Key facts

Course details for 2006 cohort
Level 3  -  15 credits  -  autumn term

E-learning links

Study Direct: C8015 (09/10)

Resources

Timetable Link

Course description

Course outline

Although our eyes, ears, tongue and other sensory organs are separate from each other, the information from these organs ceases to be fully segregated when it enters the brain. This ‘mixing of the senses’ enhances our ability to perceive the world and enables us to create a coherent worldview. This course will consider how multi-sensory perception develops in infants; how it occurs in the brain; how it can give rise to common illusions; and how it is exploited in the ‘real world’. For instance, I will discuss how Pringles crisps can be made to taste crispier by altering the sound of the crunch and how Rolls Royce improves the perceived quality of their cars using smells. People with synaesthesia experience an extraordinary form of sensory mixing in which music may trigger vision, words may elicit tastes, and numbers float through space (www.syn.sussex.ac.uk). I will discuss how synaesthesia arises; the ways in which it is similar and different to the more common mode of perceiving; and its wider implications. Both developmental and acquired synaesthesia will be considered. For example, the course will consider how the brain reorganises itself as a result of blindness or losing a limb. Can blind people see by using their other senses? Indeed, parts of the brain normally dedicated to vision can be used for hearing in blind people and, for some individuals, it feels like seeing. Finally, the course will consider how linking different kinds of information together in synaesthesia and multi-sensory cognition may affect memory , empathy, numerical cognition, creativity and language. The content of the course will informed by the cutting-edge research from the neurosciences and cognitive psychology, and will appeal to students who are willing to embrace new and challenging ideas.

Learning outcomes

By the end of the course, a successful student should be able to:

1) Demonstrate how empirical evidence can be used to inform and adjudicate between different theories in the field;

2) Evaluate the relative merits of different methods in cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Assessments

Timing

Submission deadlines may vary for different types of assignment/groups of students.

Weighting

Coursework components (if listed) total 100% of the overall coursework weighting value.

Teaching methods

How to read the week pattern

The numbers indicate the weeks of the term and how many events take place each week.

Contact details

Dr Jamie Ward

Assess convenor, Convenor
http://www.sussex.ac.uk/psychology/profile92444.html