The Basics
- Read only the perception sections of Chapter 2
The Buzz
- Explain the difference between sensation and perception.
- Explain how bottom-up and top-down processing are involved in perception.
- Discuss the perceptual organization processes. For each, explain how your perception of the world would be different if that process did not work properly.
- Explain what synesthesia is and how it is related to non-synesthetes’ everyday experience.
The World (extra links to go beyond the class material!)
Olfaction
- TED Talk: Luca Turin on The Science of Scent
Pain/Touch
- SciAm: Unhurtful Thoughts: A Preoccupied Brain Produces Pain-Killing Compounds
- NOVA Secrets of the Mind featuring Ramachandran [This is an incredible video. I show the entire video in class to illustrate what can happen when perceptual processes are not working right. The students LOVE it. It features cases of phantom limb, blindsight, the God delusion, and Capgras syndrome (imposter syndrome).]
- BBC The Rubber Hand Illusion featuring Laurence Rosenblum
Hearing
- BBC McGurk Effect featuring Laurence Rosenblum
Vision
- 3D Sidewalk Art
- Even Better 3D Sidewalk Art
- Mind Lab [This is an interactive website with video and demos. There are four sections, including a section on how we perceive 3D from the 2D input from our retinas.]
- TED Talk: Al Seckel on Powerful Visual Illusions
- TED Talk: Beau Lotto on Optical Illusions Show Us How We See
- TED Talk: Rob Legato on The Art of Creating Awe
- TED Talk: Pawan Sinha on How Brains Learn to See
