Undergraduate Course: Visual Attention (PSYL10074)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Psychology |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
None |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | Attention plays a critical role in current theories of human visual perception and visual cognition. This course will consider the role of attention in visual encoding, visual memory, visual representation, and visual experience. Topics to be covered include the distinctions between covert versus overt attention, space- versus object-based attention, and visual versus spatial attention. Phenomena and experimental paradigms to be discussed include attentional cueing, visual search, the attentional blink, change blindness, inattentional blindness, attentional capture, and the relationship between attention and eye movements. The function of attention in complex tasks such as reading and scene perception will also be discussed. These issues will be considered from the perspectives of both cognitive theory and neural implementation drawing on a variety of empirical approaches including behavioural methods (e.g., psychophysics and chronometrics) and neuroimaging. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Degree major in Psychology and passes in psychology courses at least to the equivalent of junior honours level in Edinburgh.
Prior agreement with the 4th year Honours Course Organiser: Dr Patrick Sturt(Ext. 51 1712). |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | No |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Summary of Intended Learning Outcomes
On successful completion of the course, students will:
a) Understand the core theoretical concepts of visual attention.
b) Understand the key experimental paradigms and main sources of evidence associated with these core theoretical concepts.
c) Be able to critically evaluate the existing evidence.
d) Understand how new experiments would add to theory advancement in this area.
e) Be able to apply knowledge about visual attention in both written and oral form.
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Assessment Information
100% essay exam
Visiting Student Variant Assessment
Long essay (3,000 words) to be set by the Course Organiser and due Friday 4pm, Week 13. |
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| Reading list |
Not entered |
| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | visual encoding, visual memory, visual representation, visual experience |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Graham Mackenzie
Tel: (0131 6)50 3451
Email: Graham.Mackenzie@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mrs Elizabeth Wright
Tel: (0131 6)51 7363
Email: E.Wright@ed.ac.uk |
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