PSYC 731 (M1) - Brain and Behavior
Brain and Behavior
Term: Fall 2024 - Full Term (08/26/2024 - 12/09/2024)
Grade Mode: Letter Grading
CRN: 12863
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | F | 9:10am - 12:00pm | PANDRA P368 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | F | 9:10am - 12:00pm | PANDRA P368 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | TR | 8:10am - 9:30am | MCC 110 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | T | 9:10am - 12:00pm | PANDRA P502 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | MW | 2:10pm - 3:30pm | MCC 245 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | TR | 2:10pm - 3:30pm | MCC 350 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | MW | 8:40am - 10:00am | MCC 245 |
You have probably heard of the famous clinical case of H. M. and his loss of memory. Have you wondered why he was unable to remember some things? In this class we will discuss the areas of the brain in mammals that contribute towards spatial cognition and memory. In particular, the hippocampal formation is part of a pathway that is highly involved in these processes. We will examine how cellular and synaptic changes in the hippocampal complex are involved in the formation and retrieval of new memories and how this area communicates with other parts of the cortex. We will examine how brain rhythms like theta contribute to this process. We will also examine interesting cells that appear to allow us to generate a cognitive map of our environment. Much of our time will be spent discussing articles that focus on non-human animals, but we will also be discussing clinical research with people. We will also consider the role of the hippocampal formation more broadly in conditioning/learning, timing, planning, and episodic memory.
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | TR | 11:10am - 12:30pm | MCC 230 |
Curiosity is fundamental to the human experience: it's what makes us ask questions, Google things, experiment, and explore. The goal of this course is to introduce students to research on curiosity through the lens of cognitive science. We will consider questions like: What kinds of situations make people curious? How does curiosity manifest in the brain? Are children more curious than adults? Is curiosity present in non-human animals? How does curiosity shape decision making, memory, and learning? Through reading, writing, and discussion, students will learn about these topics and deepen their understanding of empirical research in psychology.
Dr. Emily Liquin will be joining the psychology department in the fall of 2024.
Research Interests
Her research investigates how humans learn and discover new things, with a particular focus on curiosity, exploration, and question asking. For example, her recent work has asked: How are curiosity, exploration, and question asking shaped by a person’s prior knowledge, experience, and context? And how does information-seeking behavior change between childhood and adulthood? Dr. Liquin takes an interdisciplinary approach to answering these questions, incorporating perspectives and methods from cognitive, developmental, and social psychology, philosophy, and artificial intelligence. Her ultimate goal is to gain a comprehensive understanding of how humans play an active role in their own learning—with the potential to inform interventions to improve learning in everyday settings. Lab Website: liquinlab.github.io
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | MW | 9:10am - 10:30am | MCC 110 |
What is the difference between the "mind" and the "brain"? What does it mean to have a mind? What is "artificial" about Artificial Intelligence? Answers to these questions determine how we scientifically study the human mind. This course will introduce Cognitive Science to answer the age old question: How can we scientifically study something that is as intangible as our "minds"? We are going to look at relevant developments in psychology, philosophy of mind, computer science, and linguistics. The interdisciplinary nature of this course will teach students to tackle both theoretical (i.e., critical thinking on deep philosophical questions about the mind) and quantitative (i.e., solving equations to train an artificial neuron) problems.
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | MW | 12:40pm - 2:00pm | MCC 350 |
Start Date | End Date | Days | Time | Location |
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8/26/2024 | 12/9/2024 | T | 9:40am - 12:30pm | MCC 350 |