Perceptual processes, PSY 628

Fall 1998
Tuesday and Thursday 9:00 - 10:15 am
Psychological Sciences Building, Room 3187 and/or Peirce Hall, Room 255 (quant lab)

Professor

Professor: Greg Francis
Office: Psychological Sciences Building, Room 3174
Phone: (765) 494-6934
Fax: (765) 496-1264
Email: gfrancis@psych.purdue.edu

Grades

Estimated class grades are on line.

Text

None. We will be reading and discussing journal articles and book chapters. Copies will be placed on reserve in the Psychology Library. Some readings will be downloaded from the Internet.

Class format

This course is designed to acquaint the student with the approach and findings of selected issues in perception. We will explore concepts basic to perception in general and pay particular attention to details of visual perception. The course will consist of part lecture and part interactive learning with computer labs. The class will be held in the Quantitative Psychology computers labs so that students and instructors can use computers during the class period. The Visual Perception Online Laboratory has been established to integrate computers into this course. It can be found at http://www.psych.purdue.edu/~coglab/VisLab/initial.html

Office hours:

Monday 1:00-2:30 pm and Thursday 2:00-3:30 pm and by appointment. I check my email frequently, feel free to use it for questions and setting up appointments.

Homework

Homeworks will require the student to contribute to an experiment that explores some aspect of visual perception. Homeworks will contribute to 34% of your final grade. Homework assignments can be found on the homework web page.

Examinations:

There will be a midterm exam and a (non-cumulative) final exam. Each exam is worth 33% of your grade.

Class schedule

The following is a tentative list of class topics.

Philosophical roots of perception (1 week)

Topics: learning in perception, mind-body problem
Readings:
- Kaufman, L. (1974). Sight and mind. New York: Oxford University Press. [Chapter 1]
- Marr, D. (1982). Vision. San Francisco: W. H. Freeman, pp. 19-39 and 54-61. Reprinted as Chapter 28 in J. A. Anderson and E. Rosenfeld (Eds.) Neurocomputing. Cambridge, MA: The MIT Press, 1988.
- Hess, E. (1958). Space perception in the chick. In D.C. Beardshoe & M. Wertheimer (Eds.) Readings in perception, Von Nostrand: Princeton, NJ.
- Rock, I. & Harris, C. (1967). Vision and touch. Scientific American, April, 96-104.
Labs: Westheimer effect.

Psychophysical methods (1.5 weeks)

Topics: classical methods, signal detection.
Readings:
- Macmillan, N. & Creelman, C. (1991). Detection theory: a user's guide. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. [Chapters 1 & 2]
- (optional readings) Macmillan, N. & Creelman, C. (1991). Detection theory: a user's guide. New York, NY: Cambridge University Press. [Chapters 5, 6, & 8]
Labs: Muller-Lyer illusion.

Anatomy and physiology (2 weeks)

Topics: retina, rods & cones, receptive fields, cortical areas, neurons, visual pathways.
Readings:
- Spillmann, L. & Werner, J. (1990). Visual perception: The neurophysiological foundations. San Diego: Academic Press, Inc. [Chapters 6]
- DeYoe, E. A. & van Essen, D. C. (1988). Concurrent processing streams in monkey visual cortex. Trends in Neurosciences, 11, 219--226.
- DeAngelis, G. C., Ohzawa, I. & Freeman, R.D. (1995). Receptive-field dynamics in the central visual pathways. Trends in Neurosciences, 18, 451-458. Available on-line at http://totoro.berkeley.edu/publications/1995/TINS95.html
Labs: retinal veins, blind spot, visual acuity, receptive fields.

Brightness perception (2 weeks)

Topics: Ratio rule, filling-in, BCS-FCS theory, BCS-FCS explanations.
Readings:
- Gilchrist, A. & Jacobsen, A. (1983). Lightness constancy through a veiling luminance. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 9, 936-944.
- Todorovic, D. (1987). The Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet effect: New varieties and their theoretical implications. Perception & Psychophysics, 42, 545-560.
- Paradiso, M. & Nakayama, K. (1991). Brightness perception and filling-in.Vision Research, 31, 1221-1236.
- Grossberg, S. & Todorovic, D. (1988). Neural dynamics of 1-D and 2-D brightness perception: A unified model of classical and recent phenomena. Perception & Psychophysics, 43, 241-277.
Labs: brightness contrast, temporal filling-in

Object segmentation (2.5 weeks)

Topics: Introduction, visual search, BCS processing, BCS explanations.
Readings:
- Pomerantz, J. & Kubovy, M. (1986).Theoretical approch to perceptual organization. In K. Boff, L. Kaufman, & J. Thomas (Eds.). Handbook of perception and human performance, New York: Wiley.
- Wolfe, J. (1998). What can 1 million trials tell us about visual search? Psychological Science, 9, 33-39.
- Grossberg, S. & Mingolla, E. (1985). Neural dynamics of perceptual grouping: Textures, boundaries, and emergent segmentations. Perception & Psychophysics, 38, 141-171. Reprinted in S. Grossberg (Ed.). The adaptive brain II. North Holland: Elsevier Science Publishers B.V. 1987.
Labs: Visual search

Motion perception (1 week)

Topics: Apparent motion, aperture problem.
Readings:
- Movshon, J. A., Adelson, E. H., Gizzi, M. S. & Newsome, W. T. (1986). The analysis of moving visual patterns. In Chagas, C., Gattass, R. & Gross, C. (Eds.), Pattern recognition mechanisms, (pp. 117-151). New York: Springer.
- Cavanagh, P. & Mather, G. (1990). Motion: The long and short of it. Spatial Vision, 4, 103-129.
Labs: Apparent motion, barber pole illusion

Depth perception (1 week)

Topics: Cues to depth, steropsis.
Readings:
- Kaufman, L. (1974). Sight and mind. Oxford University Press: New York. Chapters 7 and 8 (pp. 213-321.
Labs: depth from motion.

Auditory perception

Topics: Frequency and loudness, tones and harmonics, physiology.
Readings:
- Internet Psychology Laboratory tutorial.
- Pickels, J. O. (1988). An introduction to the physiology of hearing. London: Academic Press. Chapters 2 and 3.
Labs: Steven's experiment.

Consciousness

Topics: Blindsight.
Readings:
- Stoerig, P. & Cowey, A. (1997). Blindsight in man and monkey. Brain, 120, 535-559. (online)
Labs: Blindsight, metacontrast masking.

Dynamic vision

Topics: Persistence, masking.
Readings:
Labs: Persistence, attentional blink, change detection.