Course Description
We typically think of perception as among the most fundamental forms of lower-level cognition and social cognition as among the most advanced forms of higher-level cognition. In this course, we will explore how these two aspects of the mind connect. The course will explore how social influences do and do not influence what we see, and how perception itself is specialized for social information. Readings will be drawn from several different areas of psychology including cognitive psychology, vision science, social psychology, cognitive neuroscience, and infant cognition. Specific topics include the perception of animacy, agency, and intentionality, biological motion, face perception, gaze processing, attention, race perception, social color vision social olfaction, and social and cultural influences on perception
Learning Outcome
At the end of the course, student should be able to:
Course Content
- Perceptual
Stereotyping
- Organizational
meeting
- Social
factors
- Culture
change
- Social
Color Vision
- Animacy
and Intentionality
- Perceiving
Social Information
- Social
Olfaction
- Social
Vision
Compulsory Reading Materials
- Anzures,
G., Quinn, P. C., Pascalis, O., Slater, A. M., Tanaka, J. W., & Lee, K.
(2013). Developmental origins of the other-race effect. Current directions in
psychological science, 22(3), 173-178.
- Levin, D., & Banaji, M. (2006). Distortions in the perceived lightness of faces: The role of race categories. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 135, 501–512.
- Schnall, S., Harber, K., Stefanucci, J., & Proffitt, D. (2008). Social support and the perception of geographical slant. Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, 44, 1246-1255.
Optional
Reading Materials
- Barrett,
H. C., Todd, P., Miller, G., & Blythe, P. (2005). Accurate judgments of
intention from motion cues alone: A cross-cultural study. Evolution and Human
Behavior, 26, 313-331.
- Gao, T., McCarthy, G., & Scholl, B. (2010).
The Wolfpack effect: Perception of animacy irresistibly influences interactive
behavior. Psychological Science, 21, 1845-1853