Visual Perception and Visual Illusions (Coursera)

The course discusses different theoretical approaches to studying vision, introduces the most important concepts and experimental results. The material is selected in such a way that the course is interesting and accessible for both students who study psychology and general audience without special knowledge in this area.

The course includes lectures, presentations and graded tests. Each student will be required to perform a small research project to be submitted by the end of the course.

Syllabus

WEEK 1

Module 1. Introduction

In this module you will learn about different theories of perception and classifications of illusions.

WEEK 2

Module 2. Physiology of Visual Perception

In Module 2 you will learn about the physiological and neurological basis of visual perception.

WEEK 3

Module 3. Lightness and contrast

In Module 3 we will discuss physics of light, lightenss (brightness) perception and illusions of lightness.

WEEK 4

Colour Peception

In Module 4 you will learn how colour perception works and see some examples of fascinating colour illusions.

WEEK 5

Module 5. Motion Perception

Module 5 is dedicated to motion pereption and illusory motion.

WEEK 6

Module 6. Perceptual Illusions

Module 6 deals with the relationship between illusions and reality. You will also learn about the relationship between illusions and consciousness.

WEEK 7

Module 7. 3D vision

In Module 7 you will learn how we perceive the 3-dimentional world that we live in.

WEEK 8

Module 8. Perception and Art

Module 7 dicusses the relationship between perception and art.