GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY
The course aims to give students a broad preparation on scientific issues of Experimental and Psychology of Perception, especially Vision Science, whose objective is to understand what and how we see. During the course some important issues and some of the most recent hypothesis related to how our perceptive system works will be analysed in relation to some other fields such as psychophysics, physiology and neuroscience. Some of the most crucial questions which are intended to be answered are the following: What is perception? How do our vision and perception system work? How are visual illusions explained? How do our neurons elaborate visual objects? To answer all the questions, during the course, some of the most important theories in this field, will be discussed with a critical approach. Moreover, through a phenomenological and psychophysical approach some classical and fundamental issues about Perceptual organization, figure-ground segregation, perception of shape, color, depth, movement and meaning, will also be investigated.
In order to achieve these objectives in the limited period of time of the course, only the most important fields of research of Vision Science, such as perceptual organization, figure-ground segregation, perception of shape, color, space, depth and three-dimensionality, movement and meaning will be considered. In relation to these fields, the most salient phenomenon of major interest for undergraduate students of Science of Tourism will also be analysed in more detail. These phenomena will be described according to a theoretical perspective, which includes phenomenological data deriving from other fields such as neuro-biological and computational areas. Through these phenomena it is possible to demonstate how human vision, meant as a phenomenal system, organizes reality. At the same time, it is possible to say how the visual system, considered as a mental and neural structure, reacting to light encodes and develops visual information through a long chain of biological-computational processes.
One book from the list below to be decided during the lessons is required only for students attending the course of Servizio Sociale a Indirizzo Europeo. A free choice of two books from the list below is required for all the other students attending the 12 cfu course, while a free choice of three books from the list below is required for students not attending the course.
- Kanizsa G. (1980). Grammatica del vedere, Il Mulino.
- Cubelli, R. & Job R. (1998). I processi cognitivi, Carocci.
- Arnheim R. (2002). Arte e percezione visiva, Feltrinelli.
- Stewart I. & Joines V. (1992). L’analisi transazionale. Guida alla psicologia dei rapporti umani, Garzanti.
Audiovisual materials will be projected during the lectures and they will be available for students to be downloaded from the web.