New Course: PSYC341–Psychology of Learning and Memory

PSYC 341:  Psychology of Learning and Memory

Instructor: Dr. Kyungmi Kim, Department of Psychology

Class meetings: F 1:20 – 4:10PM, Location TBA

How is holding in our mind a seldom-­used phone number just long enough to dial it different from our memory for our own birthday parties in the past? Why and how do our memories sometimes get lost? How do our emotions affect what/how we learn and remember? How do culture and language shape our memory for our own past?

If any of above questions interest you or if memory was one of your favorite topics in any of the Psychology classes and you want to more about it, this new course would be a great match.

This course is designed to orient students to the fascinating world of human memory.  Students will gain an in-­depth understanding of the psychological and neural processes underlying human learning and memory. Topics to be covered include, but not limited to, different memory systems and frameworks (e.g., working memory, episodic memory), remembering and forgetting (e.g., phenomenal experience of remembering, various mechanisms of forgetting), reality/source monitoring (e.g., true and false memories), and the influence of emotional and social factors on learning and memory (e.g., social remembering).  Students will explore these topics through critical reading/discussion of theoretical and empirical research articles in the fields of cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.

Course requirements include weekly reaction papers on assigned readings, class presentation and discussion and a final paper (a research proposal or a review paper).

If you are interested in taking this course in the coming Spring, please do not hesitate to communicate your interests to Dr. Kyungmi Kim via email (kkim01@wesleyan.edu).