Evolution, Behavior and Sensation and Perception is the second of three free micro Open Online Courses (mOOCs) that jointly constitute the first half of a first-year university introductory psychology course. It is designed for undergraduate students who wish to work towards a major in psychology, students who wish to take a psychology course as an elective, and for informal learners everywhere.

This course will help you to become familiar with the really low-level variables that contribute to our thoughts and behaviors.

Upon successful completion of this micro-course you will be able to:

• Describe the contribution of genes to shaping our thoughts and behavior
• Explain how evolutionary theory can be applied to behavior
• Summarize the basic principles of learning and behaviorism
• Compare and contrast sensation and perception
• Explain how vision works using the Perceptual Processing Framework and apply the framework to understand other modalities
• Read and summarize current published research
• Write thoughtfully about psychological processes and research
• Critically analyze and discuss psychological processes and research