Topics in Cognition: Perception and Awareness
Overview
- Credit value: 15 credits at Level 7
- Convenor: Dr Daniel Yon
- Assessment: a 1500-word mid-term essay (60%) and one-hour 30-minute examination (40%)
Module description
In this module we introduce you to sensory and perceptual processes, blending classical and contemporary approaches to basic information processing and identifies key theoretical issues and methodological contributions in perception and cognition generally. We will demonstrate the scope for applying knowledge of sensory and perceptual processes to other areas of cognitive psychology and neuroscience.
Indicative syllabus
- Cognitive neuroscience and brain science
- Functional anatomy of the visual system
- Higher-level vision
- Motor control and cognitive control
- Audition and touch
- Multisensory integration
- A brief history of research on attention, features and objects
- Disorders of spatial attention: neglect and extinction
- Atypical perceptual experiences
- Voluntary actions and free will
Learning objectives
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- understand perception as an active, inferential process shaped by sensory input and prior knowledge
- explain how neural processing enhances discrimination and gives rise to perceptual illusions
- distinguish and evaluate bottom-up and top-down influences on perception
- describe functional specialisation and topographic organisation in sensory systems
- explain the organisation of the visual system, including early processing and the dual-stream hypothesis
- evaluate evidence for specialised object processing, particularly for faces
- understand principles and mechanisms of multisensory integration and its perceptual consequences
- describe key theories, paradigms, and disorders of attention and awareness
- explain the neural basis of auditory and somatosensory perception, including plasticity
- understand the neural mechanisms of action, cognitive control and voluntary behaviour.