Developing a Microcomputer-Based Perception Teaching Laboratory

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Static blackboard drawings do not help instructors engage advanced psychology students in learning how humans process perceptual information. Moreover, blackboard drawings do not permit students to conduct research investigating perceptual processing. This project funds a perception teaching laboratory capable of supporting student research projects and teacher-initiated class demonstrations. The laboratory contains microcomputers and software designed for tachistoscopic presentation of visual stimuli that both teach and permit students to explore kinetic factors in depth perception. Specific objectives for the project are (1) to enhance student understanding of perception of depth through motion, perception of motion and velocity, visual persistence, backward visual masking, and the perception of moving equiluminant contours and (2) to place students in active research roles that require them to use the requested microcomputers to perform individual experiments on each of the perceptual topics being taught. The project overcomes current pedagogical deficits by allowing for experiential, as well as decriptive, learning.