ACN6332, HCS6332, 001,

Perception
SOM 2.112 Tuesday 1:00-3:45 PM

Dr. Alice J. O’Toole

GR 4.214 972-883-2486
otoole@utdallas.edu
Office hours: TBA

Course Description and Objectives:

ACN 6332 Perception (3 semester hours) Psychophysical,
neurophysiological, and computational foundations of
sensation and perception. Basic senses of vision, audition,
chemoreception, and tactile processing, with emphasis on
understanding the processes that take us from neurons to
perception and action.

Required Readings:
Articles from the scientific journals are available free of
charge in the UTD-library through electronic search or
electronic reserve (see list below).

Required Textbook:
J. M. Wolfe, K. R. Kluender, D. M. Levi, L. M. Bartoshuk, R.
S. Herz, R. L. Klatzky, and S. J. Lederman Sensation and
Perception. Sinaur.

Grade:

Quizzes: A quiz will be given at the beginning of each

class weekly during the first 10-15 minutes of class.
The topic of the quiz is the assigned reading plus one
or two questions from the previous week’s lecture. No
make-ups will be given, but the lowest 2 grades will be
dropped.

Presentation: Each student will take responsibility for

presenting one of the class readings. Depending on
enrollment, two-student presentation teams will take
charge of each article. Articles will be assigned from a
sign-up sheet in which students indicate preferred
articles. Every attempt will be made to match students
to their preferred readings.
Attendance: Students are responsible for all material
presented in class, including directives about exams.

Class web site: www.utdallas.edu/~otoole/grad_cgs.html

Grading Policy
The quizzes comprise 70% of the grade. The presentation
counts for 30% of the grade, each.

Assignments & Academic Calendar

Aug. 21 Chapter 1
Introduction to Perception
Aug. 28 The First Steps in Vision Chapter 2

Sept. 4 Spatial Vision Chapter 3

Sept. Perceiving and recognizing objects Chapter 4

11

Sept. The Perception of color Chapter 5

18
Sept. Space perception and binocular Chapter 6
25 vision

Oct. 2 Motion Perception Chapter 7

Oct. 9 Attention and scene perception Chapter 8

Oct. 16 Hearing: Physiology and Chapter 9

psychoacoustics
Oct. 23 Hearing in the environment Chapter
10
Oct. 30 Music and Speech Chapter
11
Nov. 6 Touch Chapter
12
Nov. 13 Olfaction Chapter
13
Nov. 20 Taste Chapter
14

Readings
R1 Curtis, C.E., & D’Esposito, M. (2003) Persistent activity in the
prefrontal cortex during working memory. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, Vol. 7(9), 415-423.
R2 Copeland, B. J., Proudfoot, D. Alan Turing’s forgotten ideas in
computer science. Scientific American, April, 1999, Vol. 280(4)
99-103.
R3 Cooney, J. W. & Gazzaniga, M. S. (2003). Neurological disorders
and the structure of human consciousness. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, Vol. 7(4) 161-165.
R4 Nolfi, S. & Floreano, D. (2002). Synthesis of autonomous robots
through evolution. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 6(1) 31-37.
R5 Wallis G. and Bülthoff H. H. (1999). Learning to recognize objects
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 3(1) 22-31.
R6 Shaywitz, S. E. Dyslexia. Scientific American, Nov, 1996, Vol.
275(5) 98-104.
R7 Hari, R. & Renvall, H. (2001) Impaired processing of rapid
stimulus sequences in dyslexia. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol.
5(12) 525-531.
R8 Ranganath, C. & Blumenfield, R.S. (2005). Doubts about double
dissociations between short- and long-term memory. Trends in
Cognitive Sciences, 9(8) 375-380.
R9 Johnson, M. K. & Raye, C. L. (1998). False memories and
confabulations. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(4) 137-145.
R10 Chase, V.M. Hertwig, R. & Gigerenzer, G. (1998). Visions of
rationality. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 2(6) 206-214.
R11 Poldrack, R. A. (2006). Can cognitive processes be inferred from
neuroimaging data. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, Vol. 10(2) 59-63.
R12 Sanfey, A. G., Loewenstein, McClure, S. M., Cohen, J. D., (2006).
Neuroeconomics: cross-currents in research on decision-making.
Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10(3) 108-116.

R13 Schwartz, S., Maquet, P. (2002). Sleep imaging and the

neuropsychological assessment of dreams. Trends in Cognitive
Sciences, 6(1) 23-30.
R14 Haynes-Dylan, J. & Rees G. (2006) Decoding mental states from
brain activity. Nature Reviews, 7, 522-534.