DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Affiliate Student Information (Spring Term Only)
2007-2008
Introductory Psychology Courses
PSYC2205 BRAIN AND BEHAVIOUR ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Kate Jeffrey
Email:
k.jeffrey@ucl.ac.ukOne of the big challenges in psychology is to understand how relatively "dumb" elements like neurons can co-operate to produce high-level mental operations like thinking and consciousness. The aim of this course is to introduce you to the study of the neurobiology of behaviour. It consists of two modules: one focusing on the principles of the study of animal learning, and the second focusing on the biological basis of various kinds of behaviour, using the aforementioned principles as a base. The animal learning module will cover issues related to the cognitive mechanisms that have been proposed to explain the acquisition of information by the brain: issues related to elicited behaviours, as well as Pavlovian and operant conditioning. We will examine how the findings and theories developed by students of animal learning may be used to explain a variety of animal learning effects. The neurobiology module will begin by looking at the architecture of the nervous system: the names, locations and approximate functions of the major brain areas and the basic workings of a typical neuron. It will look at some of the ways in which neurons are not as simple as was previously thought ‑ in particular, how they assimilate information and communicate it to other neurons, and how these communications can change (e.g. when learning occurs). It will then look at how ensembles of neurons, each processing its own set of stimuli; can collectively produce intelligent-looking behaviours such as memory formation or cognitive processing. By the end of the course you will, hopefully, have gained an insight into how knowing about low-level processes can constrain theories about how the high-level processes must operate (and of how this can make the life of a psychologist much easier!).
PSYC2209 DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY
Convenor: Dr Anne Schlottmann
Email:
a.schlottmann@ucl.ac.ukDescription: This course aims to:
1) Give students an overview of the course of child development from infancy to middle childhood.
2) Examine core topics in contemporary research on cognitive development.
3) Discuss what may be learned about cognition by comparing the cognitive activities of children and adults.
Course Content: Basic issues and methods in developmental psychology. Piaget's theory of cognitive development and its evaluation in the light of contemporary research. Sensori-motor, perceptual and cognitive development in infancy. Language acquisition. Models of conceptual structure and its development. Pre- and concrete operational reasoning. Pre-schoolers' numerical understanding. Children's understanding of biology. Parental and newborn social factors. Attachment. Moral development. Face processing. Gender and mathematics. Please note that the contents of this course may alter due to a change in lecturer for parts of the teaching.
Advanced Psychology Courses
PSYC3102 SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY ½ CU
Convenor: TBC
The content of this course has not yet been confirmed, as there will be a new lecturer running the course.
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PSYC3104 PSYCHOLOGY AND EDUCATION ½ CU
Convenors: Dr Anne Schlottmann & Dr Jeremy Monsen
Email:
a.schlottmann@ucl.ac.uk j.monsen@ucl.ac.uk
Aims:
To examine ways in which psychological theory and research can inform educational practice.
Objectives:
Students should 1) gain an appreciation of ways in which psychology has been applied to education, 2) be challenged to think about implications of psychological research for improving the effectiveness of teaching and learning, 3) develop an awareness of educational psychology practice in schools and with parents.
Summary of Course:
Topics have been selected to illustrate the typical application of a wide range of psychological theory and research to educational practice. Aspects of both normal learning and development and atypical performance and behaviour are sampled and examples are drawn where possible from the professional practice of educational and child psychologists.
The following areas are included:
Motivation in education, psycho-sexual development, rational emotive behaviour therapy, literacy and number skills, exclusion from school, parents and pre-school children with special needs, resilience and vulnerable children, inclusion of children with special educational needs, social skills in education, Specific Language Impairment.
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PSYC3107 TOPICS IN CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Amanda Williams
Email:
amanda.williams@ucl.ac.ukAims:
The course aims to introduce students to the current central academic concerns of British clinical psychology.
Objectives:
The course will equip students with knowledge concerning major child and adult mental health problems, therapeutic process, and the evidence base guiding the work of clinical psychologists in these areas.
Summary of Course:
This course builds on areas introduced and elaborated in B2206, either extending key areas or covering topics not covered in 2206. Lectures are single topics, likely to include:
from clinical psychology, attachment disorders, antisocial behaviour, childhood sexual abuse, memory & PTSD, borderline personality, early psychosis, depression, and clinical neuropsychology;
from clinical health psychology, models of disability, and rehabilitation in chronic illness;
common issues: helping and psychotherapy; evidence for effectiveness.
The lectures and assigned readings will be set by the clinically active teaching staff from the UCL DClinPsy course – the country’s largest.
PSYC3110 TOPICS IN DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Anne Schlottmann
Email:
a.schlottmann@ ucl.ac.ukAims:
To discuss a range of contemporary issues in cognitive and social development.
Objectives:
Students should gain appreciation for differing theoretical perspectives on child development and their impact on the evaluation of evidence. Students should become aware of the relations between models of child development and the adult mind.
Summary of Course Content:
Development of "higher" reasoning skills that have traditionally been associated with adolescence. Dr Schlottmann will discuss; formal operations, scientific reasoning, logical, causal and analogical reasoning. The second topic is memory development. Here we will consider the contributions of capacity, strategies, metacognition and the knowledge base to improvements in children's memory. The section on social development will focus on selected topics relating to social interaction and personality development from infancy to adulthood. This will include discussion of social progress related to self-produced locomotion (crawling), theory of mind, altruism, gender differences, attachment theory, and the developmental effects of parenting styles and day care. These topics will be covered through lectures and readings of current and classic journal articles.
There will be some changes in content of the 2nd section due to the appointment of a new lecturer TBA.
PSYC3201 APPLIED DECISION-MAKING ½ CU
Convenors: Prof Nigel Harvey
Email: n.harvey@ucl.ac.uk
Aims:
To discuss research that throws light on the psychological processes underlying decision making in a number of different applied domains.
Objectives:
Students should come to appreciate both processes that are common to decision making in different domains of application and those that are specific to each domain. They should be aware of recent developments in general theories of decision-making and of the manner in which these theories have been applied in different specific contexts.
Summary of Course:
The course covers major issues that are relevant to different domains (e.g., expertise; methods of improving decision making, advice giving and taking). Lectures on specific applied domains (e.g., medical decision-making, legal decision-making, policy making, financial decision making, consumer decision making) are also included.
PSYC3307 GENES AND BEHAVIOUR ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Essi Viding
Email:
e.viding@ucl.ac.ukAims: This course will provide an overview of behavioural genetics in psychology.
Objectives:
Basic understanding of behavioural genetics methods, with the aim of being able to read and interpret relevant articles.
Good overall understanding of the contribution of behavioural genetics research to the understanding of psychopathology and cognitive development.
Good overall understanding of the contribution of genetically sensitive study designs to the understanding of environmental risk factors.
Summary of Course:
Lecture outline:
1) Introduction to history of behavioural genetics
2) Molecular genetic primer
3) Twin and adoption method
4) Environment – Non-shared
5) Gene – environment interplay (genetic correlation and interaction)
6) Twin and adoption studies of cognitive abilities and disabilities
7) Twin and adoption studies of psychopathology
8) Origins of co-morbidity, development, heterogeneity
9) Genetics of antisocial behaviour (with in depth reading)
i. In depth reading and problem sheet available over the intranet to help students to get a deeper understanding of genetic research
ii. Short lecture overview followed by class discussion
10) Environmental contributions to antisocial behaviour (with in depth reading)
i. In depth reading and problem sheet available over the intranet to help students to get deeper understanding of how genetic research informs understanding about the environment
ii. Short lecture overview followed by class discussion
11) Endophenotype research: Using ADHD as an example
12) Imaging genomics
13) Ethical concerns surrounding behavioural genetics research
14) How to communicate findings from behavioural genetic studies
i. Informing public and carriers
15) Student led question and answer session
PSYC3209 COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Leun Otten
Email:
l.otten@ucl.ac.ukAims:
This course aims to introduce students to the ideas, techniques, and current state of knowledge of the field of cognitive neuroscience. Through this course, students will become familiar with the brain mechanisms that underlie our ability to think, feel, and act.
Objectives:
The course will: (i) establish the conceptual framework of cognitive neuroscience, (ii) introduce the methods that are available to study brain structure and function, (iii) discuss theoretical issues that arise when trying to relate mental function to brain function, and (iv) provide an overview of the present understanding of the neural bases of several mental functions, such as memory, language, attention, and emotion.
Summary of Course:
The course consists of a series of 15 lectures on the neural underpinnings of mental functions, combined with assigned readings including a required course textbook. The lectures are given by the course convenor and other experts in the field of cognitive neuroscience. The first part of the course concentrates on explaining what cognitive neuroscience is, what it intends to study, and how it goes about studying it. Conceptual issues about relating mental functions onto physical brain activity will be discussed, along with the different techniques that are currently available to study the brain (e.g. MRI, EEG, MEG, and TMS).
The second part of the course concentrates on discussing what is currently known about how particular cognitive functions are supported by the brain. Functions that are covered may include perception, attention, learning and memory, language, emotion, executive functions, and development and aging. At the end of the course, you will be able to critically read and evaluate research in the area of cognitive neuroscience and be able to appreciate what can, and cannot, be inferred from methods available to study brain function.
PSYC3210: BRAIN IN ACTION
Convenor: Prof Patrick Haggard
Email:
p.haggard@ucl.ac.ukDelivering teaching: Sarah-Jayne Blakemore and a new member of staff – TBC. Patrick Haggard is on sabbatical and will be replaced by a substitute College Teacher, to be appointed from 1/1/2008.
Aims:
· Introduce key questions and theories in modern sensorimotor neuroscience
· Link these questions to psychological study of the human mind
· Familiarise students with diversity of methods and approaches in modern neuroscience.
Objectives:
· To critically read and evaluate neuroscience research
· To use data describing brain processes to tackle questions about the human mind
· To integrate and compare experimental results obtained by multiple scientific methods.
Summary of Course
1. Introduction and theoretical framework
2. Methods for studying the brain in action
3. Primary motor cortex, final common path, hemiplegia, anosognosia
4. Premotor cortex and action assignment
5. Visuomotor pathways
6. Supplementary motor area: physiology
7. Supplementary motor area: psychology. ‘Free will’
8. Apraxia and parietal lesions
9. Basal ganglia: physiology
10. Basal ganglia and movement disorders:
11. Self and action
12. Cerebellum: prediction, learning
13. Cerebellum: lesions and imaging studies in man
14. Mirror system and social cognition
15. Student-led question and answer session.
PSYC3211 ATTENTION AND AWARENESS ½ CU
Convenor: Prof Nilli Lavie
Email:
n.lavie@ucl.ac.ukAims:
This course will cover contemporary research on attention and consciousness involving the different disciplines of Psychological experiments, Neuropsychology, Functional Imaging, and Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
Objectives
Attention and consciousness are separate but strongly related cognitive functions. In the course the students should obtain understanding of both empirical research and theoretical perspectives of attention and of consciousness as well their relationship.
Summary of Course:
The course starts with a general introduction to the theoretical perspectives on what defines mental processes as conscious and how should attention relate to consciousness. It then proceeds to discuss the classical experimental paradigms used to dissociate conscious and unconscious processes. An important focus is then made on the extent to which unconscious processes can control thought emotion and behaviour. The role of attention in inducing lack of awareness in paradigms such as “inattentional blindness” and “change blindness” are discussed followed by a discussion of the ways in which attention can shape our conscious experience. New studies relating load theory of attention to consciousness and “executive control” of behaviour are also covered, and the key findings regarding the neural correlates and mechanisms of attention and consciousness revealed with functional imaging and magnetic stimulation studies are then taught. In addition, the course will cover infant development and neuropsychological disorders of attention and awareness.
PSYC3306: MATHEMATICAL COGNITION ½ CU
Convenor: Prof Brian Butterworth
Email: b.butterworth@ucl.ac.uk
Aims:
The student should have an understanding of the evolutionary basis, typical and atypical individual development, and adult abilities in mathematical cognition, and also its neural and genetic bases.
Objectives:
The student should be able to see how distinct methodological approaches can jointly contribute to understanding mathematical cognition. Be able to critically read and evaluate the various approaches and the associated theories.
Summary of Course:
Lectures: This is a course that aims to integrate several diverse methodologies, including experimental cognitive psychology, developmental psychology, neuropsychology, animal behaviour and ethology, anthropology, archaeology, neuroimaging, and computational modelling.
1. Cultural context of mathematics.
2. Animal mathematical capacities.
3. Infant capacities.
4. Learning to count.
5. Learning arithmetic.
6. Adult skills.
7. Acalculic breakdown I – independence of number processes.
8. Acalculic breakdown II – transcoding and calculation.
9. Numbers in body and space.
10. Neuroimaging – imaging numerical processes.
11. Developmental dyscalculia.
12. Genetics of numerical abilities – identifying the endophenotype.
13. Maths anxiety – is it real?
14. Mathematical prodigies – expertise vs innate capacities.
15. Mathematics education – cultural differences and principles.
ANATOMY3045 EYE AND BRAIN ½ CU
Convenor: Prof Alan Johnston
Email: a.johnston@ucl.ac.uk
Aims:
The aim is to provide students with an understanding of the neurobiological basis of visual perception.
Objectives:
To provide students with core knowledge about the functional anatomy and physiology of the visual pathway from the retina to higher cortical areas and how this knowledge can be used to explain perceptual experience
To introduce students to a variety of methods of investigating visual neurobiology including psychophysics, single cell recording, brain imaging, and the experimental study of patients with brain damage.
Summary of Course:
The course presents a multidisciplinary approach to vision. It will cover anatomical, physiological and psychological approaches and treat the neurobiology of vision as an integrated subject. It will examine the physiology and anatomy of cells in the retina and central pathways, and show the cell's properties underlie the spatio‑temporal processing carried out by the visual system as revealed by psychophysical experimentation. The functions of higher visual cortical areas will be studied through lectures on cortical specialisation for the processing of motion and colour as indicated by data from anatomical, physiological and neuropsychology investigations.
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PSYC9001B: ONE-TERM PSYCHOLOGY RESEARCH PROJECT ½ CU
Assessment: Project Report (2500-3500 words)
Students are required to produce an empirical, experimental piece of work on a psychological topic. Students will be responsible for conducting research under the supervision of a member of faculty. Students will meet with their supervisor to discuss the project at least once per week. This research project should culminate in a written report akin to a manuscript prepared for submission to a psychological journal. Please note that students can only take this course if they are able to find a member of faculty to supervise them.
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PSYC9002B: PSYCHOLOGY READINGS ½ CU
Assessment: Review Paper (approx 5000 words)
The Psychology Readings is designed to give students an opportunity to earn credit for reading articles and books in a specified area of psychology. The readings course will be supervised by a member of the psychology faculty who will meet with the student a minimum of once per week to discuss progress. The readings can be used to explore an area of psychology not offered in other courses by the department. Or, it can be used to allow the student to learn more about a previously taught topic in greater depth. The readings must culminate in the production of a written review paper. Please note that students can only take this course if they are able to find a member of faculty to supervise them.
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