PSYC 3310: Sensation & Perception

Spring 2026 — “Living” syllabus

General Information

When: Tuesday/Thursday 12:45-2:05pm & 2:20-3:40pm

Where: JR 300 / SM 1009

Instructor: Dr. Sami Yousif

Teaching Assistant: Progga Jahan (jahan.34@buckeyemail.osu.edu)

Email: yousif.36@osu.edu

Office hours: TBD / By appointment

Prerequisite for enrollment: 1100 or 1100H

Course materials: An Immense World by Ed Yong

Class type: Lecture with Discussion

Course description

The broad goal of this course is to better understand the basic sensory and perceptual systems that support our interaction with the external world. In the first half of the course, we’ll discuss each of the five human sensory systems in turn, and then we’ll discuss various ‘sixth senses’ that exist elsewhere in the animal kingdom. With this as our foundation, we’ll spend the second half of the course discussing the rich perceptual systems that act as an interface between sensation and cognition. Along the way, we’ll reflect on our own, unique umwelt — fostering awareness for all the ways that our perceptual experience is fundamentally illusory.

Assignments & Grading

For more information on assignments and grading, see the “official” syllabus.

Course outline

Part I: Vision & Audition

Class #1 (Tuesday, January 13th): Intro to the course

Class #2 (Thursday, January 15th): What is Sensation; What is Perception?

·         An Immense World, Introduction

Class #3 (Tuesday, January 20th): Do you see what I see? (Vision I)

·         An Immense World, Chapters #2 & #3

Class #4 (Thursday, January 22nd): Attention, please! (Attention)

Class #5 (Tuesday, January 27th): Vision as a construction

  • Lectures #5 and #6 were swapped due to the snow day.

Class #6 (Thursday, January 29th): A splash of color, A dash of motion (Color and motion)

Class #7 (Tuesday, February 3rd): One, two, three — more! (Quantity)

Class #8 (Thursday, February 5th): Like looking in a mirror… (Faces)

Class #9 (Tuesday, February 10th): Making (sense of) space (The perception of space)

Class #10 (Thursday, February 12th): What’s that sound? (Audition)

·         An Immense World, Chapter #8

Class #11 (Tuesday, February 17th): Now you hear me (The perception of sound)

Class #12 (Thursday, February 19th): Mind the clock (The perception of time)

Class #13 (Tuesday, February 24th): Mid-term prep

Class #14 (Thursday, February 26th): Mid-term Exam #1

Class #15 (Tuesday, March 3rd): Mid-term Review

Part II: Everything else!

Class #16 (Thursday, March 5th): Hands-on perception (Somatosensation)

·         An Immense World, Chapter #4-6

Class #17 (Tuesday, March 10th): Scent and sensibility(Gustation & Olfaction)

·         An Immense World, Chapter #1

Class #18 (Thursday, March 12th): Sixth senses! (Part I) (Everything else!)

·         An Immense World, Chapters #4, 5, 9, 10, & 11

[SPRING BREAK!]

Class #19 (Tuesday, March 24th): Guest Lecture - Signal Detection Theory (Vladislav Khvostov)

Class #20 (Thursday, March 26th): TBD

Class #21 (Tuesday, March 31st): Sixth senses! (Part II) (Everything else!)

·         An Immense World, Chapters #4, 5, 9, 10, & 11

Class #22 (Thursday, April 2nd): Ties that bind: Cross-modal perception

·         An Immense World, Chapter #12

Class #23 (Tuesday, April 7th): Paper writing day!

Class #24 (Thursday, April 9th): To what extent does culture influence perception? (RECORDING, no in-person class)

Class #25 (Tuesday, April 14th): Carving the mind at its joints (Top-down effects)

Class #26 (Thursday, April 16th): Mid-term Prep

Class #27 (Tuesday, April 21st): Mid-term Exam #2

Class #28 (Thursday, April 23rd): Exam Review

(Optional) Final Exam (Wednesday April 29th & Thursday April 30th): Cumulative (!) Final Exam.

  • Final exam scheduling works in a funny way. My first section, which starts at 12:45, will have their exam on Thursday, April 30th at 2:00pm. My second section, which starts at 2:20, will have their exam on Wednesday, April 29th, at 2:00pm. Both exams sessions will last 1 hour and 45 minutes.