Psychological Science: Learning, Cognition & Behavior

Behavioral and cognitive principles underlying learning, memory, and action inside and outside the laboratory. Includes conditioning, motivation, biological constraints, and mechanism of remembering and forgetting. Prerequisite: PSYS 1400.

Prereqs enforced by the system: PSYS 1400 or BIOL 1400 or BCOR 1400 or BCOR 1425; PSYS and NEUR majors and minors and BIOL and BISC majors only; PACE students by permission and override.

This course examines the behavioral and cognitive principles underlying learning, memory, and action both inside and outside the laboratory. We will discuss associative learning and conditioning, biological constraints, mechanisms of remembering and forgetting, attention, and motivation and addiction. This is a science course and, as such, we will discuss theories and core concepts related to learning, cognition, and behavior by emphasizing actual empirical evidence-- experiments, methods, and data. The material covered in this course is relevant and important for all areas of Psychological Science. Indeed, other areas of Psychological Science such as Clinical, Developmental, and Social Psychology draw heavily upon learning theory and cognitive psychology for mechanistic explanations of mental disorders, cognitive development, and social interactions. We will also discuss research with both human and non-human animal subjects.

The course content is designed to fit essential learning goals of courses in the Department of Psychological Science. Lectures cover the core concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings, and historical trends in the core area of learning and memory (and biobehavioral psychology). By emphasizing actual research and research results, lectures help students learn to critically evaluate and interpret primary and secondary literature in the science of psychology. Evaluations throughout the semester evaluate the extent to which you are meeting the course learning goals and provide feedback to you about the richness of your understanding of this area of scholarship in psychological science.

In-class assignments, online lecture quizzes, online readings quizzes, and in-person exams.