Facilities - Sensation & Perception Lab

Dr. Bensley discusses visual perception with student Renee Butler.

The Sensation and Perception Laboratory holds an interesting variety of equipment and materials to support lab activities and demonstrations.

Some examples of the equipment include large models of the ear and eye, a flicker device for demonstrating illusory movement, and an Ames window illusory device (click here for a complete list).

Dr. Alan Bensley uses much of the equipment to teach Sensation and Perception, a four-credit laboratory course with laboratory activities integrated directly into course presentation. The two purposes of the labs are to support learning of important principles and methods for studying perception and to help students to use the ideas of the course to better understand their everyday experiences. Sample lab activities include mixing light and paint, finding how depth cues are used in artwork, and viewing and explaining "magic eye" pictures.

For more information, contact Dr. Alan Bensley.

List of Equipment in Lab

List of Activities in the Sensation & Perception Course

Snellen eye charts for testing visual acuity an audiometer for testing hearing subliminal message tape large models of the ear and eye a flicker device for demonstrating illusory movement a strobe light a color mixing device and paint supplies for learning about mixing colors reproductions of famous art works that demonstrate perceptual principles many visual illusions and materials for demonstrating depth perceptual effects a device for screening visual problems like those used in driver’s license examinations numerous magic eye pictures and posters delayed auditory feedback device an Ames window illusory device reversal glasses for turning stimuli presented to the eyes either upside down or right-left reversed

testing hearing and vision discrimination of Coca-Cola from Pepsi demonstration of two-point threshold for touch mixing light and paint pretending to be a starship science officer who uses evolutionary theory and knowledge of sensation and perception to think creatively about the characteristics of alien creatures encountered on an unfamiliar planet examining the use of color in Impressionist paintings finding how depth cues are used in art from the cave paintings of Lascaux to the works of M.C. Escher and Op Art viewing and explaining magic eye pictures and 3-D movies viewing and explaining a variety of visual and movement illusions hypnosis and consciousness demonstrations

More Lab Pictures

A student looks through one of the
lab's flicker devices

Norma Sosa watches a motion
adaptation device.

A student wears a special eye mask
that turns images upside down.