SAGE Journal Articles

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Chapter 1. What is Perception?

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David Dunning and  Emily Balcetis 
Wishful Seeing: How Preferences Shape Visual Perception 
Current Directions in Psychological Science February 2013 22: 33-37, doi:10.1177/0963721412463693

  • In addition to the examples given in this article, what are examples of “wishful seeing”, and how do they influence our daily lives?
  • What is the difference between perceptual sets and attention as mechanisms that contribute to wishful seeing?
  • What is the relationship between cognitive dissonance and wishful seeing?
  • How can personal preferences influence wishful seeing?

Patricia R. DeLucia 
Effects of Size on Collision Perception and Implications for Perceptual Theory and Transportation Safety 
Current Directions in Psychological Science June 2013 22: 199-204, doi:10.1177/0963721412471679

  • How do perception of depth and time-to-collision relate to tasks such as driving and operating heavy machinery?
  • What factors can affect time-to-collision judgments, aside from relative size? Which are the most influential in these judgments?
  • What factors may affect time-to-collision judgments that were not measured in this experiment?  Do you feel that the experimental conditions can accurately parallel what would happen in an actual condition?

Eric L. Amazeen 
Box Shape Influences the Size-Weight Illusion During Individual and Team Lifting 
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society May 2014 56: 581-591, first published on July 23, 2013 doi:10.1177/0018720813497980

  • Does the size-weight illusion apply to non-box-shaped objects?
  • What are the fundamental differences between the two experiments? Which one better tested for the size-weight illusion, and why?
  • Would the size-weight illusion apply if lifting was not part of the equation? Or is it only the exertion of one’s own effort that adds heaviness to an object?
  • How are the different senses involved in the perception of weight?

Chapter 2. Research Methodology

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Spencer K. Lynn and Lisa Feldman Barrett 
“Utilizing” Signal Detection Theory 
Psychological Science September 2014 25: 1663-1673, first published on August 5, 2014 doi:10.1177/0956797614541991

  • What are some examples of sensitivity and response bias?
  • What are the tenets of the utility approach to understanding perception?
  • Why is optimal criterion location important?
  • Why is optimal measurement more important than accuracy?
  • What kinds of behaviors would be best measured using SDT?

James C. Craig and Kenneth O. Johnson 
The Two-Point Threshold: Not a Measure of Tactile Spatial Resolution 
Current Directions in Psychological Science February 2000 9: 29-32, doi:10.1111/1467-8721.00054

  • Is the two-point threshold a valid measurement of spatial resolution? Why or why not?
  • What is the difference between objective and subjective measures, in terms of determining the two-point threshold? Is one better than the other?
  • Why are gap detection and grating orientation better measures of spatial resolution than the two-point threshold?

Linda M. Bartoshuk, Katharine Fast, and Derek J. Snyder 
Differences in Our Sensory Worlds: Invalid Comparisons With Labeled Scales 
Current Directions in Psychological Science June 2005 14: 122-125, doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00346.x

  • What are the pitfalls of relative measurement? Are there any advantages to relative measurement?
  • What are some examples of how using standards for group comparisons can help the objective measurement of perceptions? Can group comparisons help in measuring the perceptions of all senses?
  • How does the gLMS help us understand individual differences in sensation and perception?
  • How do invalid comparisons affect our understanding of perception? How can we mitigate the effects of invalid comparisons?

Chapter 3. Visual System: The Eye

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Bruno Laeng and Unni Sulutvedt 
The Eye Pupil Adjusts to Imaginary Light 
Psychological Science January 2014 25: 188-197, first published on November 27, 2013 doi:10.1177/0956797613503556

  • What evidence supports the idea that mental images are based on brain states?
  • In what ways do the pupils change when an individual imagines previously seen scenarios? How do psychological processes affect these changes?
  • What is the difference between active and passive recollection of imagery?
  • How does mental effort affect the recollection of imagery?
     

Amir Amedi, Lotfi B. Merabet, Felix Bermpohl, and Alvaro Pascual-Leone 
The Occipital Cortex in the Blind: Lessons About Plasticity and Vision 
Current Directions in Psychological Science December 2005 14: 306-311, doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00387.x

  • How might blind individuals adjust to the lack of visual perception in regard to spatial recognition?
  • Is there a difference between complete blindness and temporary vision obstruction when processing information?
  • What is the role of the occipital cortex in speech processing?
  • In what ways does the brain respond when there is visual deprivation?
Evelina Tapia and Bruno G. Breitmeyer 
 
Visual Consciousness Revisited: Magnocellular and Parvocellular Contributions to Conscious and Nonconscious Vision
Psychological Science, July 2011; vol. 22, 7: pp. 934-942., first published on June 22, 2011
  • What are some differences between conscious and nonconscious processing?
  • What is priming, and how is it involved in information processing?
  • What is the “frame-and-fill” approach to visual processing?
  • What is the neuropsychological interpretation of processing proposed by the authors?

Chapter 4. Visual System: The Brain

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Lilia Psalta, Andrew W. Young, Peter Thompson, and Timothy J. Andrews 
The Thatcher Illusion Reveals Orientation Dependence in Brain Regions Involved in Processing Facial Expressions 
Psychological Science January 2014 25: 128-136, first published on November 21, 2013 doi:10.1177/0956797613501521
  • What are the basic components of the Thatcher Illusion?
  • What techniques can be used to measure the Thatcher Illusion?
  • What are Thatcherized images? How are they utilized in experimentation?
  • How did inverting the images of faces affect facial discrimination of participants in the authors’ experiments?
 
 
Martijn E. Wokke, Annelinde R. E. Vandenbroucke, H. Steven Scholte, and Victor A. F. Lamme
Confuse Your Illusion: Feedback to Early Visual Cortex Contributes to Perceptual Completion 
Psychological Science January 2013 24: 63-71, first published on December 10, 2012 doi:10.1177/0956797612449175
  • What aspects of visual processing have been thought to contribute to perceptual completion? What support has been found (or not found) for these aspects of processing?
  • How was LO targeted with TMS? Describe the process.
  • What role does lower-level processing play in perceptual completion?
  • How do lower-level and higher-level processing work together to achieve perceptual completion?
 
Jorge Sepulcre
Functional Streams and Cortical Integration in the Human Brain 
Neuroscientist, October 2014; vol. 20, 5: pp. 499-508., first published on April 15, 2014
  • How have MRI’s and graph theory contributed to the study of systems neuroscience?
  • How does the brain incorporate and integrate information from the external world? Does this process differ depending on what sense receives new information?
  • What role does the motor cortex play in interacting with and adapting to the external environment?
  • How does the motor cortex affect language and the perception of audio-verbal stimuli?
  • What is stepwise connectivity analysis? How is it a useful method of visualizing sensory systems?
 
Daniel L. Adams and Jonathan C. Horton
Ocular Dominance Columns: Enigmas and Challenges 
Neuroscientist, February 2009; vol. 15, 1: pp. 62-77.
  • What are ocular dominance columns? How were they first discovered in humans and how do they affect human vision?
  • What is the BOLD signal and how does it relate to ocular dominance columns?
  • If a person becomes blind only in one eye, how does that affect the pattern of ocular dominance columns in the striate cortex?
  • What is the influence of a patch on the striate cortex?
  • What is the relationship between amblyopia and ocular dominance columns?

Chapter 5. Object Perception

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Linda B. Smith 
From Fragments to Geometric Shape: Changes in Visual Object Recognition Between 18 and 24 Months 
Current Directions in Psychological Science October 2009 18: 290-294, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2009.01654.x 

  • Why do we expect that the processes underlying visual recognition will change between ages 18-24months?
  • What is the relationship between the object-naming period of childhood and whole-object representations of geometric shape?
  • How does a child shift from fragmented representation to three-dimensional representations of shape?

Kalanit Grill-Spector and Rory Sayres 
Object Recognition: Insights From Advances in fMRI Methods 
Current Directions in Psychological Science April 2008 17: 73-79, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00552.x 

  • What parts of the brain are involved in object recognition? What is the best neuroimaging technique to determine this?
  • What electrophysiological processes are responsible for the recognition and neural representation of faces and objects?
  • What is fMRI-A, and how does it elucidate upon the process of object recognition beyond a basic fMRI?
  • How is pattern analysis involved in facial and object recognition?
  • In what ways does fMRI-HR improve upon the information gathered from other types of MRI’s?

Jason M. Gold 
A Perceptually Completed Whole Is Less Than the Sum of Its Parts 
Psychological Science June 2014 25: 1206-1217, first published on May 5, 2014 doi:10.1177/0956797614530725

  • How do we perceive objects when part of the object is obstructed from view? How is visual completion involved in this process?
  • What are optimal, suboptimal, and superoptimal integration?
  • What are some examples of tasks (or stimuli) that can be presented to determine the process of visual completeness?

Chapter 6. Color Perception

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Zohar Z. Bronfman, Noam Brezis, Hilla Jacobson, and Marius Usher 
We See More Than We Can Report: “Cost Free” Color Phenomenality Outside Focal Attention 
Psychological Science July 2014 25: 1394-1403, first published on May 9, 2014 doi:10.1177/0956797614532656
  • What are the different hypotheses that have been posited about visual consciousness? What is the evidence supporting each?
  • What hypotheses does the author present on color diversity (variability)? How is color diversity involved in visual consciousness?
  • What is subliminal estimation of color diversity? How does it differ from conscious estimation?
  • Describe the Sterling Paradigm. How is it involved with color encoding?
 
Michael J. Banissy, Victoria Tester, Neil G. Muggleton, Agnieszka B. Janik, Aimee Davenport, Anna Franklin, Vincent Walsh, and Jamie Ward 
Synesthesia for Color Is Linked to Improved Color Perception but Reduced Motion Perception Psychological Science December 2013 24: 2390-2397, first published on October 3, 2013 doi:10.1177/0956797613492424
  • How has synesthesia been linked to facilitated sensory processing?
  • What are the symptoms, or results, of synesthesia?
  • How is synesthesia related to motion perception?
 
Bevil R. Conway 
Color Vision, Cones, and Color-Coding in the Cortex 
Neuroscientist, June 2009; vol. 15, 3: pp. 274-290.
  • What are color contrast and color constancy? How is this related to the human brain?
  • What are the neural mechanisms of color? Explain the importance of genes in color vision.
  • What are “red-on” and “green-on” cells? How are they activated, and what part do they play in color vision?
  • How is the primary visual cortex involved in color vision?
  • How is the posterior inferior temporal cortex involved in color vision?

Chapter 7. Depth and Size Perception

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Dennis R. Proffitt 
Distance Perception 
Current Directions in Psychological Science June 2006 15: 131-135, doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2006.00422.x 
  • How does Proffitt describe the process of distance perception from the image to the human body?
  • What causes objects to appear farther away?
  • How might emotional and social factors influence distance perception?
 
Dhanraj Vishwanath and Paul B. Hibbard 
Seeing in 3-D With Just One Eye: Stereopsis Without Binocular Vision 
Psychological Science September 2013 24: 1673-1685, first published on July 26, 2013 doi:10.1177/0956797613477867 
  • What are the key differences between stereopsis and binocular depth perception? What is the binocular theory of stereopsis?
  • How does parallax affect vision and depth perception?
  • How did the results of the three experiments support the idea that stereopsis can be induced in the absence of binocular disparity or visual parallax?
  • How would you describe monocular stereopsis?
 
Stephen E. Palmer and Tandra Ghose 
Psychological Science, January 2008; vol. 19, 1: pp. 77-83.
  • What are the different components of extremal edge (EE) perception?
  • How are EE’s related to depth perception?
  • What kind of biases may confound EE perception?
  • What is a gradient cut and how does it play a part in EE perception?

Chapter 8. Movement and Action

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Jessica K. Witt 
Action’s Effect on Perception 
Current Directions in Psychological Science June 2011 20: 201-206, doi:10.1177/0963721411408770
  • What was the origin of the action-specific perception account?
  • What are the different factors affecting action abilities? How do they interrelate?
  • How do perceptual differences influence action ability?
  • How might postperceptual processes influence action ability?
  • What is functional specificity and how does it affect action ability and task completion?
Tim J. Smith, Daniel Levin, and James E. Cutting
A Window on Reality: Perceiving Edited Moving Images 
Current Directions in Psychological Science April 2012 21: 107-113, doi:10.1177/0963721412437407
  • What biological factors play a part in an individual perceiving a sequence of images as a constant flow of visual information?
  • How has our biological response to motion changed with the evolution of cinematography (i.e. shorter shots with more motion)?
  • What is attentional synchrony? How does it affect the intake of information from both spontaneous and real-world dynamic video scenes?
  • What is the focused-continuity hypothesis?
  • How does memory influence the perception of moving images (videos)?
Patricia Hölzle, Christian Tatarau, and Joachim Hermsdörfer 
Visually Guided Tracking on a Handheld Device: Can It Be Used to Measure Visuomotor Skill in Shift Workers? 
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society November 2014 56: 1296-1306, first published on March 27, 2014 doi:10.1177/0018720814528005
  • How are tracking tasks used to detect performance fluctuations in jobs that involve shift work?
  • What are the flaws in tracking tasks? How do the authors propose to modify these tasks for more accurate results?
  • What are the important factors to consider when assessing visuomotor performance?

Chapter 9. Visual Attention

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Steven Yantis
The Neural Basis of Selective Attention: Cortical Sources and Targets of Attentional Modulation 
Current Directions in Psychological Science April 2008 17: 86-90, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00554.x 
  • What is the importance of selective attention in neural modulation?
  • What is the difference between the bottom-up (involuntary) and voluntary influences on selection? Why are they important?
  • What are some examples of modulation of cortical activity?
  • What are some sources of attentional-modulation signals?
  • Describe the psychological as well as biological aspects of attention.
Alexander Pollatsek, Matthew R. E. Romoser, and Donald L. Fisher 
Identifying and Remediating Failures of Selective Attention in Older Drivers 
Current Directions in Psychological Science February 2012 21: 3-7, doi:10.1177/0963721411429459 
  • What are the possible reasons for older individuals experiencing selective attention failure?
  • How do older individuals attend to potential threat regions differently than younger individuals?
  • What impact could training have on selective attention failure? What training might be utilized that could decrease scanning errors?
Christopher L. Asplund, Daryl Fougnie, Samir Zughni, Justin W. Martin, and René Marois 
The Attentional Blink Reveals the Probabilistic Nature of Discrete Conscious Perception 
Psychological Science March 2014 25: 824-831, first published on January 16, 2014 doi:10.1177/0956797613513810 
  • What is attentional blink, and why has it been a focus of perception research?
  • How does attentional blink effect precision in perception and decision making?
  • Is perception affected more by encoding targets or from modulation of the precision of target representations?
Lorraine E. Bahrick, Robert Lickliter, and Ross Flom 
Intersensory Redundancy Guides the Development of Selective Attention, Perception, and Cognition in Infancy 
Current Directions in Psychological Science June 2004 13: 99-102, doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2004.00283.x 
  • How do one’s senses attend to multiple stimuli at once? How does selective attention relate to the overlap of redundant information?
  • What is an example of amodal overlapping information?
  • What is the basis of the intersensory redundancy hypothesis? What does the IRH seek to predict?
Daniel J. Simons and Michael S. Ambinder 
Change Blindness: Theory and Consequences 
Current Directions in Psychological Science February 2005 14: 44-48, doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00332.x
  • What is change-blindness? What is the history of research involving change-blindness?
  • What are the core conclusions of the change-detection literature?
  • What conclusions have arisen from studying change-blindness that contradict with other research on perception?
  • What is required for successful change detection?

Chapter 10. The Auditory System

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Simon P. Landry, Jean-Paul Guillemot, and François Champoux 
Temporary Deafness Can Impair Multisensory Integration: A Study of Cochlear-Implant Users 
Psychological Science July 2013 24: 1260-1268, first published on May 30, 2013 doi:10.1177/0956797612471142
  • How can cochlear implants mitigate the effects of temporary deafness?
  • What impact may temporary deafness have on an individual’s multisensory processes?
  • What effect does temporary auditory deprivation have on audiotactile integration? How does this effect differ from the experience that non-deaf individuals have?
  • Despite the benefits of cochlear implants, what struggles may those experiencing temporary deafness face? What impact does an individual’s age have on these struggles?
Arthur Wingfield, Patricia A. Tun and Sandra L. McCoy
Hearing Loss in Older Adulthood: What It Is and How It Interacts With Cognitive Performance 
Current Directions in Psychological Science June 2005 14: 144-148, doi:10.1111/j.0963-7214.2005.00356.x
  • What is presbycusis? How is it detected and diagnosed?
  • How can the use of hearing aids impact those with presbycusis?
  • What cognitive areas are associated with decline in hearing ability? How do these areas interact?
  • Describe Rabbitt’s effortfulness hypothesis and how it effects auditory recall.
Stephen C. Hedger, Shannon L. M. Heald, and Howard C. Nusbaum
Absolute Pitch May Not Be So Absolute 
Stephen C. Hedger, Shannon L. M. Heald, and Howard C. Nusbaum Psychological Science, August 2013; vol. 24, 8: pp. 1496-1502., first published on June 11, 2013
  • How is absolute pitch developed and maintained throughout life?
  • How do adults make note intonation judgments?
  • In addition to note judgments, what other hearing abilities might absolute pitch be associated with?
  • Can absolute pitch be learned, or strengthened with exposure?

Chapter 11. The Auditory Brain and Sound Localization

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Nelli H. Salminen, Hannu Tiitinen, and Patrick J. C. May 
Auditory Spatial Processing in the Human Cortex 
Neuroscientist, December 2012; vol. 18, 6: pp. 602-612., first published on April 9, 2012
  • What is the hemifield code? How do hemifield-tuned neurons in humans differ from neurons in animals?
  • How is the receptive field in the human auditory cortex measured?  How were results obtained?
  • In what ways is the hemifield coding strategy “at odds” with behavioral sound source localization?
  • How is sound involved in motion detection? What impact does sound source location have?
  • How is the representation of auditory space in cortex formed by an adaptive system sensitive to context?
Jennifer K. Bizley and Kerry M. M. Walker
Sensitivity and Selectivity of Neurons in Auditory Cortex to the Pitch, Timbre, and Location of Sounds 
Jennifer K. Bizley and Kerry M. M. Walker Neuroscientist, August 2010; vol. 16, 4: pp. 453-469., first published on June 7, 2010
  • What is the auditory pathway responsible for? What areas of the brain are involved?
  • What is the auditory cortex? How are auditory cortex fields organized?
  • How do we differentiate between pitch, timbre, and location in processing sound location?
  • How is the auditory cortex involved in the processing and encoding of sounds?
  • What is responsible for the auditory cortex’s sensitivity to a change in a sounds attribute?
Sophie Savel and Carolyn Drake 
Auditory Azimuthal Localization Performance in Water as a Function of Prior Exposure 
Human Factors: The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society June 2014 56: 772-783, first published on September 9, 2013 doi:10.1177/0018720813503366
  • What are the cues involved in sound localization? How have they been previously tested?
  • How did water affect sound localization? What factors possibly confounded these experiments?
  • What are the implications of the results of these studies on the overall effect of exposure on spatial hearing abilities?

Chapter 12. Speech Perception

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Delphine Dahan 
The Time Course of Interpretation in Speech Comprehension 
Current Directions in Psychological Science April 2010 19: 121-126, doi:10.1177/0963721410364726 

  • What evidence supports the idea that speech is sequentially analyzed?
  • What is a right-to-left vs. left-to-right analysis? How can you determine right versus left context analysis?
  • What is the impact of later-arriving information on word recognition?
  • How can an individual’s choice affect word perception?

Lawrence D. Rosenblum 
Speech Perception as a Multimodal Phenomenon 
Current Directions in Psychological Science December 2008 17: 405-409, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00615.x 

  • What are some examples of visual speech information? How can speech be felt instead of heard?
  • What supports the idea that speech is multimodal? What is amodal or modality neutral speech perception within the scope of multimodal speech perception?
  • How can a speaker affect speech perception? What is cross-modal speaker matching?

David Poeppel and Philip J. Monahan 
Speech Perception: Cognitive Foundations and Cortical Implementation 
Current Directions in Psychological Science April 2008 17: 80-85, doi:10.1111/j.1467-8721.2008.00553.x

  • How does speech perception differ from comprehension?
  • What are the two main shifts of the contemporary approach to how the brain is involved in speech perception?
  • What are the components of the dual-stream model?
  • How are the ventral and dorsal pathways involved in speech perception?
  • What are some major areas of focus that warrant further exploration in the field of speech perception?

Chapter 13. Music Perception

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Isabelle Peretz 
Musical Disorders: From Behavior to Genes 
Current Directions in Psychological Science, October 2008; vol. 17, 5: pp. 329-333.
  • What is congenital amusia, and how does it relate to behavior? How are amusic individuals distinguished from ordinary people?
  • How is pitch related to amusia?
  • Are amusic brains or genetics different from non-amusic individuals?
  • How might amusia relate to tone languages?
Josh H. McDermott 
What Can Experiments Reveal About the Origins of Music? 
Current Directions in Psychological Science, June 2009; vol. 18, 3: pp. 164-168. 
  • How is studying infants useful in determining the biological innateness of music?
  • How have non-human animals different from humans in the recognition of pitch?
  • How can culture influence musical syntax and create expectations of pitch?
  • What is musical rhythm and how does it relate to the possible origins of music?
Sirke Nieminen, Eva Istók, Elvira Brattico, and Mari Tervaniemi 
The development of the aesthetic experience of music: Preference, emotions, and beauty 
Musicae Scientiae November 2012 16: 372-391, first published on August 7, 2012 doi:10.1177/1029864912450454
  • Are musical preferences biologically or environmentally based?
  • How is emotion involved in the experience of music, and how does it relate to the development of musical preferences?
  • What are the aesthetics of music?  How do they relate to emotion and preference?
  • What is the open-earedness hypothesis?

Chapter 14. Touch and Pain

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Tor D. Wager and Lauren Y. Atlas 
How Is Pain Influenced by Cognition? Neuroimaging Weighs In 
Perspectives on Psychological Science January 2013 8: 91-97, doi:10.1177/1745691612469631

  • What are the benefits unique to neuroimaging in detecting things about pain?
  • What is the placebo effect? How can it be tested using neuroimaging?
  • What is distraction? What has research shown about distraction and the experience of pain?
  • How are opiods related to the placebo effect and distraction? Are opiods necessary for diminished perception of pain?

Eran Chajut, Avner Caspi, Rony Chen, Moshe Hod, and Dan Ariely 
In Pain Thou Shalt Bring Forth Children: The Peak-and-End Rule in Recall of Labor Pain 
Psychological Science 0956797614551004, first published on October 8, 2014 as doi:10.1177/0956797614551004 

  • What makes labor pain unique to other types of pain?
  • How does pain relate to the recollection of past experiences? What is the peak-and-end rule?
  • How can epidural analgesia influence memory and recollection of labor experiences?

Jeffrey M. Yau, Pablo Celnik, Steven S. Hsiao, and John E. Desmond 
Feeling Better: Separate Pathways for Targeted Enhancement of Spatial and Temporal Touch 
Psychological Science February 2014 25: 555-565, first published on January 3, 2014 doi:10.1177/0956797613511467

  • What are the differences between spatial and temporal perceptions of information?
  • What are crossmodal mechanisms for spatial and temporal touch?
  • What is anodal tDCS? How is it involved in tactile perception and neuronal excitability?
  • What specific brain regions are influenced by tDCS?
  • How can non-invasive measures investigate the perception of spatial and temporal tactile stimulus features?

Chapter 15. Olfaction and Taste

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Reine C. van der Wal and Lotte F. van Dillen 
Leaving a Flat Taste in Your Mouth: Task Load Reduces Taste Perception 
Psychological Science July 2013 24: 1277-1284, first published on May 30, 2013 doi:10.1177/0956797612471953
  • What are some examples of how the different senses are involved in taste perception?
  • How might activities and sensory input (when eating) influence taste perception?
  • How can task difficulty influence what we eat?
  • How are reward systems in the brain involved in consumption habits?
  • What are the cognitive limitations of taste perception?
 
Leonardo Belluscio and Diana M. Cummings 
Charting Plasticity in the Regenerating Maps of the Mammalian Olfactory Bulb 
Neuroscientist, June 2008; vol. 14, 3: pp. 251-263., first published on April 17, 2008 
  • How is the retina involved in map generation? What is the purpose of map generation?
  • How is the olfactory bulb involved in taste? What are odorant receptors?
  • What are the different maps associated with the olfactory bulb, and what are their purposes?
  • How does the glomerulus process odor? How do cells regenerate and turnover in the odor column?
  • Does activity influence smell? How and why?
 
Alan C. Spector and Susan P. Travers 
The Representation of Taste Quality in the Mammalian Nervous System
Behav Cogn Neurosci Rev September 2005 4: 143-191, doi:10.1177/1534582305280031
  • What are the different types of ion channels? How are they involved in taste reception?
  • How are taste bud cells tuned? Why would tuned cells still be susceptible to convergence when responding to taste?
  • What is the entropy measure? What do the different scores of the measure correspond with?
  • What are the different types of gustatory fibers and what do they respond to? How does the brain interpret activity in the different types of fibers?
  • What are brainstem and forebrain processing, and how are they involved in neural coding in the central gustatory system?
  • What are the different ways that the central gustatory system can be temporally coded?