Introductory Lecture
Sensation and Perception
History: The Greeks
Descartes
Descartes “Psychophysical Postulate”
John Locke
George “Bishop” Berkeley
Psychology as an Empirical Science
The Birth of Experimental Psychology
Is Phenomenology Doomed?
The Birth of Psychophysics
The First School of “Physiological Psychology”: Structuralism
Behaviorism
Gestalt Psychology
Molar versus Molecular Behavior
Gibson’s Ecological Psychology
Marr’s Computational Approach
Optics and the Eye
The Electromagnetic Spectrum
Properties of a Sinusoidal Wave
Light Travels in Straight Lines (let's pretend)
Pinhole Camera
Improved Camera
Eye vs. Camera
The Human Eye
Blindspot Demo
Focus: Cornea plus Lens
Near and Farsightedness
Correction is Expressed in Diopters
Other Problems...
The Compound Eye
Rods and Cones
The Retina
Receptive Fields and Linear Systems
Linearity and Beyond
Two Kinds of Center-surround RFs
Computing Derivatives Using Weighting Functions
Linear Cells
Fourier's Theorem
Fourier Analysis of a Square Wave Grating
Frequency Components of a Square Wave
Demo: First Two Components of Square Wave
Adding the First Two Components
Visual Systems Sensibilities to Different Spatial Frequencies
Definition of Contrast Amplitude
What's the Smallest Amount of Contrast Visible?
Contrast Sensitivity Function
Linear vs Log Scale
Demo: Contrast Sensitivity Function
Are Ganglion Cells Responsible for Shape of CSF
Striate Cortex and Beyond
From LGN to Cortex
What is the Difference Between M and P Cells?
M-P Segregation Maintained into Cortex
Functional Architecture of Orientation Selectivity
Systematic Change in Orientation Selectivity
Simple Cell Receptive Field Structure
Rods vs. Cones
The Retina
Sampling Images: Photoreceptors
Rod vs. Cone Vision
Dark Adaptation Experiments
Distribution of Receptors in the Eye
Inhomogeneity of the Retina
Individual Variation in Cone Distribution
The Blind Spot
The Three Types of Cones
Large Individual Variation in Cone Distribution
Beyond Receptors
Ganglion Cells
Classifying Ganglion Cells
The Eye and Brain
Optic Tract
LGN
Receptive Field
Single Cell Recording
Receptive Fields of Ganglion and LGN Cells
Center surround RFs Come in Two Broad Kinds
What are these Cells Responding to?
Zero Crossings of the D-O-G Operator Give Edges
Projective and Receptive Fields
Color Opponency
Simultaneous Contrast
Mach Bands
Craik-O'Brien-Cornsweet Edge
Hermann Grid
Bergen Grid
Role of Surface Curvature