This course focuses on basic perceptual phenomena and classical theories. At its most general level, human perception concerns the questions of how and why human beings use sensory information to conceive of, and experience immediate reality the way they do. Therefore, this course is a broadly based course that examines the study of perception from a number of different perspectives: Cognitive psychology and information processing; philosophy of mind and phenomenology; history of psychology and philosophy of science. Particular topics include: sensory transduction and psychophysics; Gestalt organization; constancy and contrast effects; expectation; selective attention; perceptual learning; and symbolic and linguistic representation. The instructor assumes no particular psychology background, and non-psychology concentrators are welcome.
Grades will be determined on the basis of two short papers (worth a total of 35% of the grade) and one longer paper (worth 50% of the grade). In addition, there will be a short final test that will count 15% of the grade.
Questions concerning this course can be e-mailed to pachella@umich.edu. See also:
http://www.umich.edu/~psycours/442.