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; 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.

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.

Online lecture quizzes approximately every other week and online readings quizzes approximately every week. Several in-person exams consisting of multiple-choice and short answer questions covering lecture material over the semester. In-class activities (e.g., iClicker questions).