Courses Taught

Biological Psychology – PSY 445

This course examines the relationship between the function of the central nervous system and behavior.  Topics include basic structure and function of  neurons and glial cells, the physiological mechanisms of drug addiction, sensory perception, motor coordination, sleep and dreaming, memory and learning, hunger and thirst, language processing, stress, aggression, anxiety disorders, schizophrenia, and depression.  It is often said that the brain's ultimate challenge is to understand something as complex as itself.  In this course, your brain attempts to understand itself.

Perception, Memory, and Cognition – PSY 388

This course examines three closely related areas of psychology. Perception, the organization of information gathered through the senses, is perhaps the oldest area of study in experimental psychology. The course examines a selection of topics in perception, including color perception, depth perception, form and movement perception, and prism adaptation.  Memory is accessing past experience in order to use this information in the present.  Topics include memory storage mechanisms, retrieval techniques, and memory disorders.  Cognition is the acquisition of knowledge. The course examines three classic topics in cognition, namely attention, mental imagery, and decision-making.

Research Methods in Psychology – PSY 375

This course examines the research methods used to study human behavior. The main emphasis of the course concerns issues relating to experimental research methods.  However, non-experimental methods, such as correlational and survey methods, are also examined.  Course topics include: the design of psychological experiments, problems with data collection, data analysis and interpretation, and writing reports of psychological findings.  Each student designs and conducts original research, as well as analyze the results and report the findings in writing.

General Psychology – PSY 101F4

Psychology asks the question - what makes people feel, think, and behave the way they do?  The goal of this course is to examine the causes of these feelings, thoughts, and behaviors, as explained by the science of psychology.  The course explores how scientific methods apply to the study of human behavior and critically evaluates some important theories used to explain various psychological phenomena.  Some of the course topics include:  the function of brain cells, neuroanatomy, drug effects on brain function, the split-brain phenomenon, lifespan development, adult attachment styles, mate selection, sleep and dreaming, visual perception, vestibular sense, learning, memory, psychoanalytical theory, obsessive-compulsive disorder, anxiety disorders, depression, and schizophrenia.

Research Interests

My research specialty is visual perception, with special emphasis on the visual guidance of complex actions. Over the last 20 years, I have conducted research concerning visual-vestibular interaction, automaticity of visual processes, development of infant visual perception, spatial sampling of motion, and visually-guided interception of moving objects.  At the University of Wisconsin-Madison, I worked with Professors Sheldon Ebenholtz, James Dannemiller, and William Epstein.  At Edgewood College, my current research project concerns the visual information utilized during pursuit of free-falling objects (e.g., catching fly balls). Brian Babler from the Space Astronomy Laboratory at University of Wisconsin-Madison is the primary collaborator in the project. Much of the research involves computer simulations of approaching projectiles with observers making decisions about the expected landing location of the object. The research goal is to isolate the optical variables that are guiding the observer judgments about what direction to move and how fast to run in order to intercept the object before it strikes the ground.

Publications

Babler, T.G., & Ebenholtz, S.M. (1989).  Effects of peripheral circular contours on dynamic spatial orientation.   Perception & Psychophysics, 45, 307-314.

Epstein, W., & Babler, T. (1989).  Perception of slant-in-depth is automatic.  Perception & Psychophysics, 45, 31-33.

Epstein, W., & Babler, T. (1990).  In search of depth.  Perception & Psychophysics, 48, 68-76.

Epstein, W., Babler, T., & Bownds, S. (1992).  Attentional demands of processing shape in 3D space:  Evidence from visual search and precuing paradigms.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Human Perception and Performance, 18, 503-511.  

Babler, T.G., & Dannemiller, J.L. (1993).  Role of image acceleration in judging landing location of free-falling projectiles.  Journal of Experimental Psychology:  Human Perception and Performance, 19, 15-31.

Dannemiller, J.L., Babler, T.G., & Babler, B.L. (1996).  On catching fly balls.  Science, 273, 256-257.

Dannemiller, J.L., Heidenreich, S.M., & Babler, T.G. (1997).  Spatial sampling of motion: Seeing an object moving behind a picket fence.  Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, 23, 1323-1342.

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Last modified 30 August 2003