GENERAL AND PERCEPTION PSYCHOLOGY
Oral - Written assignment
This course aims to introduce students to a scientific study within one of the fundamental cognitive processes concerning visual perception, a broad field of study which will be presented in a cross-disciplinary approach typical of Vision Science. In fact, during the course, some important issues and some of the most recent hypothesis related to how our perceptive system computes information in input will be analysed. These theories are strictly related to crucial parts of some cross-disciplinary fields involving psychophysics, experimental phenomenology, computer vision and, more generally, neuroscience. In order to achieve these objectives the most important research topics related to Vision Science such as perceptual organization, figure-ground segregation, perception of shape, color, space, depth, 3-D, movement and meaning assignment will be studied. All these scientific topics will be investigated taking into account a theoretical perspective aiming to integrate phenomenological data with other data coming from complementary disciplinary contexts including those related to neurobiological and computational studies. In short, during the course it will be shown how vision, considered as a phenomenological system, organizes the real world and, at the same time how the visual system, considered as a mental and neural structure, reacting to electromagnetic radiation, elaborates and codes visual information in a long chain of biological-computational processes.
Some of the most crucial questions which are intended to be answered are the following: What is perception? “Why do things look as they do (Koffka's question)?”How do vision and the perceptual system work? How are visual illusions and veridical perceptions explained? How do neurons, the eye and the mind elaborate visual stimuli? To answer all these questions, the evolutionary principles of vision will be studied together with the electromagnetic and optics laws. In addition, the physiology and the evolution of the eye, the physiology of the pre-cortical stations, the visual cortex and the connections with other areas of the brain will also lay the base for this course. Moreover, through a phenomenological and psychophysical approach some classical and fundamental issues about perceptual organization, figure-ground segregation, perception of shape, color, depth, 3-D, movement and meaning assignment, will also be investigated.
For undergraduate students in Psychological Science and Technology of Cognitive Processes andante for undergraduate students in Sciences of Cultural Tourism:
Muss D. M. (2016, 5° edizione). Psicologia Evoluzionistica, Pearson.
Cubelli, R. & Job R. (1998). Psicologia dei processi cognitivi, Carocci.
Arnheim R. (2002). Arte e percezione visiva, Feltrinelli. Chapters 1, 2 & 3.
Pinel, J. P. J. (2006). Psicobiologia, Il Mulino. Chapters 2, 5 & 6.
Bear, M. F., Connors, b. W., & Paradiso, M. A. (2016). Neuroscienze, Edra, Masson. Chapters 2, 9 & 10.
Stewart I. & Joines V. (1992). L’analisi transazionale. Guida alla psicologia dei rapporti umani, Garzanti.
Further study materials on the Physics of Light and Optics and some other scientific articles in English language will be provided during the course.
For undergraduate students in Social Service:
Muss D. M. (2016, 5° ed.). Psicologia Evoluzionistica, Pearson.
Stewart I. & Joines V. (1992). L’analisi transazionale. Guida alla psicologia dei rapporti umani, Garzanti.
Lectures - Lessons - Labs
During the course students will be encouraged to undertake experimental activities in laboratories. Findings from those experimental activities will be presented to the other students, will be object of debates and will also be part of assessment during the final exam.