VS298: Subjectivity
Course description
Subjectivity, aka 1st person experience, is an aspect of the famous mind/body problem that is at least partially tractable. The course will explore a wide variety of past and future experiments for learning about the neural and embodied basis for subjectivity. Each week we will have a paper or two to read and possibly a video from world leaders in the field. Then when we meet we will typically have discussions, rather than lectures, on that week’s topic. Two things that will be expected from enrolled students are: 1) A weekly question for the speaker, to be turned in based on the readings. 2) A final proposed experiment to test some unsolved mystery that can be based on science. Discussion on your proposals would be the topic for the last class.
Instructors
- Email: sklein@berkeley.edu
- Office: Minor
- Office hours: immediately following lecture
Lectures
- Location: 560 Evans (Redwood Center conference room)
- Times: Thursday :2:00 - 4:00
Enrollment information
- Open to both undergraduate and graduate students, subject to background requirements specified below.
- Telebears: {CCN, Section, Units, Grade Option} == {xx, xx, xx, xx}
Email list and forum
- Please subscribe to the class email list here. The list name is xxx.
Reading
Week 1: 8/24 Introductory Discussion Stan Klein, Jerry Feldman & Ken Nakayama
Ken Nakayama’s course outline on Consciousness
- Note that for week 1 there is no need to read the material before coming to class. The first meeting will be a general introduction. These articles will be mentioned and most will be discussed later.
Week 2: 8/31 Hard Problems and Psychophysical Methodology. Stan Klein
Stan Klein “Using Psychic Phenomena To Connect Mind to Brain using Quantum Mechanics” A skeptic’s view. Cosmos and History: The Journal of Natural and Social Philosophy, vol. 13, 2017
Stephen Fleming H-meta d: hierarchical Bayesian estimation of efficiency from confidence ratings
Chalmers Constructing a Science
Week 3: 9/7 Binding problems and Vision Mysteries Jerry Feldman
Feldman, The Neural Binding Problem(s) *skip section 3 ftp://ftp.icsi.berkeley.edu/pub/feldman/ binding.cody.pdf
Feldman, Visual Experience http://arxiv.org/abs/1604.08612
Feldman, Redwood Center talk on Binding Problem https://archive.org/details/Redwood_Center_2012_06_27_Jerome_Feldman
Week 4: 9/14 Peter Tse
Chapter in “Handbook of Experimental Phenomenolgy “How Attention Can Alter Appearances” Peter Tse, Eric Reavis, Peter Kohler, Gideon Caplovitz, Thalia Wheatley
Week 5: 9/21 Subjective Contours Ken Nakayama
Lecture by KN at Redwood center hand out red cyan glasses https://archive.org/details/Redwood_Center_1012_01_11_Ken_Nakayama
Week 6: 9/28 Deep Learning and Subjectivity Bruno Olshausen
Sejnowski, T. J. Churchland, P.S. Movshon, J.A. Putting big data to good use in neuroscience, Nature Neuroscience, 17, 1440-1441, 2014 * same as week 1 reading
Neuroscience-Inspired Artificial Intelligence Demis Hassabis, Dharshan Kumaran, Christopher Summerfield, Matthew Botvinick DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2017.06.011
Week 7: 10/5 Color Experience and the Whorf Hypothesis Terry Regier & Rich Ivry
Whorf hypothesis is supported in the right visual field but not the left Gilbert, Regier, Kay, Ivry, 489–494, doi: 10.1073/pnas.0509868103
Whorfian effects on colour memory are not reliable. Wright O, Davies IR, Franklin A. Q J Exp Psychol (Hove). 2015;68(4):745-58.
Week 8: 10/12 Wm. James on Subjectivity (and Phenomenology) Ken Nakayama
William James, Chapter 11 “The Stream of Consciousness” in Psychology: A briefer Course (p 151-176)
Week 9: 10/19 Day for Discussion and preparation for rest of semester
In addition there could be presentation by Michael Cohen to prepare for the following week.
Week 10: 10/25 and 10/26 Christof Koch and Michael Cohen
a) 10/25 Richness of Visual Experience Christof Koch *Meeting on Wednesday Are we underestimating the richness of visual experience? Andrew M. Haun, Giulio Tononi, Christof Koch, Naotsugu Tsuchiya; Neurosci Conscious 2017; 3 (1): niw023. doi: 10.1093/nc/niw023
CohenMA, DennettDC, KanwisherN. What is the bandwidth of perceptual experience? Trends Cogn Sci 2016; 20:324-35
10b) 10/26 Richness of Visual Experience Michael Cohen Same readings as 10a.
Week 11: 11/2 Nikos Logothetis.
Multistable Visual Perception as a Gateway to the Neuronal Correlates of Phenomenal Consciousness: The Scope and limits of Neuroscientific Analysis”. This presentation is still tentative.
Week 12: 11/9 PreFrontal Cortex and Subjectivity Brian Odegaard & Robert Knight
Should a Few Null Findings Falsify Prefrontal Theories of Conscious Perception? Brian Odegaard, Robert T Knight, Hakwan Lau doi: https://doi.org/10.1101/122267
Neural correlates of consciousness: progress and problems - Nature Reviews Neuroscience Christof Koch, Marcello Massimini,,; Melanie Boly,; & Giulio Tononi,.
Week 13: 11/16 Time Subjectivity and Postdiction Shin Shimojo
B. Libet on “time marker” & “backward referral." https://link.springer.com/chapter/10.1007/978-1-4612-0355-1_9.
A direct application of this to visual processing: Nishida & Johnston (2002). http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S096098220200698X.
Shimojo (2014) https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3978293/.
Week 14: 11/30
Students discuss their Proposed Experiments
