Visual Perception and Visual Illusions

Vision is one of the main ways for us to gather information about the world around us and about ourselves. Thus, studying vision naturally leads to new hypotheses on how cognition works. This way, our course on visual perception will also provide you with knowledge on cerebral mechanisms of vision, sensory systems and, in general, on how the mind and consciousness work.

This course is aimed at everyone who is interested in perceptual psychology, in particular, psychology of visual perception. The course discusses different theoretical approaches to studying vision, introduces the most important concepts and experimental results. The material is selected in such a way that the course is interesting and accessible for both students who study psychology and general audience without special knowledge in this area.

The course includes lectures, presentations and graded tests. Each student will be required to perform a small research project to be submitted by the end of the course.

Distance-learning

Initial training and familiarity with the terms of physiology and psychology is required.

The course may be of interest to students, masters of the faculties of psychology, physiology, biology, medical specialties, art historians, creators of visual interfaces

Module 1. Introduction

Module 2. Physiology of Visual Perception

Module 3. Lightness and contrast

Module 4. Colour Perception

Module 5. Motion Perception

Module 6. Perceptual Illusions

Module 7. 3D vision

Module 8. Perception and Art

Know: the basics of the psychology of visual perception and its various aspects (perception of color, brightness, movement, space, etc.), the physiological processes that accompany the formation of visual images at different levels from the retina to different areas of the cerebral cortex, the phenomenology of visual perception and various attempts at a theoretical explanation of the phenomena of visual perception and their experimental verification.

Be able to: compare different theoretical approaches and make a choice in favor of one of the presented ones, determine the magnitude of illusions, visual perception errors and use the methods of psychophysical measurements, make a balanced choice in favor of one of the presented approaches, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of various theoretical models.

Own: methods of psychophysical measurements and means of their analysis and interpretation

Upon completion of this course, students will:

Know: the basics of the psychology of visual perception and its various aspects (perception of color, brightness, movement, space, etc.), the physiological processes that accompany the formation of visual images at different levels from the retina to different areas of the cerebral cortex, the phenomenology of visual perception and various attempts at a theoretical explanation of the phenomena of visual perception and their experimental verification.

Be able to: compare different theoretical approaches and make a choice in favor of one of the presented ones, determine the magnitude of illusions, visual perception errors and use the methods of psychophysical measurements, make a balanced choice in favor of one of the presented approaches, comparing the advantages and disadvantages of various theoretical models.

Own: methods of psychophysical measurements and means of their analysis and interpretation

The discipline is aimed at the formation of universal competencies of students in the educational programs of the bachelor's / specialist's degree, as well as other competencies provided for by the educational program.