Course Syllabus
Sustainable Development Goals
Learning area
Applied Experimental Psychological Sciences
Learning objectives
Knowledge and understanding
- The application of knowledge from Cognitive Neurosciences to production systems and technological development
- The use of methodologies and techniques from Cognitive neurosciences to the analysis of responses obtained from human consumers/users
Applying knowledge and understanding
- Ability of transferring the course contents to the planning and development of strategies and research plan in the field of applied cognitive neurosciences.
Contents
The field study of applied cognitive neurosciences and of its most recent developments will be analysed. In particular, the course will discuss how the knowledge regarding the nervous bases of behaviour can be used in different practical applications such as: product design, Virtual Reality, engineering, movie making, gastronomy, marketing, technological development, human-machine interfaces, improvement of services.
The course will start with an overview of the most important cerebral structures and of their functions, seen from an applied perspective. The role of the human sensory systems in the interactions with products, services and technologies will be examined. Special attention will be dedicated to the theme of human-machine interactions and presence in Virtual Reality environments. Finally, the course will discuss the use of the neuroscientific methodologies for the study of explicit and implicit (behavioural and physiological) reactions to ecologically valid situations (e.g., shopping, human computer interactions, virtual reality simulations, etc.)
Detailed program
- Cerebral anatomy applied to consumer behavior and object design
- Marketing and design inspired to neural functioning
- The human senses and their role in applied contests
- Physiological functions, hormone and homeostasis in the design of services and in consumer behavior
- Brain-machine interfaces
- Multisensory processing and product development
- Neuroscientific techniques and methodologies for the study of consumer behavior and human interactions with technologies
- Overcoming the limitations of Virtual reality technologies by means of neuroscientific principles
Prerequisites
Good English knowledge
Teaching methods
The course will be held in presence. Teaching will consist of lecture-based lessons, and also interactive classwork that will take place through the following:
Presentation and analysis of themes through visual material.
Class discussion with experts in the field of engineering and marketing.
Group works and assignments.
Assessment methods
The exam includes a written test with multiple choices questions and an open question that requires a large and critical discussion on one topic of the course. The questions are aimed at ascertaining the effective acquisition of both theoretical knowledge and the ability to connect different aspects of applied neuroscience. The answers to the open question will be evaluated in terms of correctness of the answers, argumentative capacity, and analytic discussion of the topics of the course. For students who request it and that have passed the written test, an oral interview will be also made available, on all the topics of the course. For attending students 80% of the final grade will be based on the above evaluation. The remaining 20% will be based on the evaluations of group activities consisting of the development and presentation (10 minutes using ppt slides) of a project study in the field of cognitive neuroscience. For non attending students the final grade will be based only on the written test (and on the optional oral interview).
Textbooks and Reading Materials
-Gallace, A., & Spence, C. (2014). In touch with the future: The sense of touch from cognitive neuroscience to virtual reality. Oxford: Oxford University Press. (ch. 9-10-11)
-Spence, C. & Gallace, A. (2011). Multisensory design: Reaching out to touch the consumer. Psychology & Marketing, 28, 267-308.
- Gallace, A., Ngo, M. K., Sulaitis, J., & Spence, C. (2011). Multisensory Presence in Virtual Reality: Possibilities & Limitations. In: G. Ghinea, F. Andres, & S. Gulliver (Eds.), Multiple Sensorial Media Advances and Applications: New Developments in MulSeMedia. IGI Global.
- Nazir, S., Gallace, A., Bordegoni, M., Colombo, S., & Manca, D. (2012). Performance comparison of different training methods for industrial operators. In: De Waard, D., Brookhuis, K., Dehais, F., Weikert, C., Röttger, S., Manzey, D., Biede, S., Reuzeau, F., & Terrier, P. (Eds.), Human Factors of Systems and Technology (pp. 1-8). Available as open source download.
- Spence, C., Hobkinson, C., Gallace, A., & Piqueras Fiszman (2013). A touch of gastronomy. Flavour, 2:14.
-Additional reading material will be specified during the course
Sustainable Development Goals
Staff
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Alberto Gallace
