Psychology & Brain Sciences 891VC - S-VisualAttntn/Consciousness

We will explore recent research in visual attention, in order to understand how the visual system manages to cope with large amounts of visual information in a short period of time. We will read a number of published research papers describing experiments that measure performance in tasks such as visual search and distractor inhibition. We will also consider cognitive neuroscience studies using EEG and fMRI, and computational models of attention. We will investigate the relationship between visual attention and visual awareness, and along the way will probably consider how visual working memory contributes to attention and awareness. Each student will be responsible for multiple class presentations, and for contributing to class discussions.

Open to Graduate Psychology or NSB majors only. Other grad students and advanced undergrads may seek permission of the instructor to enroll.