Cognitive Neuroscience (Psyc 3031)
T/Th 11:00 - 12:50, Fall 1997
Frontier Hall 45
Department of Psychology
University of Denver

Course Goals The primary goal of this course is to understand the relationship between brain and behavior. As we go through the course, you should keep in mind the following question: How are complex behaviors mediated by the brain? You will come away from this course with answers to this question for a range of mental functions, including object recognition, spatial processing, attention, language, memory, planning, and emotions. You will learn how these answers were discovered using a collection of techniques in cognitive neuroscience. These techniques include behavioral tasks, brain imaging, and electrical recording methods applied to neurologically intact humans, patients with brain damage, and nonhuman animals. By understanding both current findings and techniques in cognitive neuroscience, you will be in a position to evaluate new developments in the field and to design experiments that can further enhance our knowledge of the relationship between brain and behavior.

Required Text Banich, M.T. (1997). Neuropsychology: The Neural Bases of Mental Function. Boston, Houghton Mifflin Company.

Evaluation Your grade will consist of the following:

Let's consider each of these in turn.

Quiz The 40 question, fill-in-the-blank style quiz covers the basics of neural communication and anatomy (Chapter 1). This is the only test that requires rote memorization of terminology. But, learning these terms early in the course will help you to understand the more substantive issues covered later. And, the answers to the quiz will be provided during the class preceding the quiz. No tricks here: the quiz is about learning the basics you'll need to get the most out of the course.

Midterms Midterm 1 comprises 4 short answer/essay questions covering methods, hemispheric specialization, motor control, and object recognition (Chapters 2-5). Midterm 2 will comprise 5 short answer/essay questions covering spatial processing, attention, language, memory, and executive function (Chapters 6-10). These tests require you to understand the fundamental issues involved in each of these topics. This material will be covered in both the text and the lectures. In addition, a pool of potential questions (from which the midterm questions will be selected) will be provided prior to each midterm. Again, no tricks: the midterms are about thinking through the fundamental issues in the relationship between brain and behavior.

Final Paper The final paper (10-15 double-spaced pages) requires a discussion of the following:

How can new data further advance our understanding of the relationship between brain and behavior? That is, if you could design a new study that could make contributions to cognitive neuroscience, what measure(s)/method(s) would you use and with what population(s)? What could the results tell us about the brain-behavior relationship?

You should be in a good position to answer this question for the final paper because the course focuses on understanding both current findings in cognitive neuroscience and the ways in which researchers discovered these findings using available methods. In your paper, you may build on experiments and research questions covered in class or you may explore other areas of cognitive neuroscience that interest you. In either case, your paper should - in a concise, scientific style: 1) provide background on the area, 2) describe your proposal for collecting new data, and 3) explain the potential implications of such data for our understanding of the relationship between brain and behavior.

This assignment will require careful preparation and thought. The following timeline is designed to ensure that you make progress on your paper (5 of the 35 points for the paper will come from simply making each of the 5 deadlines before the final due date) and that you receive feedback on it before turning in the final version.

NOTE: For each day that the final paper is late, 5% will be deducted from your final paper grade.

Attendance and Participation You are expected to come to class prepared by reading the assigned readings and thinking carefully about them. Your active participation in the course will help you to get the most out of it.

Grading Policy Grades are not curved; they are based on percentages:

Class Schedule

Additional Materials of Interest Journals

Books

Anderson, J. R. (1995). Cognitive psychology and its implications. New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, fourth edition.

Calvin, W. H., & Ojemann, George, A. (1994). Conversation's with Neil's brain. Reading, MA: Addison-Wesley.

Ellis, A., & Young, A. (1988). Human cognitive neuropsychology. London: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates, Inc.

Gazzaniga, M. S. (Ed.). (1994). The cognitive neurosciences. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Johnson, M. H. (Ed.). (1993). Brain development and cognition: A reader. Oxford: Blackwell.

Kosslyn, S., & Andersen, R. (Eds.). (1992). Frontiers in cognitive neuroscience. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

LaPlante, E. (1993). Seized: Temporal lobe epilepsy as a medical, historical, and artistic phenomenon. New York: Harper Collins.

McClelland, J. L., Rumelhart, D. E., & PDP Research Group (Eds.). (1986). Parallel distributed processing. Volume 2: Psychological and biological models. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Ogden, J. (1996). Fractured minds: A case-study approach to cognitive neuropsychology. New York: Oxford Press.

Posner, M. (Ed.). (1989). Foundations of cognitive science. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Reisburg, D. (1997). Cognition: Exploring the science of the mind. New York: Norton.

Rumelhart, D. E., McClelland, J. L., & PDP Research Group (Eds.). (1986). Parallel distributed processing. Volume 1: Foundations. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

Schacter, D. L. (1996). Searching for memory: The brain, the mind, and the past. New York: Basic Books.