PSYC 3310: Sensation & Perception

Spring 2026 — “Living” syllabus

General Information

When: Tuesday/Thursday 11am-12:15pm.

Where: XXX

Instructor: Sami Yousif

Teaching Assistant:

Email: yousif.36@osu.edu

Office hours: By appointment

Prerequisite for enrollment: XXX

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

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 #6

Class #17 (Tuesday, March 10th): A matter of taste (Gustation)

·         An Immense World, Chapter #1

Class #18 (Thursday, March 12th): Scent and sensibility (Olfaction)

·         An Immense World, Chapter #2

[SPRING BREAK!]

Class #19 (Tuesday, March 24th): TBD

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

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

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

Class #22 (Thursday, April 2nd): What does it mean to say something is perceived? (Adaptation)

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

Class #24 (Thursday, April 9th): Carving the mind at its joints (Top-down effects)

Class #25 (Tuesday, April 14th): To what extent does culture influence perception?

Class #26 (Thursday, April 16th): Filler/flex

Class #27 (Tuesday, April 19th): Mid-term prep

Class #28 (Tuesday, April 21st): Mid-term Exam #2

Class #29 (Thursday, April 23rd): Exam Review

(Optional) Final Exam (XXX): Cumulative (!) Final Exam.