Read this entire document. You are governed by its contents whether you are aware of them or not.

Psychology 182: Illusions and the Brain

Syllabus
Winter 2013, Mondays 6:30-9:20PM, Solis Hall 107
Instructor: Dr. Jonathan Sammartino
TAs: Laura Case & Mary Smith UGIA: Jennifer Gabriel
Course Overview
Week Date Topic and Reading

Introduction: Basics of Neurons, Vision

1 1/7
Reading: Richard Gregory, Knowledge in Perception and Illusions (online)

Visual Illusions I: Line and Geometry

2 1/14
Reading: Richard Gregory, Perceptual Illusions and Brain Models (online)

3 1/21 NO CLASS - Martin Luther King, Jr. Holiday

Quiz 1 (Covering Weeks 1 & 2)

4 1/28 Visual Illusions II: Color and Contrast
Reading: Sleights of Mind, Chapters 1,2,3 (text)

Visual Illusions III: Motion & Subliminal Perception

5 2/4
Reading: Sleights of Mind, Chapters 1,2,3 (text)

Quiz 2 (Covering Weeks 4 & 5)

6 2/11 Auditory Illusions

Reading: Diana Deutsch, Musical Illusions (online),
Ian Sample, Stonehenge was based on a magical auditory illusion (online)

7 2/18 NO CLASS - Presidents Day Holiday

Paper and Demonstration Topic Outlines Due

8 2/25 Multisensory Illusions
Reading: Sleights of Mind, Chapter 6 (text)

Quiz 3 (Covering Weeks 6 & 8)

9 3/4 Cognitive Illusions I
Reading: Sleights of Mind, Chapters 4,5,7,8 (text)

Papers and Demonstrations Due

10 3/11 Cognitive Illusions II
Reading: Sleights of Mind, Chapters 4,5,7,8 (text)
Final Exam/Quiz 4: Wednesday, March 20th, 7-10PM, Location TBA
N.B.: Final Exam/Quiz 4 also covers Sleights of Mind Chapters 9 & 10
 2 of 6
Illusions and the Brain
Navigating the Course
Contact Information and Oce Hours
Instructor Teaching Assistants
Dr. Jonathan Sammartino Laura Case
Email: psyc182ucsd@jonathansammartino.com Email: lkcase@ucsd.edu
Please put 182 as part of the subject line Oce Hours: Mandler 2586, Mondays, 11:30AM - 1PM
Oce Hours: Cafe Roma, Monday, 5PM till class Mary Smith
(coee, tea, snacks provided for attendees) Email: mes011@ucsd.edu
Oce Hours: McGill 3330, Wednesday, 11:30-12:30, or
by appointment
Undergraduate Instructional Assistant
Jennifer Gabriel (jngabrie@ucsd.edu)
Oce hours: Rogers Market, Thursday, 3-4PM,
or by appointment

Readings
Readings will be drawn primarily from the Sleights of Mind text. Where appropriate, there will be other
articles and web links posted on TED so that you can see animations and examples of various illusions and
phenomena well discuss throughout the course.

Textbook
Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions
Stephen L. Macknik, Susana Martinez-Conde, Sandra Blakeslee
ISBN 978-0805092813 (Hardcover, $17 Amazon)
ISBN 978-0312611675 (Paperback, $16 Bookstore, $11 Amazon)
5 Copies also on reserve at Geisel

Websites:
1) http://ted.ucsd.edu
This website will have announcements, lecture slides, updates, web-based illustrations, and
general information about the course.

2) http://www.michaelbach.de/ot
This will be our go-to website for visual (and some auditory) illusions. There are an impressive
number of animations, illustrations, and demos here, and the relevant scholarly articles for
each illusion are often cited as well.

Lecture Slides
We will provide the lecture slides in PDF format before each class. The purpose of giving the lecture slides in
advance is so that you have a framework within which to take notes. Note: the lecture slides posted online
will not always be identical to what is presented in class. Nonetheless, you are responsible for what is
presented in class, not what shows up on the slides. If you are absent, it is your responsibility to get
notes from a friend.
Course Description 3 of 6
This demonstration-focused course examines what we can learn about the brain by studying illusions, and
how we can learn about illusions by studying the brain. The brain processes huge amounts of data -- more
than any camera or machine can handle -- and yet we seem to perceive the world eortlessly. What happens
when our perception breaks down and we perceive things that arent really there? What can these
exceptions tell us about how we process information? How do our perceptions and cognitions aect how
we experience the world?

We will begin by looking at some key principles of neurons, sensation, and perception. Next, we will turn to
the visual sense and look at illusions of geometry, size, and shape, illusions of color and contrast, and
motion-based illusions. Moving on to audition, we will examine various illusions relating to pitch, rhythm,
and speech. We will explore multi-sensory illusions and how they demonstrate the manner in which we
prioritize our dierent senses. Finally, we will finish the class by exploring many dierent cognitive illusions
relating to choice, causality, expectation, and preference.

Course Grade
Your grade in the class will be determined by a testing component and a project component, each of which
is detailed below.
Breakdown of Course Grade
Testing 150 points 60%
Project 100 points 40%
Total 250 points 100%
Extra Credit 15 points 6%
Part 1: Testing
The testing portion of the class will consist of quizzes, and a final exam. They will consist exclusively of
multiple choice questions. Material on the tests will come from lecture content, in-class demonstrations, the
Sleights of Mind text, and the other readings. There will be material on the tests that will not have been
covered in class (e.g., only in the text or readings), as well as images or examples you have not seen
before in class or in the readings that you will be expected to analyze and answer questions about.
Quizzes
There will be three in-class quizzes, and a quiz given on the date of the final exam. The lowest
of your 4 quiz scores will then be dropped. If you miss a quiz, that will be the quiz that gets
dropped. No makeup quizzes will be granted without ocial documentation (e.g.,
forwarding an email is not sucient), and all makeup quizzes will take the form of a 30 minute
oral exam.
Final Exam (optional)
The final exam will be cumulative, testing material from the entire course. Like the quizzes, it
will be all multiple choice. It will consist of some multiple choice questions that are very
similar to those on the quizzes as well as new questions that cover the same content.

Testing Option 1: Quizzes Only

You may choose to take only the 3 in-class quizzes and a fourth quiz on the day of the final exam. In that
case, your best 3 out of 4 quiz scores will count for the testing component of your grade. If you choose this
option, you will not take the final exam.
Testing Option 2: Quizzes and final exam
If you are not pleased with your 3 quiz scores prior to the final exam date (e.g., youd like to drop two of them
instead of one) you may take the cumulative final exam to replace your entire quiz grade. If you take the
final, the grade you get on the final will be the grade you get for the testing component of the class.
Note that you must take 2 of the 3 in-class quizzes either way. You cannot take the final exam if you
have not taken at least 2 of 3 in-class the quizzes.
Part 2: Project 4 of 6
The project portion of the class will consist either of writing a research paper or creating a physical
demonstration of an illusion (Note: you cannot do both). These will be due, in class, on the last day of
class, March 11th. Detailed instructions and full grading rubrics will be distributed later on in the class.

Research Paper
The purpose of the paper is to take an illusion that interests you, and explore when and how it
occurs. If you choose an illusion that we have not covered in class (see http://
www.michaelbach.de/ot for many examples), you will describe the illusion as it was originally
discovered, then alter dierent components like we do with the illusions we discuss in class,
and get data from your friends. For example, does the Kitaoka illusion work in grayscale, or
only with certain colors? How does the size of the illustration alter the illusion? If you choose
an illusion that we have covered in class, then your exploration must be a bit more extensive,
and must touch on at least two variations that we did not discuss in class.

Create an Illusion Demonstration

The purpose of the illusion demonstration is to give you hands-on experience creating an
illusion. Using your artistic inclinations and your hardware/sculpting skills, you will create an
apparatus to demonstrate an illusion of your choosing. Examples might include a larger-than-
life mold of a human face to be used for the hollow-mask illusion; a reverspective model; an
Ames room; even a computer program (written in Cocoa, or compiled in such a way that it can
be run on a Mac without proprietary software) that allows users to explore an illusion (akin to
many of the demos found on the http://www.michaelbach.de/ot website).

Whatever you choose to build, it must be accompanied by a 2-page description of the illusion
you are illustrating, the principles that underlie our perception of the illusion, a description of
how you built your demonstration, and several photographs of the building process and
finished product. The photographs will be the only items we use when grading the project, so
they should be fairly comprehensive.

The amount of time you spend on this project should be equivalent to writing a 6-7 page
research paper (not an insignificant amount of time). Some demonstrations may be
showcased during the final class.

Project Topic Approval

Your research paper topic or your plans for creating an illusion (i.e., what illusion you are
going to write about/build and a rough idea of how you will analyze/build it) must be
approved with the professor before you turn in the project.
It would be an unpleasant turn of events to write an entire paper only to find out that your
lovingly detailed account of how the shadow of the tree outside my window looks like a
monster even though its not does not count as an acceptable illusion.

You must have your paper topic or demonstration plans approved by the professor or
TAs by or before February 25th. Projects that have not had topics submitted for approval
on time will be downgraded 1% for every day the topic approval is late, up to a
maximum of 10%.

Note: Because of the timing (approval on or before February 25th), the project will likely be
some form of visual or auditory illusion. You are welcome to do your project on a cognitive-
based illusion (e.g., magic trick, or some other attention- or memory-contingent illusion), but
it is up to you to read ahead, since you are still bound by the deadlines on the syllabus.
 5 of 6
Letter Grades
Your grade on the tests and project is a number (not a letter grade), and the final grade is calculated
according to the formula on page 3. If, after all assignments have been graded and extra credit has been
accounted for, the class average should be at least an 80%. If it is lower than an 80%, there will be a uniform
curve to raise the average to an 80%. If the average is higher than an 80%, there will be no curve. We will not
curve the distribution downward; if everyone does an excellent job, we will happily give everyone an A.

The letter grade cutos for the course are very generous, and are meant to encourage you to explore,
experiment, and enjoy the course concepts and especially the project:

A+ 97.0% and above (before extra credit)

A 93.0 - 96.9% C+ 70.0 - 79.9%
A- 90.0 - 92.9% C 60.0 - 69.9%
B+ 87.0 - 89.9% C- 50.0 - 59.9%
B 83.0 - 86.9% D 45.0 - 49.9%
B- 80.0 - 82.9% F below 45%

N.B. Grades will be rounded to the nearest tenth, no more, no less, no exceptions.

Extra Credit
You have the opportunity to add up to 6% to your final grade in the course by doing two of the following
three activities:

1) Participate in experiments in the psychology department. You will earn 1% for every hour
of SONA credit you assign to this class, with a maximum of 3%. See http://ucsd.sona-
systems.com for more information about the research participation option.

2) Write a paper describing an illusion that you have come across in your everyday life, not
including everyday browsing the web for illusion demos, and detailing how you might
research that illusion. You may earn 1% of extra credit for a 1-2 page paper. For a 5-6 page
paper, you can earn 3% of extra credit. Email us for more information about this option.

3) Build a demonstration and donate it to the class. This could potentially be a second copy of
the demonstration you build to fulfill the project portion of the class. Worth up to 3%
depending on the size/scale of the demonstration. If you plan to do this, you must have your
demonstration approved explicitly for purposes of donation and you must meet whatever
specifications are set regarding size, materials, etc..

Note: You may only do two of these three options. You cannot do all three.

Cheating and Academic Dishonesty

All research papers will be submitted to turnitin on the course website, as well as via hard copy in class.
For more information on UCSDs academic integrity policies, see the following sources online:
http://academicintegrity.ucsd.edu http://senate.ucsd.edu/manual/appendices/app2.htm
Both I and UCSD take cheating and plagiarism very seriously. To summarize these pages: its not worth it.

General Advice and some fun illusions on the next page!!

General Advice 6 of 6
1. Go to class. If you dont go to class, you will regret it. The quizzes and final exam will draw heavily -- but
not exclusively -- on material presented in class. Furthermore, 45% of your grade will be determined by in-
class quizzes, as noted on the syllabus. If you dont go to class, you will miss out on amazingly entertaining
and informative lectures.

2. Take notes in class. The lecture slides may seem clear during class, but will look like theyre written in a
foreign language the night before the exam. The slides are simply an outline. The substance of what you
need to know is said in lecture but often not shown on the slides. Take some quick notes in the margins, and
youll remember what was covered.

3. Do the readings. They will dovetail nicely with the material covered in lecture, and there will be material
from readings that is not covered in class that shows up on exams.

3. Utilize our oce hours. We are here for your benefit. If youre having diculty understanding the
material from lectures or from the text, or if youve fallen behind, please email me or the teaching assistants
and come to oce hours, preferably before the next quiz. If you want to ask follow-up questions about
material, get early feedback on your project ideas, or have other things youd like to talk about, come by
oce hours or set up an appointment.

4. Take advantage of our generous grading policy. The course is structured in a way that gives everyone
ample chance to earn a good grade. Do the extra credit, and take the final exam if you are not pleased with
your quiz scores.

5. Fill out the feedback quizzes. At the beginning of every class, we will pass out feedback quizzes. These
are your chance to let us know what was clear and unclear, how the pacing was (too fast, too slow, or just
right). We will do our best to answer questions raised on the feedback quizzes at the beginning of the
following class (before the quiz, if there is one). Please take the time to fill them out. Youll get more out of
the course, and well get a good idea of what pacing and style works best for everyone.