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Psychology 323 - Syllabus | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Center for Perceptual Systems
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Instructor: Dr. Lawrence K. Cormack Office: 4.228 SEA Email: cormack@mail.utexas.edu (this is a great way to get in touch with me) Phone: 471-5380 Office hours: T-TH 12 - 1pm, W 3-4pm, and by appt.
T. A.: Laura Holland Office: SEA 5.108D Email: laura.r.holland@mail.utexas.edu Phone: Office hours: M 12:50-1:50, 3:00-4:00 W 12:50-1:50
Meeting time: MWF 2-3 Meeting place: BUR 108 Unique number: 45005 Text: "Perception," 5th edition, Sekuler and Blake Prerequisites: For PSY 323, the Psychology Department will drop all students who do not meet the following prerequisites: (b) a grade of C or better in PSY 418 for Psych. majors, or an equivalent statistics class for other majors. (c) Current upper-division standing (60 or more credit-hours completed) There is nothing I can do about this. The only way to add the course is through TEX, and if you don't have the prereqs. you will be subsequently dropped. Course description: This course will provide students with an introduction to the study of perception. Perception is defined as the process by which organisms extract useful information from their environment. Our "selves," the part of us that is conscious, receives all of its information about the world through our sensory apparatuses (our eyes, ears, nose, mouth and skin). Course material will cover most aspects of the perceptual processes including -physics of light and sound -biochemistry of retinal phototransduction -electromechanical transduction in the auditory system -basic neurophysiology and neuroanatomy -functional cortical physiology We will cover "lower-level" sensory psychology fairly extensively and will emphasize the visual system. This is not a personal bias, but reflects the current state of scientific knowledge. Most of the course will be concerned with behavioral (psychophysical) experiments performed on humans and physiological experiments performed on other vertebrates. Many students have expressed the belief that this course should not be a psychology or liberal arts course, but rather a biology or natural science course. It is assumed that you have a background in math and science commensurate with a sophomore college education. Basic courses in the calculus, biology and physics are helpful but not required. I have had many students study quite hard for this course and earn a B. In some cases, it's simply because they aren't a good match with this course. Usually it's due to an overemphasis on the memorization of detail at the expense of conceptual understanding. The lectures will make a lot more sense at the conceptual level if you have done the relevant reading first. Seriously. Stop laughing. Regular Exams. (A) Three exams and one comprehensive final will be given. Your final grade will be based on the highest three of the four grades. Thus, if you are happy with your grade after the first three exams, there is no need to take the final. Early, late or make-up exams will not be given without an extremely compelling excuse that is fully documented in writing. In most cases, we will end up agreeing that the (otherwise optional) final should serve as the make-up exam. Both lecture material and material from the assigned readings will be covered on the exams and final. Exams are multiple choice, Note: the exams will cover material included only in the lecture and material covered only in the readings as well as the material covered in both. (B) This course satisfies a Science requirement for many students. If you want to do well on these exams you are going to have to work hard in this course. It will require time, effort, concentration, and motivation. You will need to know all of the material presented in the textbook (the assigned readings), and all of the material presented in the lectures. A cursory review of this material a few days before the exam will most likely result in a failing grade. This is a Science course and the material is difficult. Please do not expect easy exams. (C) You will not be permitted to wear hats with a brim during the examinations. Be sure to bring your UT Identification Card with you to the exams and be prepared to show this card. Bring your own pencil; we will bring the scantrons. Optional-Final Exam. The final exam is optional, not required. If you take all three regular exams and you are content with your grade (based upon these three exams), then there will not be a final exam for you; your semester is over! If, however, you are not content with your grade and you would like to attempt to raise your grade, then you will be allowed the opportunity to take a comprehensive final examination (covering all of the readings and the lectures). This exam is essentially a long version of the regular exams, but is comprehensive. For many students, this is a golden opportunity to demonstrate knowledge they have acquired. You will be given the full three hours to complete the exam, if you feel you need this time. If you should elect to take this optional final examination, then your final grade will be based upon the average of the highest three exam scores. In other words, if you have taken all three regular exams and the final, then the low grade will be dropped. The date, time, and place for this examination is determined by the University and will be posted by the University. Note that this exam cannot be administered early, or late -- not for any reason. Final Grades. The final grades will be normalized to the highest student's total grade ("curved"). Letter-grade boundaries will be at 10% increments below the highest grade. Thus, if your grade is 90% of the highest grade, you will receive an "A"; if your grade is 89.4% of the highest grade, you will receive a "B"; etc. Just under the cut-off? Just take the optional exam! At the end of the course, the grades will be totaled, and the cut-offs will be determined for the grades of A, B, C, D, F, as described above. Of course, whenever these cut-offs are set there will always be some students that are just under the cut-off for the grade they were hoping to receive (by one percentage point, two percentage points, and so forth). For some students this will determine whether they receive an F or a D; for other students this will determine whether they receive an A or a B. If you are just under the cut-off, please do not approach Professor Cormack and ask him to lower the cut-off to accommodate your personal score, or to adjust your score upwards; this is unfair to all concerned and, if he complied with your request, Dr. Cormack would be subject to punitive action from the University and litigation from other students in the course as a consequence of unethical behavior. Exam review and grading disputes. The exams will be available for review in the TA's office during her or his office hours. If you have a question about the grading or an exam item, please consult with the TA and then contact Dr. Cormack if necessary. Credit will be given for exam items that are clearly wrong or misleading, but please do not attempt to gain points by quibbling over disingenuous misreadings of exam items; good students do well on these exams and do not need to quibble. Phones. Please silence your phone before class, and then leave it in your pocket, backpack, or purse for the duration of the class period.
Sept. 12th - possible refund; Note: These are university and/or college rules, and there is nothing I can do about them.
Tentative course schedule:
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