PSY 150 CC: THE BRAIN MEETS THE WORLD

Why do some artists see the color red every time they see a triangle? Why do radiologists sometimes make errors?  Does learning a musical instrument change your brain?  All of these questions were harder to answer before the cognitive revolution and recent advances in human brain imaging.  Today, though, we are starting to learn more.  In this course, we will discuss how recent developments in the growing fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience help us learn about everyday behaviors.  Through lectures, discussions, and student projects and presentations, we will explore how research in cognition connects to the medical field, sports, art, music, and more.  In each case, we will read about laboratory-based research and consider how it applies to the real world.