Perception and knowing

Asking questions. How do we know anything? What is the role of our senses in allowing us to know?

Proposals: ways of knowing

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Testing the proposals

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  • Sensory deprivation. If our senses are what makes it possible to learn about the world, can we study the process by selectively depriving test subjects of sensory experience? Can we take advantage of natural cases of sensory deprivation and sensory disruption to learn about the role of the sense in learning?
  • Neuropharmacology. How can drugs be used to alter brain function and probe how learning takes place and memory functions?
  • Transcranial magnetic stimulation. Brain functions can be blocked by transcranial magnetic stimulation.
  • Disease. Disease processes such as viral infection can result in the destruction of particular brain regions. Sometimes strokes, the treatment of epilepsy, degenerative nervous system diseses or removal of tumors results in damage to specific brain regions. What can be learned about how memories are stored from such selective destruction of brain regions?

Reading

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Discussion

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