PSY40550

This module provides an introduction to the study of social cognition from the perspective of visual perception and through critical reading and discussion of research papers. Topics include the perception of action and biological motion, the role of eye gaze and pointing in the development of ‘shared attention’, the perception of categorical information from faces (race, gender and attractiveness), body perception, and the question of whether anomalous social perception may underlie problems in social cognition in autism spectrum disorder. The reading material is chosen to cover theoretical background, and both experimental and developmental approaches to the study of social cognition.