Attention and Perception Course

Psychology

W2225y Attention and Perception 3 pts. Spring 2008

MW 6:10 - 7:25PM. Room 614 Schermerhorn Hall

Hakwan Lau

h.lau@fil.ion.ucl.ac.uk

II. Rationale for giving the course

III. Full description of the content

V. Reading list and weekly syllabus

I. Bulletin description

W2225y Attention and Perception

H. Lau. MW 6:10 - 7:25PM. Room 614 Schermerhorn Hall

Prerequisites: PSYC W1001 or W1010 or instructor’s permission.

Introduction to the theories and mechanisms of attentional selection in perceptual processes. Topics include classical theories of selective attention, modern neurocognitive models, clinical impairments of attention, and the relationship between attention and time.

II. The rationale for giving the course

This undergraduate lecture course will complement our curriculum in the following ways. Attention is one of the central topics in cognitive psychology, and is relevant to other courses currently offered in the curriculum (W2210, W2215, and W2220). However, competing theories on this topic abound, and the issues are often too complex to be explained in sufficient detail in one or two lectures. This introductory lecture course gives the topic a systematic treatment, reviewing some of the latest perspectives and findings that are at odds with traditional views. We also explore relationships between attention and other cognitive phenomena that are currently not covered in the curriculum, such as time perception. Finally, this course also complements nicely current courses on perception. The course W2230, for instance, focuses on the basic sensory aspects; this course uniquely focuses on the higher cognitive aspects of perception.

PSYC W2225 will fulfill the following degree requirements:

• For the Psychology major or concentration in the College and in G. S., for the Psychology minor in Engineering, and for the Psychology Post-bac, PSYC W2225 will meet the Group I (Perception and Cognition) distribution requirement.

• For the Neuroscience and Behavior joint major, PSYC W2225 will meet the fourth Psychology requirement: “One additional 2000 or 3000 level psychology course from a list approved by the Psychology Departmental advisor to the program.”

• For the core science requirements of the College and G. S., PSYC W2225 will count as a single term of the requirement.

Enrollment will be capped at 95.

III. A full description of the content of the course

Over a century ago, the famous psychologist William James wrote that “Everybody knows what attention is…. It implies withdrawal from some things in order to deal effectively with others.” Whereas this statement is just as intuitively appealing today, modern researchers are still puzzled as to how attention exactly works. To what extent can we focus on one stream of information and block out others? When we are having an engaging conversation at a party, it seems that all the background chattering is blocked out. But when somebody whispers our name in the background – possibly gossiping about us - it grabs our attention all the same. Just what happens to unattended information? Is it processed or not? If so, to what degree?

This course will address these and other important issues related to attention and perception. We review competing theories that were proposed in the early days of cognitive psychology, and look at how modern empirical evidence arbitrates between them. The empirical examples often involve some of the most dramatic illusions in visual perception, and can be experienced in everyday lives as well as in the laboratory. They include inattentional blindness and change blindness, two ‘tricks’ used for decades by professional magicians, but only recently studied scientifically. Then we also evaluate modern neurocognitive models, some of which are more ambitious in scope, intending to solve the more general puzzles of perception such as the classical ‘binding problem’. We also consider clinical cases of impairments of attention. Some patients with damage to the parietal cortex neglect half of their visual space, to which they could pay little attention. We assess how modern neurocognitive models explain these perplexing phenomena, and consider whether they are explanatorily superior to classical theories such as signal detection theory. Finally, we also consider the relationship between attention and time, such as whether we can attend to events that happened in the past, whether attention to one event impairs our attention to an immediate subsequent event (a phenomenon known as ‘attentional blink’), and whether attention speeds up perception.

IV. Course requirements (subject to minor revision)

There will be three non-cumulative in-class exams, mainly requiring short answers. The student’s best two scores out of all three exams will count for 35% each towards the final grade. A cumulative final exam will count for 30% toward the final grade. Study questions from which the final exam will be derived will be announced on the last day of class.