Social Perception and Eye Tracking

Selectable course in methodology, 7.5 credits. The course is in English.

The course syllabus below in PDF Pdf, 76 kB.

Course Syllabus

The aim of the course is twofold. (1) To introduce and critically discuss research within the field of social perception, with a focus on infancy research. (2) Learn about how to analyze time series data, conceptualized through eye tracking, and relate this to the field of social perception. The first part of this course is an independent follow-up of the perception coarse (Spring 2014), however, prior participation in the perception coarse is not required.

In total participants will meet on five occasions to discuss the literature. Of these three meetings will discuss different aspects of social perception. Each meeting will center on one section of the book “Social Perception: Detection and interpretation of animacy, agency, and intention” (Rutherford & Kuhlmeier, 2013). Two additional meetings will discuss the book “Eye tracking: A comprehensive guide to methods and measures” (Holmqvist et al., 2011).

Participants are expected to actively take part in the discussion and integrate the course literature into their discussion.

Examination is based on active participation on all occasions and the completion of two essays targeting different aspects of social perception. Each of these essays (each approximately 4 pages) will define an area of research, formulate a novel hypothesis and formulate an experiment that can test this hypothesis. Each essay is required to use eye tracking data in a novel way, following the recommendations postulated by Holmqvist et al. (2011).

Examinator: Gustaf Gredebäck

Course Literature

- Rutherford, M. D. & Kuhlmeier, V. A. (2013). Social Perception: Detection and interpretation of animacy, agency, and intention. MIT Press, Cambridge Massachusetts. (415 pages)

- Holdqvist, K., Nyström, M., Andersson, R., Dewhurst, R., Jarodzka, H., & van de Weijer, J. (2011). Eye tracking: A comprehensive guide to methods and measures. Oxford University Press, Oxford. (537 pages)

Total number of pages: 952