Introduction to Psychology of Perception

Catalog description

The goal of this course is to give students a detailed introduction to the basic questions in the study of how the energies and information in the external world become part of our immediate experience. This includes questions about how patterned energies (such as light, sound, etc.) are coded by our sensory systems and how those codes are used to support psychological experience. These are fundamental and fascinating questions and concern the most basic ways in which we interact with and experience the physical world. Students will consider these questions in detail with respect to the visual and auditory systems, and time permitting, with other sensory systems. Because these questions are such fundamental questions, they have long intellectual histories. Philosophers and scientists have been working on these questions for centuries, and the scientific study of them forms the basis for much of contemporary scientific psychology. We will be examining some of this intellectual history and be discussing the connection between the scientific study of sensation and perception and the other natural sciences, including biology, chemistry, physics, and mathematics (including computer science). The class will also focus on some of the tools and techniques that have been developed for the study of sensation and perception. The course will show that these tools and techniques are very general and have application to a broad range of issues in human psychology. Students will learn the basic procedures for data collection and analysis, and the procedures for evaluating inferences on the basis of that data. The study of perception requires the integration of techniques, methods, and tools from a variety of other sciences, including mathematics. Physics, algebra, and geometry are involved in understanding light as a source of information. Chemistry is involved in the absorption of light by photoreceptors as well as the mechanisms of neural communication in all sensory systems. Probability and electrical engineering contribute the tools used to conduct signal detection analyses of perceptual performance. It is not assumed that students are experts in any of these fields, nor do we expect that students will be when the course is complete, however, we do expect students to be willing to consider their importance to perceptual psychology.