PSYC209

The study of perception is one of the oldest areas of psychological speculation and research. It raises many interesting questions about mind, reality, truth and aesthetic experience. We will approach the study of perception historically by showing how it developed in parallel within philosophy, science and art, with each approach providing important insights for the other. Our basic question will concern the relations that exist between descriptions of the physical world, our brain, and our experience. We will investigate what modern research has to say about the ways in which we experience color, object, space, motion and event perception. Aspects of the visual arts will be discussed in this context, both as employing perceptual principles and helping to reveal them. Fulfills Category 2 requirement. (Formerly Category 3)