Perception, Brain and Behavior

The program in Perception, Brain and Behavior is designed to provide students with the training necessary to conduct research on the sensory aspects of vision and hearing. The faculty members in this area have worked on a wide variety of topics, but their general emphasis has been on the more fundamental mechanisms involved in visual and auditory perception. Students will learn about the behavioral (psychophysical) and physiological techniques best suited for studying sensory mechanisms, and about mathematical modeling of sensory phenomena and systems. A traditional goal of sensory psychology is to explain psychophysical facts in terms of known physiological facts; accordingly, students in the Perception, Brain and Behavior area will be expected to study the literature in both domains. Graduates from Perception, Brain and Behavior will be qualified to work in either academic or industrial settings.

Some specific topics of recent or current interest to the faculty in Perception, Brain and Behavior include binocular cues in vision, perception of texture, processing by neurons in visual cortex, form vision, visual and auditory perceptual organization, otoacoustic emissions from the cochlea, drug effects on the auditory system, and ear and sex differences in hearing.

All faculty members in Perception, Brain and Behavior are also members of the campus-wide Institute for Neuroscience, and the vision scientists in Perception, Brain and Behavior are all affiliated with the Center for Perceptual Systems.