Undergraduate Course: From Perception to Cognition: A Journey in Colour (PSYL10166)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Arts, Humanities and Social Sciences |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 3 Undergraduate) |
Availability | Available to all students |
| SCQF Credits | 20 |
ECTS Credits | 10 |
| Summary | This course will explore many ways in which humans and other species perceive and think about colour. Colour will serve as a sandbox to study how different psychological domains are inextricably linked and influence each other. Colour is perfect for this - on one hand, a uniquely visual phenomenon that arises from computations performed by sensory neurons, while on the other hand, a conceptual and cognitive domain high in social and emotional salience and influenced by language-derived concepts. |
| Course description |
The following topics will be covered: (a) visual ecology of colour and diversity of colour vision systems in non-human animals; (b) perception of colour and lightness in humans; (c) colour cognition and language, seeing through the prism of the universalist/relativist debate on how cognition and perception interact; (d) development of colour perception and cognition in infancy and childhood; (e) colour preferences and their relation to biological adaptations and colour-emotion associations.
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Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should be studying Psychology as their degree major, and have completed at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above. We will only consider University/College level courses. Applicants should note that, as with other popular courses, meeting the minimum does NOT guarantee admission.
**Please note that upper level Psychology courses are high-demand, meaning that they have a very high number of students wishing to enrol in a very limited number of spaces.** These enrolments are managed strictly by the Visiting Student Office, in line with the quotas allocated by the department, and all enquiries to enrol in these courses must be made through the CAHSS Visiting Student Office. It is not appropriate for students to contact the department directly to request additional spaces.
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| High Demand Course? |
Yes |
Course Delivery Information
| Not being delivered |
Learning Outcomes
On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Explain the recent scientific advances and challenges in several key areas of colour science
- Assess the evolutionary and psychological significance of colour
- Evaluate the long-standing debate between universalism vs. relativism, as an example of broader theoretical discourse in science
- Analyse the complex links between human perception and cognition
- Formulate the benefits of interdisciplinary research in science, as exemplified by the study of colour
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Reading List
Core readings:
Kernell, D. (2017). Colours and Colour Vision: An Introductory Survey. Cambridge University Press.
Palmer, S. E., & Schloss, K. B. (2010). An ecological valence theory of human color preference. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 107(19), 8877-8882. https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.0906172107
Martinovic, J., Paramei, G.V., MacInnes, W.J. (2020). Russian blues reveal the limits of language influencing colour discrimination. Cognition, 201, 104281. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Through its interdisciplinary nature, linking different fields of enquiry on a common topic (colour), the course will nurture an inquisitive mindset and promote a broader understanding of psychology, both as a unitary scientific field and in terms of how it relates to other disciplines (e.g. biology, physics, physiology). Students will develop confidence in understanding, evaluating and integrating knowledge from studies that cross disciplinary boundaries. |
| Keywords | Perception,cognition,colour |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Jasna Martinovic
Tel:
Email: |
Course secretary | |
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