Undergraduate Course: Perception (PSYL10116)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | This course examines the perception of the external world, and one's own body and movement. The course will cover the use of vision and the body senses to guide actions, and the bidirectional interactions between perception and action. It will also consider the representation of our bodies as a feat of multisensory integration, the dynamic flexibility of this body representation, and the experience of body ownership and agency.
The main course content is presented in lectures, with additional in-class discussions. |
| Course description |
Not entered
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
Students MUST have passed:
Psychology 2 (PSYL08002)
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Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Available to all students (SV1)
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Quota: 0 |
| Course Start |
Block 1 (Sem 1) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 12,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
86 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
In-class feedback exercises will be used to check understanding and to develop skills (e.g. quizzes, peer feedback on essay plans/drafts).
Take home examination (Coursework questions) 100%
Students will answer 2 short coursework questions (word limit 1000 each). Each question will be worth 50% of the overall mark. The two questions will invite critical evaluation of important issues raised during the course and the work will be submitted within 1 week of release of the questions.
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| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, students should be able to:
understand the concept of embodied cognition
describe how the Two Visual Streams model has altered our conception of visual processing, from a serial to a parallel architecture, and has highlighted the importance of considering action in understanding vision
define and describe Visual Form Agnosia, Blindsight and Optic Ataxia
describe what sensory information is available to the brain in building up a representation of the body¿s posture and position in space
describe and diagram the difference between classic and contemporary models of motor control
define and describe Phantom Limb Phenomena and Peripheral Deafferentation
describe and diagram the Frith, Wolpert & Blakemore (2000) model of action awareness and to substantiate it with relevant experimental and neuropsychological evidence
define and describe Anosognosia for Hemiplegia, Anarchic Hand Sign, Utilisation Behaviour and Delusions of Control
describe and critically evaluate scientific evidence demonstrating the multisensory nature of body representations in the brain and reflect on the factors that mediate the flexibility of such representations
critically evaluate scientific evidence demonstrating action-perception links and reflect on the implications of these evidences for theories of cognition.
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Reading List
Indicative Bibliography
Lecture 1:
A brief, broad-brushstrokes introduction to Milner & Goodale¿s model can be found here:
Goodale MA & Milner AD (2006). One brain - two visual systems. The Psychologist, 19: 660-663.
A more complete, accessible overview, is the 'popular science' book:
Goodale MA & Milner AD. (2004, second edition 2013) Sight unseen. Oxford University Press.
Lecture 2:
An excellent introduction to the sensorimotor foundations of action is provided in Chapter 3 of James Tresilian¿s textbook, which provides much more background detail on the sensory basis of body representation than it is possible to give in the lecture.
Tresilian, J. R. (2012). Sensorimotor control and learning. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Chapter 3: Sensorimotor Foundations (especially Section2 3.3 and 3.4).
This lecture will include discussion of Peripheral Deafferentation. Popular accounts of patients with this rare and devastating condition can be found here
Cole J. (1995) Pride and a daily marathon. London : Bradford Books.
Sacks O. (1985) The man who mistook his wife for a hat. London: Duckworth. Chapter 3: the disembodied lady.
And here is a reasonably accessible account of the forward modelling in action:
Desmurget M & Grafton S. (2000) Forward modelling allows feedback control for fast reaching movements. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 4: 423-431.
Lecture 3:
The critical background readings for this lecture relate to the main model discussed. A relatively accessible account of the model is given here:
Blakemore, S. J., Wolpert, D. M., & Frith, C. D. (2002). Abnormalities in the awareness of action. Trends in cognitive sciences, 6(6), 237-242.
The more substantive paper on which the above article was based is here:
Frith, C. D., & Wolpert, D. M. (2000). Abnormalities in the awareness and control of action. Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B: Biological Sciences, 355(1404), 1771-1788.
Lecture 4:
Spence, C. & Driver, J., 2004 Crossmodal Space and Crossmodal attention. Oxford: Oxford University Press.[chapter 3]
Knoblich et al., (Eds). 2006. Human body perception from inside out. Oxford: Oxford University Press. [chapters 3 & 4]
Holmes & Spence, 2004. The body schema and the multisensory representation(s) of peripersonal space. Cognitive processing, 5(2), 94¿105.
Maravita, Spence & Driver, 2003. Multisensory Integration and the Body Schema: Close to Hand and Within Reach. Current Biology, 13, R531¿R539.
Maravita & Iriki, 2004. Tools for the body (schema). Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 8(2), 79-86.
Lecture 5:
Action perception links:
Engel, Maye, Kurthen & Koenig, (2013). Where¿s the action? The pragmatic turn in cognitive science. Trends in Cognitive Sciences 17 (5):202-209.
McBride, Boy, Husain & Sumner, (2012). Automatic motor activation in the executive control of action. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience. doi: 10.3389/fnhum.2012.00082
Bosbach & Prinz (2007). Perceptual resonance: action-induced modulation of perception. Trends in Cognitive Science, 11(8), 349-355.
Affordances:
Humphreys (2001). Objects, affordances¿action! The Psychologist, 14(8), 408-412.
Maranesi, Bonini & Fogassi, (2014). Cortical processing of object affordances for self and others' action. Frontiers in Psychology. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.00538.
Mirror Neurons:
Kessler & Garrod (2013). Editorial: Cortex Discussion Forum on ¿The meaning of mirror neurons¿. Cortex, 49 (10), 2603-2606.
Rizzolatti & Craighero (2004). The mirror neurons system. Annual Review Neuroscience, 27, 169¿92. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Elena Gherri
Tel: (0131 6)50 3340
Email: Elena.Gherri@ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Mr Simon Cann
Tel: 0131 650 9870
Email: Simon.Cann@ed.ac.uk |
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