(in order of lecture coverage)
q define the terms sensation and perception
q become familiar with the major themes of perception
q understand some of the basic philosophical themes associated with the topic of perception
q become familiar with some basic applications of perception
q define light
q understand how light interacts with matter, especially glass and biological tissue
q understand how lenses refract light and form images
Anatomy of the Eye & Physiological Optics:
q know the major anatomical structures of the eye
q understand image formation in the eye
q understand the process of accommodation
q know the major disorders of image formation in the eye
q define conjunctive and vergence eye movements
Methodology (Psychophysics)
q understand the relation between decremental conduction and action potentials
q understand the relation between stimulus strength and action potentials
q understand the effect of excitatory & inhibitory connections
q define psychophysics
q define threshold
q know the distinction between psychometric and psychophysical functions
q understand the distinction between criterion & sensitivity
q be familiar with Fechner's classical methods
q be familiar with Signal Detection Theory
q know the major anatomical structures of the retina
q understand sensory transduction in the retina
q define the term "receptive field"
q be familiar with the distribution of photoreceptors on the retina
q define the terms “visual angle” and “visual acuity”
q understand spatial summation and temporal summation
q understand the photopic and scotopic state and be familiar with two examples of evidence for the duplex retina
q be familiar with the inputs and response properties of retinal ganglion cells
q understand lateral inhibition and centre/surround antagonism
q describe any 1-dimensional pattern of luminance modulation in terms of its “luminance profile”
q describe the shape of an ideal stimulus for a retinal ganglion cell
q understand the distinction between on-centre and off-centre receptive fields
q describe the perceptual consequences of centre/surround antagonism
q understand that local contrast is one form of information carried by the visual system
q know the major anatomical structures of the visual pathways
q know the 4 major cortical lobes
q trace the projection of both visual hemi-fields through the optic chiasm to each cortical hemisphere
q understand the distinction between magno-cellular and parvo-cellular pathways
q define retinotopic projection
q describe receptive field properties of cortical cells in area V1
q understand the relation between ganglion cell responses and simple cell responses
q understand orientation selectivity in primary visual cortex
q describe 3 separate pieces of evidence supporting the role of V1 in vision
q list 4 major ways in which information is processed in the visual cortex
q understand arguments for and against localization in visual cortical processing
q understand at least 2 ways in which knowledge affects perception
q understand that spatial frequency can be thought of as visual scale
q define luminance profile – i.e. a plot of luminance modulation across space
q describe the luminance profile of a sinewave grating and a square wave grating
q describe the modulation transfer function of a clean lens and a buttered lens
q understand that blurring or defocus is equivalent to loss of high spatial frequency information
q describe the 4 major characteristics of any sinewave grating (i.e. amplitude, frequency, phase and orientation)
q understand that Fourier analysis is a way of decomposing any spatial luminance pattern into its sinewave components
q describe the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) and the reason for its shape
q describe why an infant or a cat or a falcon might have a different CSF than a normal adult human
q describe at least 2 perceptual effects related to spatial frequency analysis (e.g. adaptation and high frequency masking)
q explain post-adaptation aftereffects to spatial frequency in terms of spatial frequency channels (also for orientation)
q understand the limitations of a theory of vision based solely on feature detectors (i.e. not enough neurons to represent every possible feature)
q understand why the inferotemporal (IT) cortex has large receptive fields
q understand that IT neural responses are unaffected by partial occlusion or size
q understand that IT neurons show increased response specificity to particular classes of objects such as faces
q recognize how object “affordances” suggest the interactive nature of perception and motor action
q describe how visual priming influences perceptual decision-making
q describe “plasticity” of IT neurons – e.g. improvement in vernier acuity with practice
q define prosopagnosia
q describe “bottom-up” and “top-down” influences on attention
q describe “top-down” influences in the interpretation of ambiguous stimuli
q understand the frequency spectrum of electromagnetic radiation
q describe Newton’s prism experiment
q understand that white light is composed of all frequencies
q define wavelength-specific reflectance and absorption
q list Hering’s 4 unitary hues
q describe the spectral reflectance function
q describe the problem with one- and two-pigment visual systems and understand the importance of the ratio of activation in the 3 colour channels
q describe 4 pieces of evidence for the opponent process theory
q describe the 3 major types of dichromacies and how they can be tested
q understand the importance of equiluminant chromatic stimuli in the assessment of colour deficiencies
q describe egocentric direction and the 3 major planes of space
q distinguish between absolute and relative distance
q describe 2 oculomotor cues to depth
q describe 7 monocular cues to depth
q define retinal disparity
q define stereopsis
q describe Wheatstone’s stereoscope and how depth perception can be induced from two 2-dimensional displays
q describe 2 pieces of physiological evidence for stereopsis
q describe the process of size constancy
q use Emmert’s Law to explain various depth illusions
q list 4 conditions for motion perception
q describe a condition in which there is retinal image motion, but no motion is perceived (i.e. saccades)
q describe saccadic suppression
q draw a “wiring diagram” for a directionally-selective motion-sensitive neuron
q describe the motion adaptation aftereffect in terms of pools of directionally-selective neurons
q describe the “aperture problem”
q describe ambiguous stimuli (e.g. random dot kinematograms) and how they are interpreted
q describe how apparent motion is a sufficient stimulus for a directionally-selective neuron
q understand the relation between retinal image size and a looming object of constant velocity
q list 6 types of eye movement
q describe the role of the vestibular apparatus in our perception of the world
q describe the wave nature of sound as compression and rarefaction of air molecules
q understand pure tones, complex sounds and noise in terms of the frequency spectrum and the time domain
q be familiar with the decibel scale of perceived loudness and its relation to physical intensity of sound
q describe the major anatomical components of the ear and the auditory pathways
q describe impedance matching
q describe the acoustic reflex
q understand how frequency is encoded on the basilar membrane
q define tonotopic organization
q describe frequency tuning of auditory nerve fibers
q describe the problem of sound localization and its solution in the auditory system
q recognize the similarity between the audibility function (AF) and the contrast sensitivity function (CSF) in vision
q understand relationship between sound intensity and it’s perceived loudness
q understand why beats occur, and how to produce them
q understand how a critical band determines the frequency tuning bandwidth of an auditory nerve fiber
q understand relationship between sound frequency and it’s perceived pitch
q describe harmonics (i.e. as multiples of a fundamental frequency)
q define timbre (i.e. sound quality associated with particular pattern of harmonics)
q describe the spectrogram of speech
q define phoneme (i.e. elementary unit of speech sound)
q understand how phrase meaning provides boundary cues for word identification in ambiguous speech patterns (e.g. Marzi doats)
q define 2 types of hearing loss (i.e. conduction loss and sensory/neural loss)
q define proprioception (e.g. the sense of your body and limbs in space; also known as “kinesthesis”)
q list 4 types of afferent tactile fibers
q describe the outflow theory of proprioception
q describe “phantom limb”
q define mechanoreceptor (transducers that respond to physical change in pressure, e.g. indentation or pressure on the skin)
q describe the somatosensory cortex
q describe topographical mapping and how this relates to object recognition
q describe 2 different types of pain receptors (i.e. mechanoreceptors and thermoreceptors)
q understand that brain areas involved in taste and smell are closely related to those involved in learning, hunger and sex
q understand that papillae (sing. papilla) contain clusters of taste buds
q understand that to taste a substance, it must be soluble in saliva
q list the 5 different categories of taste (i.e. sweet, sour, salty, bitter and umami)
q define specific hunger
q define taste aversion
q understand that the sense of smell is the phylogenetically oldest system
q describe how multidimensional scaling has been used to classify odours
q locate the olfactory epithelium and list its major structures
q understand that to smell a substance, it must be volatile (able to be suspended in air, i.e., as a gas) and fat soluble
q define pheromone (i.e. a chemical substance that serves as a stimulus to other members of the same species for one or more behavioural responses)