David R. Soderquist is Professor of Psychology at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He received his Ph.D. in Experimental Psychology from Vanderbilt University in 1968. His primary research interest is in psychoacoustics, and he has published in the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, the Journal of Auditory Research, Perception and Psychophysics, Acoustical Letters, the Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society, Educational and Psychological Measurement, Human Factors, and elsewhere. He has taught courses on sensory processes at both the undergraduate and graduate levels and has class-tested early drafts of this book with his students.
This book emphasizes the underlying neural structures and functions of sensory systems (pain, olfaction, gustation, audition, vision, etc.) and presents this complex material at a level comprehensible to undergraduates as well as beginning graduate students. The book begins with a review of the central nervous system and its sensory components and includes discussions of methodological techniques and procedures used to study sensory processes. Features/Benefits: Detailed coverage of sense modalities beyond vision and audition offers students more in-depth coverage of the somatosensory system, pain, olfaction, gustation, and the vestibular system than most traditional sensation and perception books provide. Inclusion of sensory disorders and dysfunctions, with clinical examples, illustrate the real-world importance and impact of the subject matter. Pedagogical aids and a "user-friendly" style and approach make the subject matter understandable to students; these aids include brief chapter intros that put the material into contexts students can readily relate to; key terms bolded in text and defined in an end-of-book glossary; chapter summaries; and selected references for further reading.
