This course will focus on behavioural, psychological, neurobiological, and neuropsychological processes underlying the acquisition of new knowledge and its subsequent consolidation and retrieval in human animals. Where possible, attempts will be made to integrate these levels in a multidisciplinary framework. Additionally, the application of learning and memory paradigms in clinical and cognitive research will be discussed. After this course, the student is able to (1) explain and relate key experimental paradigms, empirical phenomena, neurocognitive mechanisms, concepts, and theories concerning the acquisition, consolidation, and retrieval of new knowledge, (2) apply experimental paradigms, neurocognitive mechanisms, concepts, and theories from the psychology of learning and memory to anecdotal, experimental, developmental, and clinical data, cases, and studies.
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The course starts with an overview of behavioural phenomena, basic principles, and current psychological theories and (computational) models in the research fields of associative and non-associative learning. The second part will focus on the encoding phase of memory acquisition including mnemonic strategies for better learning, the consolidation phase of memory stabilization and integration including the role of sleep, and the retrieval phase including its role for further strengthening the retrieved memory traces. The focus in the third part is on lifespan changes in learning and memory. Discussed are experimental psychological and neuroscientific research findings on normal (healthy) development and aging as well as pathologies associated with impaired learning and memory functions from childhood to older age. In this context, also neuropsychological assessment methods will be introduced.
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Written exam with open questions
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