Psychology 2115A-001 (Online for 2020-21)
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.
Prerequisite: A mark of at least 60% in 1.0 credits of Psychology at the 1000 level.
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.
Antirequisite: Psychology 2015A/B
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.
4 lecture hours, 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Instructor: Stephen Lupker
Office and Phone Number: 7324 SSC; (519) 661-2111 x84700
Email: lupker@uwo.ca
Office Hours: 11:00-12:00 (T), 11:00-12:00 (W) – note that I am generally available either by phone, by Zoom or over e-mail at most times during the week. So do not feel that these are the only times that you can contact me. If you have questions concerning your understanding of the course material, please either come to my office, call me or request a Zoom meeting. E-mail is not an effective way to teach course material.
Teaching Assistant: Christine Moreau
Office Hours: TBD, Zoom contact on request
Email: cmoreau5@uwo.ca
Time of Classes: 2:30-4:20 p.m. Mondays, 2:30-4:20 p.m. Wednesdays, presented synchronously over Zoom. You will receive an invitation to join the class 10-15 minutes before the start of class and you will be admitted by your TA after entering a waiting room. Note that each lecture will be recorded and posted on the course OWL website soon afterward along with PDFs of the overheads and whiteboard material shown during the lecture.
Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western
http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.
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 Student Accessibility Services (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) at 519-661-2147.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
Coren, S., Ward, L. & Enns, J.T. (2004). Sensation and Perception (sixth edition). Wiley. (The possibility exists that this book may have limited availability. If so, a course pack will be available for purchase.)
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is a survey of many of the basic issues in Sensation and Perception. Any student who successfully completes it should have learned enough about these topics to be able to take any other undergraduate course in this area4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
The goal of this course is to enable students to demonstrate that they know:
|
Learning Outcome |
Learning Activity |
Assessment |
|
Depth and Breadth of Knowledge. - how to explain theories about perceptual processes - how to evaluate data in assessing the proposed theories of perceptual processes
|
Lectures and reading |
Quizzes and Final exam |
|
Knowledge of Methodologies. - how to describe the experimental techniques involved in data collection when examining perceptual processes
|
Lectures and reading |
Quizzes and Final exam |
|
Application of Knowledge. - how to communicate the results of the important experiments |
Lectures and reading |
Quizzes and Final exam |
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 speech/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, as determined by the Academic Counselling Office in their Faculty. 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 will be allowed during quizzes and exams. It is possible that final course grades will be scaled (upward). We have been instructed to inform students that grades will NOT be rounded (i.e., if, after scaling, your mark is an 88.8, you will receive an 89).
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 ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE
We will be attempting to stick to the dates listed below in terms of when the quizzes will be administered. However, the current situation may necessitate some, hopefully minor, alterations. More specifically, we expect to be able to give the quizzes (as well as the Final exam) in both online and in-person formats. In order to create the in-person format, a room (or rooms, depending on how many students wish to have in-person quizzes) have been requested from the Registrar for the dates outlined below during the scheduled class times. We have been told that while the Registrar will attempt to give us a room (or rooms) close to those times, we have no control over the room booking process. Therefore, for example, instead of the initial quiz being offered on Sept 28 at 2:30, it may be held the following day in the evening. In any case, it will be at the same time for both the in-person and online sittings.
Those of you who want to and are able to come to the in-person sitting will be informed as to what room to go to as soon as room assignments are official. While I would prefer that as many of you as possible choose the in-person option for a number of reasons (e.g., I will be there to answer your questions, we can avoid some of the complications in marking online exams), I DO WANT TO STRESS THAT NO ONE IS REQUIRED TO ATTEND THE IN-PERSON SITTING. It is entirely your choice and, of course, if you are not in London, it may be impossible for you to attend. Social distancing measures will be in place. However, what I do need each of you to do soon is to tell me whether, for the September 28 quiz, you will be attending the in-person sitting or will be taking it online. We need to have a reading on the numbers so that we can get have an optimal room to have the quiz.
Those of you who will be taking your quizzes/final exam remotely will be monitored over Zoom. You each will be assigned to a proctor who will check your identification prior to letting you start the session and watch you over the course of the exam. The quizzes will then be made available for you to download as a Word file. Please type your answers into the spaces provided. When you are done, save the file and then upload it to the course OWL website. As noted, for all students, no electronic devices, including cell phones, smart watches and earphones are allowed during the quizzes/exams and, of course, you are not permitted to communicate with anyone else during the quizzes/exams
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Sequence of Topics Readings
Introduction Chapter 1
Psychophysics Pages 13-18, 25-28
Signal Detection Pages 18-25
Scaling Pages 30-37
September 28 QUIZ
The Ear Pages 116-131 and 154-161
The Eye Pages 50-61 and 80-109
The Other Senses Chapter 7 (not 182-184, 190-195, 196-200 and 204-207)
October 21 QUIZ
Space Perception Pages 258-280 and 149-153
Form Perception Pages 216-218, 231-254, 313-319 and 341-343
The Constancies Pages 298-313
Time and Motion Perception Pages 346-359, 365-372 and 381-384
November 18 QUIZ
Speech Perception Pages 168-178
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 11-22 FINAL EXAMINATION PERIOD
Note that there are no classes on October 12 (Thanksgiving) or during the Fall Reading Week (Nov 2-6).
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
Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams may be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating.
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://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/Academic_Consideration_for_absences.pdf
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
If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:
- Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
- For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration;
For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation. The self-reported absence form may NOT be used for absences longer than 48 hours; coursework/tests/exams/etc., worth more than 30% of the final grade; or exams scheduled in the December or April final-exam periods: http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
Students seeking academic consideration:
- are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work;
- are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not normally an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence;
must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence
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
- 2020-2021 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute lecture notes, wiki material, and other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.
