Psychology 2115B-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.
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.
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: Blake Butler, PhD
Office Hours: By Appointment
Email: bbutler9@uwo.ca
Teaching Assistant: Christine Moreau
Office Hours: By appointment
Email: cmoreau5@uwo.ca
Online asynchronous course: Weekly lecture material will be made available every Monday.
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
Schwartz BL, & Krantz JH. 2019. Sensation & Perception, 2nd Edition.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
This course is an introduction to how we make sense of sensory input -- our primary source of information about the world. We will explore how sensation differs from perception; investigate different theoretical traditions that have attempted to account for perceptual phenomena; survey the methods that are used to study sensation and perception; and trace the functional and anatomical organization of the different sensory modalities, from sensory transduction, through stages of information processing, to perception.
We will cover the basic principles involved in seeing, hearing, touch, sensation of the position and movement of one’s body in the world, tasting, and smelling. Many principles are common to more than one sense domain, and commonalities will be emphasized whenever possible. Throughout, we assume that the goal of perception is behaviour. Perception is our only means of extracting information from the environment, allowing us to experience the discrete objects, people and events “out in the world” that drive our behaviour.
4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
|
Learning Outcome |
Assessment |
|
Describe the structure and function of our sensory systems |
Quizzes and final examination |
|
Develop the capacity to design and develop experiments to investigate concepts in sensation and perception |
Group project |
|
Develop the ability to consolidate and present scientific information at an appropriate level for a group of peers |
Group project |
|
Develop capacity to transfer principles of sensation and perception to novel applications |
Final examination |
5.0 EVALUATION
5.1 Quizzes (15% each)
There will be three quizzes throughout the term, each of which will contribute 15% toward your final grade. These will focus on the material presented since the previous test (i.e. Quiz 2 will focus on material presented in weeks 4 through 7), including both lectures and associated readings. These quizzes will be presented via OWL, will be timed, will comprise a combination of multiple choice and short answer questions, and will be available for a 24 hour period to accommodate students studying in different time zones.
5.2 Group Project (15%)
As a group of 4 students, you will choose a perceptual phenomenon (a non-exhaustive list will be provided or you can come up with your own) and prepare a 5 minute video report that contains a) a description of the phenomenon; b) a description of what is interesting/puzzling about the phenomenon; c) a reasonable hypothesis that might explain the phenomenon; and d) a description of an experiment that could test the hypothesized explanation. These video reports will be shared with your peers via OWL. Groups will be assigned early in the term, and you will be responsible for scheduling meetings as a group to complete this project. Five minutes is not a lot of time, so it’s important to be concise, and only convey the most important information. Sorting out the important stuff from the details is part of the challenge!
5.3 Peer Evaluations (5%)
You will be assigned a number of group project videos to view and evaluate during the week of March 22. You will receive a mark that reflects your ability to provide constructive peer support.
5.4 Final Exam (35%)
The final exam will be scheduled within the Final Exam period. The exam will be open-book, timed, and presented asynchronously to accommodate students in different time zones. The exam will include material from throughout the course, and will include both lecture material and assigned readings. The exam will include multiple choice and short answer questions, and will focus on applications-based questions (i.e. applying the concepts from the course to novel problems). More details will be provided before the end of term.
NOTE: There will no make-up for missed quizzes. Rather than assigning a mark of 0, the value of any missed quiz will be added to the final exam (i.e. if one quiz is missed, the final will be worth 50%). Late group assignments and peer evaluations will be penalized 10% per day. A single make-up final exam will be scheduled. The date of this exam will be announced once the April exam schedule has been set.
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
Friday January 29: Quiz 1
Friday February 26: Quiz 2
Friday March 19: Quiz 3
Tuesday March 23: Group project upload to OWL
Sunday March 28: Peer evaluations uploaded to OWL
April 14-30: Final exam period (2115B exam timing to be provided toward the end of term)
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
|
DATE |
TOPIC |
READINGS |
ASSESSMENTS |
|
Week 1 (Jan 11) |
What is perception, and how can we study it? |
Chapters 1 &2 |
|
|
Week 2 (Jan 18) |
Visual system: The eye |
Chapter 3 |
|
|
Week 3 (Jan 25) |
Visual system: The brain |
Chapter 4 |
Quiz 1 |
|
Week 4 (Feb 1) |
Object & colour perception |
Chapters 5 & 6 |
|
|
Week 5 (Feb 8) |
Depth, size, and movement |
Chapters 7 & 8 |
|
|
Week 6 (Feb 15) |
Reading Week |
|
|
|
Week 7 (Feb 22) |
Visual attention |
Chapter 9 |
Quiz 2 |
|
Week 8 (Mar 1) |
The auditory system |
Chapter 10 |
|
|
Week 9 (Mar 8) |
The auditory brain & sound localization |
Chapter 11 |
|
|
Week 10 (Mar 15) |
Speech & Music perception |
Chapter 12 & 13 |
Quiz 3 |
|
Week 11 (Mar 22) |
Project Presentations |
|
Presentation |
|
Week 12 (Mar 29) |
Touch & pain |
Chapter 14 |
|
|
Week 13 (Apr 5) |
Olfaction & taste |
Chapter 15 |
|
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.
