Unit 3

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• Chapters: 5, 6 & 7
  
• Exam Date: Thursday, November 8
  
• Homework:. HW7 (see below)

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Sensation and Perception. (Chapters 5 & 6) The age-old question "If a tree falls in the wilderness, does it make a sound?" raises a host of psychologically interesting questions. The falling tree generates physical energy, but no psychological experience since no one can hear it. But how do physical events become psychological experiences? How intense must an event be before it is "sensed?" What are the limits of our senses? And how automatic are the processes that we rely on to gather information about the world?

• Homework 6
• Topic: Psychology survey
• Due: you completed this exercise in class on Oct 11 (after Unit Exam 2)
  

• Homework 7
• Topic: Sensation and Perception
• Due: Thursday, October 25

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Sleep and Consciousness. (Chapter 7) William James was intrigued by the nature of consciousness. How do we, he wondered, control our awareness of the world around us AND our awareness of our internal emotional and cognitive states? Human beings have the unique ability to look inward, and search the contents of the mind for information. We also sometimes let go of that awareness and control, and when we do our consciousness changes: we achieve an altered state. The most regularly occuring altered state? Sleep.

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