Sensation and Perception Psychology 0510 (2164) Section 1040; Class 11035 University of Pittsburgh 1/6/16 4/30/16 Contact Information: Instructor: Sybil Streeter, PhD Office: 3117 Sennott Square Office Phone: 412.624.8293 Email: Streeter@pitt.edu Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00 2:00, and by appointment Graduate Teaching Assistant: Eowyn Randall Email: eor1@pitt.edu Office Hours: Wednesdays 11:30am-1:30pm in Cup & Chaucer Cafe Phone: 202.607.3409 Class Times and Location: Tuesdays and Thursdays 2:30 3:45 pm G-8 Cathedral of Learning Class periods will be devoted to lecturing and discussions, as well as occasional demonstrations and exercises. Sometimes lectures will closely parallel your readings, sometimes they will not. Although I do not take attendance, your presence in class is strongly recommended. If you must miss class, it is your responsibility to get the notes from a classmate. Review them and the lecture material. If you still have questions, please see one of the TAs or me. Bring specific questions; we cannot review an entire lecture. Textbook: Goldstein, E. Bruce, Sensation and Perception, 9 th edition (ISBN: 978 130 529 0365); available as hardcopy or e-book through CourseMate. Copies will be placed on reserve in Hillman library and 3113 Sennott Square for you to borrow throughout the term. Course Goals: How do we see color? How is it that we can locate a bird chirping in a tree without seeing it? Why do moving objects capture our attention so readily? If a tree falls in the forest, and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound? Why are tastes and smells so often associated with emotions? Why and how do we experience pain? These questions have fascinated philosophers and scientists for millennia, and a recent explosion of knowledge beginning in the 1800s has made it possible to begin to understand how energy is transformed into experience by the nervous system. This explosion was grounded in the then-recent development of inquiry into physics and biology. Physics helps us to understand our environment, and biology helps us to understand ourselves. The investigation of sensation and perception combines physics and biology so that we can understand how environmental phenomena, as perceived by our senses, influence our understanding of the world. This course examines how the human brain receives and processes information from our environment. This course explores the functioning of human sensory systems and how physical stimuli are transformed into signals that can by understood by the nervous system. Topics covered in the course include vision, audition, taste, smell, touch, and basic psychophysics. Course Website: You can access the Blackboard page at my.pitt.edu. Login, click on Click here to connect to CourseWeb. If you are registered for the course it will be listed under My Courses. I will post announcements and supplementary material here, so please check it regularly. The course website contains detailed course information, including announcements, the syllabus, lecture outlines, handouts, helpful web links and email addresses. SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 1 of 7
E-mail: Feel free to e-mail me with your questions and comments. It is the best way to contact me. I check my email twice per day, once in the morning and once in the afternoon Monday through Friday and attempt to respond to students within 24 hours. Please put Sensation and Perception in the subject line along with any other relevant keywords. Blank subject lines or ones like hi or question go to the Junk folder. Academic Integrity: Cheating/plagiarism will not be tolerated. All students are expected to adhere to the standards of academic honesty. Any student engaged in cheating, plagiarism, or other acts of academic dishonesty would be subject to disciplinary action. Any student suspected of violating this obligation for any reason during the semester will be required to participate in the procedural process, initiated at the instructor level, as outlined in the University Guidelines on Academic Integrity http://www.provost.pitt.edu/info/ai1.html. This may include, but is not limited to the confiscation of the examination of any individual suspected of violating the University Policy. Specifically: Homework Quizzes: Homework will represent each student s own work. No one other than the student should complete his/her homework, and no collaboration is appropriate. Collaboration on homework will be considered a violation of academic integrity. Completion of homework by anyone other than the student associated with that student s CourseWeb account will be considered a violation of academic integrity. If any of these situations occur, the student will receive zero points for the homework in question and may be referred to the University s committee on academic integrity. Exams: Cheating on exams includes copying from someone else s exam; communicating with someone (other than instructors) about exam answers during the exam; taking a picture or making any other rendition of the exam; accessing information concerning the exam (paper or electronic) during the exam period; taking a copy of the exam with you when you leave the exam room; and the policies outlined in the University of Pittsburgh's Policy on Academic Integrity. If any of these situations occur, the student(s) involved will receive zero points for the exam and will be referred to the University s committee on academic integrity. Recording Devices: To ensure the free and open discussion of ideas, students may not record classroom lectures, discussion and/or activities without the advance written permission of the instructor, and any such recording properly approved in advance can be used solely for the student s own private use. Exams There will be three exams. The exams will partially cumulative; approximately 70% based on new material, and 30% covering recurring themes, principles and concepts relevant to all material. Each exam will consist of multiple-choice and short answer questions. Questions will be based on the reading assignments, in-class exercises, demonstrations, and lectures (including videos). Each exam will be graded based on a "reference score." That is, for each exam, the arithmetic mean of the top five percent of the class will be calculated. Then your percentage score will be computed by dividing the number of points you earned by the reference score. Exams are weighted in a stepwise method. Exam 1 is worth 25% of your final grade; Exam 2 is worth 30% of your final grade, and Exam 3 is worth 30% of your final grade. The three exams combined will comprise 85% of your final grade for the course. Missed Exams: The availability and format of make-up exams is at the discretion of the instructor. Please see me to discuss making up missed exams due to University-approved absences, medical problems, or emergency situations. If you must miss an exam, you must contact me as soon as possible. To be eligible for a make-up exam, you must: 1. Contact me within 24 hours of missing the regularly scheduled exam, and 2. Provide adequate documentation that your excuse is valid (e.g., doctor s note, etc). ********** All make-up exams must be taken during finals week (April 25-30, 2016) ********** SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 2 of 7
Minute Papers Frequently, I will distribute a one-page Minute Paper form. These consist of four short, simple statements: 1. What is the big point, the main idea that you learned in class today? 2. I didn t really understand 3. These are some things I never realized before 4. I would like to hear more about You will have the last few minutes of class to complete these forms, and I will collect them at the end of the period. These papers are designed to help both of us. They will help you by allowing you to collect your thoughts about the topics of the class, and they will help me by giving me a chance to address any common misunderstandings that could be clarified. Depending on your answers to the questions on the reaction paper, we may spend some time during the next class meeting discussing problems or questions you have. Homework Quizzes There will be 13 quizzes over the semester. Each quiz is multiple choice and based on the assigned reading. The quizzes will be available on courseweb and must be completed by the beginning of class on the due date. You can complete these on a smart phone using the BlackBoard app, but the each quiz times out at 2:29 pm on the due date. Because 3 quiz scores are dropped, no late quizzes will be permitted. (Exception: Quiz 1& Quiz 2 are due by 5:00pm Friday January 22 to accommodate the add/drop period.) Each quiz has 10 questions, and you will have 20 minutes to complete each. Only one attempt is allowed. You are not permitted to collaborate with anyone else on these quizzes, but you may refer to your textbook. Your best 10/13 scores will be counted and comprise 15% of your overall course grade. Grading You final grade will be calculated as follows: Exam 1 25% Exam 2 30% Exam 3 30% Homework quizzes (best 10/13) 15% Total 100% Final Grades This course will use a conventional grading scale based on the number of points earned from exercises and exams. Letter grades will be assigned as follows: A- = 90.0 93.2% A = 93.3 96.5% A+ = 96.6 100% B- = 80.0 83.2% B = 83.3 86.5% B+ = 86.6 89.9% C- = 70.0 73.2% C = 73.3 76.5% C+ = 76.6 79.9% D- = 60.0 63.2% D = 63.3 66.5% D+ = 66.6 69.9% F < 60.0% Extra Credit: Attend lecture and stay current with the textbook; there are no extra credit opportunities available for this class. Special Considerations: If you have a disability for which you are or may be requesting an accommodation, you are encouraged to contact both your instructor and Disability Resources and Services, 216 William Pitt Union, 412 648-7890/412 383-7355 (TTY), as early as possible in the term. DRS will verify your disability and determine reasonable accommodations for this course. A comprehensive description of the services of that office can be obtained at www.drs.pitt.edu SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 3 of 7
Schedule of Lecture Topics and Readings January 2016 1 4 5 6 7 Ch. 1 Intro/Overview 8 11 12 13 14 15 QUIZ 1 on Ch 2 Physiology Ch 2 Physiology 18 19 20 21 22 25 26 QUIZ 2 on Ch 3 Neural Processing QUIZ 3 on Ch 4 Cortical Processing (University Add/Drop Deadline) 27 28 Ch 3 Neural Processing Ch 4 Cortical Processing 5:00 pm deadline for Quiz 1 & Quiz 2 29 SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 4 of 7
February 2016 1 2 3 4 5 QUIZ 4 on Ch 5 Object Perception Ch 5 Scene Perception 8 9 EXAM 1 10 11 QUIZ 5 on Ch 6 Visual Attention 12 15 16 Ch 6 17 18 QUIZ 6 on Ch 7 19 Visual Attention Taking Action 22 23 Ch 7 24 25 QUIZ 7 on Ch 9 26 Taking Action Perceiving Color 29 SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 5 of 7
March 2016 1 Ch 7 2 3 QUIZ 8 on Ch 10 4 Perceiving Color Depth Perception 7 8 9 10 11 SPRING BREAK SPRING BREAK 14 15 Ch 10 Size Perception 16 17 EXAM 2 18 21 22 QUIZ 9 on Ch 11 23 24 Ch 11 25 Hearing Hearing 28 29 QUIZ 10 on Ch 12 Auditory Localization 30 31 QUIZ 11 on Ch 13 Speech Perception SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 6 of 7
April 2016 1 4 5 QUIZ 12 on Ch 14 6 7 Ch 14 8 Cutaneous Senses Pain 11 12 QUIZ 13 on Ch 15 13 14 Ch 15 15 Chemical Senses Chemical Senses 18 19 Ch 15 20 21 22 Chemical Senses EXAM 3 25 26 27 28 29 SP Spring 2016 syllabus - DAY Page 7 of 7