception

Catalog description

How do humans and other animals obtain knowledge about the world? It is easy to take perception for granted, but complex processes (only partly understood) underlie our ability to understand the world by seeing, hearing, feeling, tasting, and smelling it. Perception has fascinated philosophers, physicists, and physiologists for centuries. Currently, perception is a central topic not only in neuroscience, but also in psychology, cognitive science, and computer science. How do scientists approach perception? We seek to discover lawful relations between perceptual experiences and the physical world and to develop models of the processes and mechanisms that produce these connections. To accomplish this, we need accounts of the information, the computational processes, and the neural mechanisms involved in perception. In this course, we will discuss fundamental problems in perception (primarily vision), and learn about techniques that are applied in attempts to solve these problems. The learning outcomes of this course include a better understanding of human perception and critical thinking skills for the analysis and interpretation of the related research reports. Prerequisite: NEUR-SHU 201 Introduction to Neural Science OR PSYC-SHU 101 Introduction to Psychology or AP Psychology: Score of 5 or IB Psychology HL (Higher Level): Score of 7 or A Level Psychology: Score of A. Fulfillment: Biology Electives; Neural Science Approved upper-level Psychology courses; Neural Science Electives; Social Science Focus Courses Psychology - 200 level.