Part 1: Coverage and Syllabus.
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Week 1:
What is perception? Mind-world "contact". Descartes' "Mind/Matter" distinction. The Camera Obscura and the development of the "Picture Theory" of vision. The "El Greco" fallacy, The Clever Hans effect. Film: Computerized simulations of virtual visual realities.
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Week 2: Read: S&B: Chapter 1. and Appendix on Psychophysics.
Discussion of quote about vision from John Locke. Version of the "Argument from Design" used by leading intellectuals, including Newton, before the advent of Darwin's Theory of Natural Selection. (Cf. Dr. Pangloss' "Best of all possible worlds" argument in Voltaire's Candide). The emergence of a "Science of the Mind" traced through the works of Herbart, Weber and Fechner. Weber's and Fechner's work described. Fechner's assumptions and derivations.
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Week 3: Read: G: Chs 1-7. S&B: Chapter 2.
Fechner's three psychophysical methods. Circumstances under which Fechner's law is a good approximation. Problems with Fechner's Law. Stevens' magnitude estimation procedure. and the Power Law. World War 2, invention of Radar and development of the Theory of Signal Detection. Assumptions and procedures of TSD. Generality of these ideas. Lie detectors, jury verdicts etc. Discussion and demonstration of computer-based Laboratory Projects.
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Week 4: Read: G: Chs 13-16, 18,20,21
Discussion of S&K Chapter 2: The Human Eye, its structure and function. Ecology of light and the electromagnetic spectrum. Optics and the retinal image. Euclid's and Emmert's Laws; physics versus psychology. Structures of the eye and some perceptual implications. Blood supply and stabilized images. Retinal "anisotropies" in the distribution of photoreceptors. Blind spots for day and night vision.
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Week 5: Read: S&B: Ch 3
The eye and seeing. From photoreceptors to retinal ganglion cells. Neural inhibition in the retina. Case study: Lateral Inhibition (LI) in the eye of the horseshoe crab (Limulus). Psychological consequences of inhibition. Ganglion cells and lateral inhibition. Case study: Receptive Fields, Perceptive Fileds and the Hermann Grid illusion. Lightness contrast and constancy. Artificial enhancement of lightness through the use of contrast. The double-edged sword: sensitivity vs resolution - the biolological compromise and the dual retina. Case study: the Purkinje shift as evidence of dual systems.
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Week 6: Read: S&B: Ch 4
Going beyond the retina. Central visual pathways. The "splitter" (Optic Chiasm) and the "unifier" (Corpus Callossum). Visual "maps" in the Lateral Geniculates and the Visual Cortex. The "single unit" recording approach: Hubel and Wiesel's work on receptive field properties of cortical cells. Single units as "feature detectors". Limitations of this approach to explaining visual perception: old wine in a new bottle?
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Week 7: Midterm Examination. Multiple choice, short answer and choice among short essays.
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Midterm Break Week of March 15-22
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Week 8: Read Galanter on Psychophysical functions.
Muller-Lyer Illusion Laboratory. Discussion about Method of Limits experiment measuring the Muller-Lyer illusion. Some speculations about the origins of the illusion.
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Week 9: Read S&B Ch 5.
Film: Contemporary explorations of the mammalian visual cortex: Hubel and Wiesel's "feature detector" approach. De Valois' experiments on monkey visual cortex showing spatial frequency sensitivity. Comparison and contrast between the two approaches.
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Week 10:
Form Perception. Alternate descriptions of visual images. Set-of-points vs spatial frequency description. Historical tracing of attempts to deal with the problems of form perception. Gestalt Psychology and the problem of unit formation. Holism vs elementism. Does the spatial frequency approach provide a middle ground?
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Week 11: Read Galanter on Signal Detection.
Discussion about Signal detection Experiment. The data and the assumptions of signal detection theory. The distinction between sensitivity and response bias. Derivation of the statistical quantities of d' and beta. Generality of the signal-detection formulation. Examples drawn from other domains.
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Week 12: Color Perception. Read Ch 6 in S&B
Color Perception. History of two approaches to the problems of color. The artists vs the scientists on color mixing: Leonardo on color, Newton on color. The question of the "primaries": additive versus subtractive mixtures. Helmholtz vs Hering: Physics vs phenomenology. The legacies of the old debates. Modern findings and models.
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Week 13: Read: Ch 7 in S&B
Depth and Distance Perception. The problem of depth in a flat plane revisited: how do we reconstruct the third dimension? The cues for distance and depth. Special case: stereoscopic depth and random-dot stereograms. Consequences of incorrect perception of depth: the classic geometrical illusions.
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FINAL EXAM: Multiple choice questions and essay choices.
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