Undergraduate Programs

BCSC 151: Syllabus

Fall 2025

Time & Location

Tuesdays & Thursdays, 11:05 am - 12:20 pm
Lattimore Room 201
Class is 100% in person (no hybrid option)

Personnel

Instructor: Prof. Brian Keane
Office Hours: Tuesdays & Thursdays, 9:30-10-30 am (on Zoom)

Grad TA: Sabyasachi Goswami
In-person office hours: Friday 4-5 pm, David Knill Lounge (aka BCS Lounge)
Zoom office hours: Monday 10-11 am

Undergrad TAs:
Katerina Brodwin-Sipols
Maithili Shah
Juneha Seo
Yiran Zhu

Course Description

Welcome! This course will give you a taste of the fascinating field of Sensation & Perception (sometimes shortened to “Perception”), which is the oldest scientific enterprise in psychology. Perception has captured the interests of philosophers and physicists for centuries and continues to dominate the attention of researchers in neighboring fields including biology, computer science, philosophy, and neuroscience. So, what exactly is sensation and perception? We will discuss this more in the lecture, but generally “sensation” refers to the processing of basic signals coming from the world (light, heat, pressure, sounds, smells, tastes) and “perception” refers to the interpretation attributed to these signals, but the distinction between the two is not precise. “Action” is part of the course title simply because what we sense and perceive critically informs how we behave and vice versa.

There are a few reasons why we should all care deeply about perception. One is that our sense experiences dominate every waking moment of our lives, from the time we wake up to the time we go to bed. By understanding how our sense organs work, how they deliver information to the brain, and how that information is processed, we can have a better understanding of our own behavior and experience as well as that of the humans (and animals!) around us. Relatedly, the sense organs provide the primary link by which our minds connect to the world. A large portion of what we will ever know derives completely from at least one of our senses. If we want to understand the nature and extent of this knowledge, it behooves us to investigate the exquisite machinery that makes it all possible. Here’s a fact that will surprise you: Over 50% of your entire cerebral cortex is resides in sensory areas, with 30% devoted to vision alone!

Intellectual excitement aside, there are also practical reasons to study perception. Analyzing perception allows us to imagine and build artificial systems, such as virtual reality systems. Investigating the neural hardware of perception helps us to understand and treat injuries and disorders. Perception issues arise in many facets of life, such as in the design of highways, motion pictures, and smartphones, to name only a few.

The course will emphasize visual perception, which is the most studied of the senses and arguably the most important. Vision is also the area in which I have done most of my research. We will also dedicate chunks of time toward other sense modalities including audition, olfaction, pain, proprioception, and gustation. Lectures are supplemented with demonstrations and exercises.

This course follows the College credit hour policy for four-credit courses. This course meets twice weekly for a total of three academic hours per week. The course also includes a recitation for one academic hour per week. There are four recitation times available. You should register for one recitation but may attend any of the sessions. During recitations, TAs will review the concepts from the lecture material and answer questions from students, as well as lead discussions. It is up to you to come prepared with questions and utilize this resource. TA's will not simply re-teach the lecture slides.

Prerequisites: BCS 110 or BCS 111. These are important because this course assumes introductory knowledge of the organization/function of the nervous system. Exceptions will be made only for students who demonstrate such knowledge.

Materials

Required readings: Articles from the scientific and popular literature that complement and extend in-class lectures. Students can download these readings online.

Textbook: Sensation & Perception, 6th Edition, Wolfe et al., Sinauer Associates.
Note: The use of this textbook is mandatory and will be needed for success in the course. An electronic version of the key chapters will be offered to students at no-cost on Blackboard. Used versions can be found online for ~$100.

Exams

There will be four (4) exams and no final exam or “cumulative” exam. All exams will contain multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank and short essay questions. Questions will be drawn from BOTH the lecture and the assigned articles. You will NOT be required to know material from the book if it was not covered in lecture. We assign the textbook reading to reinforce what we learn from the lecture. More generally, the emphasis will be on understanding rather than simply recalling course material.

Exams will be during class through paper and pencil tests

Only students who suffer a documented medical or family emergency will be granted the opportunity to take a make-up exam.

NO alternate exams for cases when a student has multiple exams on the same day.

Official university events or MAJOR preplanned events require advance notice so that an alternative accommodation can be made.

Perception Journal

Each student will be required to keep a “perception journal”. It will have several different entries and will have total of 800 words. Additional details will be provided in the first 2-3 weeks of class.

Grading

1. The lowest exam score is excluded. The three remaining exams will each account for 30% of the final grade.
2. Perception journal: 10% of the final grade.
3. Grades are rounded to two decimal points (89.99 = 89.99; 89.999 = 90.00). There is NO "grade bumping"!
4. A final grade curve will be applied only if the class average is less than 80%.
5. Grading scale: (note that 94.00% is A-, and 89.99 is B+):