Research Experience in Perception: Human Visual Memory Capacity

For some things, such as strings of numbers, our memory capacity is distinctly limited. For other things, such as visual images, our memory capacity can be remarkable.
For example, after viewing thousands of images, each for a few seconds over the course of several hours, people can determine with high accuracy the scenes
they have previously viewed and those they have not. In this research course, students will begin by first replicating earlier
experiments to measure human visual memory capacity. After several class discussions to discuss ideas, each student will design and
conduct their own experiment to further investigate visual and/or familiarity memory. Depending on the requirements of their specific
project, students will analyze their data using Excel or a statistical software package (such as SPSS or Matlab).