Psychology 2115A-001
Introduction to Sensation and Perception
If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.
1.0 CALENDAR DESCRIPTION
An introduction to the study of the human senses and higher order perceptual processes. Data gathered from psychophysical research and studies of the nervous system in both humans and other animals will be discussed. The course will review the mechanisms and principles of operation of vision, hearing, touch, taste and smell.
Antirequisite: Psychology 2015B
Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.
Prerequisite: At least 60% in a 1000 level Psychology course.
Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enrol in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.
4 lecture hours, 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Krista Macpherson Office: SSC 8244 Office Hours: By appointment Email: kmacphe6@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: TBA Office: TBA Office Hours: TBA Email: TBA
Time and Location of Classes: 2:30-4:30 p.m. Monday 3M 3250 2:30-4:30 p.m. Wednesday 3M 3250
If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you. Please visit: http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.
Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Coren, S., Ward, L. & Enns, J.T. (2004). Sensation and Perception (sixth edition). Wiley.
This text is mandatory for the course.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is a survey of most of the basic issues in sensation and perception. Any student who successfully completes it should have the background for other undergraduate courses in these areas.
4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
The goal of this course is to enable students to demonstrate that they know:
- how to explain theories about perceptual and sensory processes - how to evaluate data in assessing the proposed theories of perceptual and sensory processes - how to describe the experimental techniques involved in data collection when examining perceptual and sensory processes - how to communicate the results of the important experiments
The ways in which students will be assessed in order to evaluate the extent to which they have achieved these goals will include quizzes and a final exam and these will need to be completed within the times specified by the instructor.
5.0 EVALUATION
There will be 3 quizzes and a Final Exam. All will have a short answer format. The topics in this course fit nicely into four main areas: psychophysics, the sense organs, classical issues in perception and issues in attention/development. The first quiz will come at the end of the first section on psychophysics. The second quiz will come at the end of the second section on the sense organs and it will cover only that section. The third quiz will come at the end of the third section on classical issues in perception and cover only that section. There will be no makeup or early quizzes, however, students can be excused from quizzes if they have a legitimate, documented excuse. The Final Exam will be scheduled by the Registrar’s Office and will be held during the final examination period. It will cover the entire course. The material on the final exam will, however, be drawn mainly from the final section of the course.
The weighting of these tests in determining your final mark will be as follows:
Each quiz 20% Final Exam 40%
The purpose of the quizzes and Final Exam is to evaluate your ability to accurately answer specific questions about topics covered in the lectures and the text book. They are not intended to be speeded exams. Thus, although students will have 2 hours for each quiz, the expectation is that most of you will finish well before the time limit has expired. No electronic devices, including cell phones, will be allowed during quizzes and exams.
Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:
70% 1000-level and 2000-level courses
72% 2190-2990 level courses
75% 3000-level courses
80% 4000-level courses
The Psychology Department follows Western's grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf):
A+ 90-100 One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A 80-89 Superior work that is clearly above average
B 70-79 Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C 60-69 Competent work, meeting requirements
D 50-59 Fair work, minimally acceptable
F below 50 Fail
6.0 TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Reading Assignments (Subject to change):
Sequence of Topics Readings
Introduction Chapter 1 Psychophysics Pages 13-18, 25-28 Signal Detection Pages 18-25 Scaling Pages 30-37
Sept 26 QUIZ 1 The Ear Pages 116-131 and 154-161 The Eye Pages 50-61 and 80-109 The Other Senses Chapter 7
Oct 24 QUIZ 2
Space Perception Pages 258-280 and 149-153 Form Perception Pages 216-218, 231-254, 313-319, 341-343 The Constancies Pages 298-313 Time and Motion Perception Pages 346-359, 365-372 and 381-384 Speech Perception Pages 168-178
Nov 19 QUIZ 3
Auditory Attention (classical) Pages 398-404 and 417-419 Visual Attention (classical) Visual Attention (modern) Pages 404-411 Perceptual Development Pages 287-290, 455-459 and 477-487
December 10th-21st FINAL EXAMINATION PERIOD
8.0 STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES
Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link: http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf
As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com
Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.
9.0 POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS
Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?Command=showCategory&PolicyCategoryID=1&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
10.0 OTHER INFORMATION
Office of the Registrar web site: http://registrar.uwo.ca
Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca
Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:
http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html
- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2018 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
