PSYCHOLOGY
(AS) {PSYC}
PSYC 001 is normally a prerequisite for Psychology courses
numbered 100 and above. Students who have completed
the equivalent of the AP course in Psychology are encouraged
to enroll in any 100-level course offered. Freshman
seminars, when offered, have a similar prerequisite.
001. Introduction to Experimental
Psychology. (C) Living
World Sector. All classes. Staff. Students seeking extended
challenges are invited to apply for admission to the
Benjamin Franklin Seminar section, when offered. A
CGS section of this course may also be offered. See
current timetable.
Introduction to the basic topics of psychology, including
learning, motivation, cognition, development, abnormal,
physiological, social, and personality.
SM 006. Declining Birth Rates: Causes
and Consequences. (C) Norman. Freshman Seminar.
Decisions to have children are influenced by cultural norms
and economic constraints. Cultural and economic conditions
have changed drastically, and, as a result, recent years
have seen a sharp, nearly worldwide decline in birth rate,
and exceedingly low birth rates in contemporary Europe
and Japan. The history, causes, and consequences
of this "fertility transition" are the central
topics of this seminar. Historical topics include
the emergence of the concept of deliberate family size
restriction, which fostered birth rate declines in some
countries long before the introduction of efficient contraceptives. Causes
include the escalating cost of rearing children. Consequences
include population aging and resultant difficulty funding
pensions for retirees. (The "social security
crisis" is much worse in Europe and Japan than in
the USA.) The seminar also considers contemporary women's
career-family conflicts, which illustrate some of the psychological,
sociological, and economic factors with which the seminar
is concerned.
020. Probability and Statistics.
(C) May
be counted as a General Requirement Course in Formal
Reasoning & Analysis. Class of 2009 & prior only.
White. This is a Benjamin Franklin Scholars course.
An introduction to statistics, statistical methods, and probability
theory. The course will cover: the nature of statistical
data; estimation and hypothesis testing; concepts of statistical
inference; measures of central tendency and variability;
elementary probability; ANOVA; regression and correlation;
non-parametric methods. Emphasis will be placed on
application to research in the behavioral sciences. In
addition, there will be an introduction to some of the
most popular computer-based statistical programs.
SM 050. Human Nature. (A) May be counted as a General Requirement
Course in Science studies. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Staff. Freshman Seminar.
A seminar on the natural heritage of our species, based on
historically ordered original sources and active weekly
discussion. Seven perspectives from western civilization
will progress from earlier mythological, literary, and
philosophical sources to the scientific paradigm of inquiry
into basic human nature. Exemplars will be drawn
from antiquity, the later Greco-Roman period, the medieval
era, the Enlightenment, the mid-nineteenth century, the
early twentieth century, and the present time. Students
should have : 1) fluent command of oral and written English;
2) curiosity about natural science in liberal education;
3) serious intellectual commitments.
107. (CIS 140, COGS001, LING105,
PHIL044) Introduction to Cognitive Science. (A) Staff. Prerequisite(s): An Introductory
Course in Computer Science, Linguistics, Neuroscience,
Philosophy, or Psychology.
Cognitive Science is founded on the realization that many
problems in the analysis of human and artificial intelligence
require an interdisciplinary approach. The course
is intended to introduce undergraduates from many areas
to the problems and characteristic concepts of Cognitive
Science, drawing on formal and empirical approaches from
the parent disciplines of computer science, linguistics,
neuroscience, philosophy and psychology. The topics
covered include Perception, Action, Learning, Language,
Knowledge Representation, and Inference, and the relations
and interactions between such modules. The course
shows how the different views from the parent disciplines
interact, and identifies some common themes among the theories
that have been proposed. The course pays particular
attention to the distinctive role of computation in such
theories, and provides an introduction to some of the main
directions of current research in the field. It is
a requirement for the BA in Cognitive Science, the BAS
in Computer and Cognitive Science, and the minor in Cognitive
Science, and it is recommended for students taking the
dual degree in Computer and Cognitive Science.
L/R 109. (BIBB109, BIOL219) Introduction
to Brain and Behavior. (C) Living World Sector. All classes. Flanagan-Cato/Fluharty.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001 and BIOL 101 or Permission
of Instructor.
Introduction to the structure and function of the vertebrate
nervous system, including the physiological bases of sensory
activity, perception, drive, motor control and higher mental
processes. The course is intended for students interested
in the neurobiology of behavior.
Familiarity with elementary physics and chemistry will be
helpful.
111. (VLST211) Perception. (C) May be counted as a General Requirement
Course in Living World. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Backus. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001. A CGS section may be
given.
How the individual acquires and is guided by knowledge about
objects and events in their environment.
L/R 117. (BIBB217, VLST217) Visual
Neuroscience. (B) Staff.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001, PSYC/BIBB 109, COGS 101 or
VLST 101.
An introduction to the scientific study of vision, with an
emphasis on the biological substrate and its relation to
behavior. Topics will typically include physiological
optics, transduction of light, visual thresholds, color
vision, anatomy and physiology of the visual pathways,
and the cognitive neuroscience of vision.
121. Learning. (C) Rescorla. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
A CGS section may be given.
Changes in behavior resulting from past experience. The acquisition,
maintenance, and elimination of behavior, and the effects
of previous experience on responses to new situations.
125. (BIBB370) Drugs, Brain &
Mind. (B) Peoples.
Prerequisite(s): BIBB 109/PSYC 109.
The course will begin with a review of basic concepts in pharmacology:
routes of drug administration, drug metabolism, the dose
response curve, tolerance and sensitization. Following
a brief overview of cellular foundations of neuropharmacology
(cell biology,synaptic and receptor function), the course
will focus on various classes of drugs used to treat neuropsychiatric
disorders including, among others, depression, schizophrenia
and anxiety. We will additionall consider mechanisms
mediating the mind-altering, addictive and neurotoxic effects
of abused drugs.
127. (BIBB227) Physiology of Motivated
Behaviors. (C) May be counted as a General Requirement Course in Living World. Class
of 2009 & prior only. Grill. Prerequisite(s): PSYC
001.
This course focuses on evaluating the experiments that have
sought to establish links between brain structure (the
activity of specific brain circuits) and behavioral function
(the control of particular motivated and emotional behaviors). Students
are exposed to concepts from regulatory physiology, systems
neuroscience, pharmacology, and endocrinology and read
textbook as well as original source materials. The
course focuses on the following behaviors: feeding, sex,
fear, anxiety, the appetite for salt, and food aversion. The
course also considers the neurochemical control of responses
with an eye towards evaluating the development of drug
treatments for: obesity, anorexia/cachexia, vomiting, sexual
dysfunction, anxiety disorders, and depression.
131. (BIBB231, BIOL231) Animal
Behavior. (C) May
be counted as a General Requirement Course in Living
World. Class of 2009 &
prior only. Seyfarth/Cheney/White. Prerequisite(s): PSYC
00l or BIOL 102.
The evolution of social behavior in animals, with special
emphasis on group formation, cooperation among kin, mating
systems, territoriality and communication.
133. (BIBB233) Brain, Behavior
& Evolution. (C) Staff.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001 or BIBB 109 or BIOL 102 or permission of instructor.
This course will provide an introduction to the experimental
analysis of natural animal behavior, and its neurobiological
basis.
Behavior is examined in an evolutionary and ecological context,
questions are focused on the neural processes that allow
animals to carry out critical tasks such as locating prey
and finding mates. The course is comparative and an
effort is made to identify common principles in sensory processing
and brain function.
135. (LING135) Psychology of Language.
(C) Dahan.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001 or LING 101. A CGS section
may be offered.
This course describes the nature of human language, how it
is used to speak and comprehend, and how it is learned.
Subtopics include animal communication, language pathologies,
second-language learning, and language in special populations
(such as Down Syndrome and autistic children, and children
born deaf or blind).
L/R 149. (BIBB249) Cognitive Neuroscience.
(C) May
be counted as a General Requirement Course in Living
World. Class of 2009
& prior only. Thompson-Schill/Epstein. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001 or BIBB
109. A CGS section may be given.
The study of the neural systems that underlie human perception,
memory and language; and of the pathological syndromes
that result from damage to these systems.
151. Cognitive Psychology. (C) Trueswell. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
A CGS section may be given. A Benjamin Franklin Seminar
version of this course may be offered. See current
timetable.
Analysis of mental processes in adult humans: Attention, Pattern
recognition, Imagery, Memory, Action. Mental architecture.
153. (PPE 153) Judgments and Decisions.
(C) May
be counted as a General Requirement Course in Formal
Reasoning & Analysis. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Baron. A CGS section may be given.
Judgments, decisions under certainty and uncertainty, problem
solving, logic, rationality, and moral thinking.
155. Attention and Memory. (C) Jha. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001 or
BIBB 109.
A study of topics in human memory and attention including
an overview of current experiments investigating: multiple
memory systems, attentional selection, the interrelationship
between memory and attention, dysfunction due to disease
states and aging, exceptional functioning, and strategies
to improve memory and attentional processes. Particular
emphasis is given to the neural basis of cognitive processes.
159. Human Memory. (C) Kahana.
An introduction to the scientific study of humn memory, with
a particular emphasis on the interplay between theory and
experiment.
Topics will include dual store models and the debate over
short-term meory, recognition memory for items and associations,
the role of time and context in memory formation and retrieval,
theories of association, memory for sequences, the influence
of prior knowledge on new learning, spatial and navigational
memory, perceptual learning, classification and function
learning, memory diorders, and developmental changes in memory
function.
160. Personality. (C) Staff. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
A CGS section may be given.
The development and maintenance of typical modes of behavior
and styles of life; dynamics of adjustment; theories of
personality.
162. Abnormal Psychology. (C) May be counted as a General Requirement
Course in Living World. Class of 2009 & prior only.
Staff. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001. A CGS section may be
given.
The concepts of normality, abnormality, and psychopathology;
symptom syndromes; theory and research in psychopathology
and psychotherapy.
168. Human Sexuality. (C) Distribution Course in Society. Class
of 2009 & prior only. Kurzban. Prerequisite(s): PSYC
001.
This course will cover topics ranging from the anatomy and
physiology of the human reproductive system to the cognitive
systems that underpin human sexual behavior. Throughout,
there will be an emphasis on the relationship between the
features of these physical and cognitive mechanisms and
the evolutionary functions these systems were designed
to serve.
170. Social Psychology. (C) Society Sector. All classes. Staff.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001. A CGS section may be given.
An overview of theories and research across the range of social
behavior from intra-individual to the group level including
the effects of culture, social environment, and groups
on social interaction.
172. Biocultural Psychology. (C) Staff. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
This course will present human psychology and behavior as
viewed by cultural psychologists on the other. The
presuppositions of each approach will be deeply examined
in order to separate tendentious disciplinary controversy
from useful contributions that each side makes to an understanding
of human behavior. Students will be challenged to
construct a synthetic view of human behavior that causally
articulates---rather than merely meshes---these two approaches
in order to achieve a better understanding of the causes
of human behavior, the distribution of ideas in social
systems, and their historical trajectories.
176. Human Reproductive Decisions:
Evolutionary and Ecological Perspectives. (C) Norman.
Human sex and fertility, emphasizing the strengths and weaknesses
of evolutionary and ecological approaches. Questions
to be addressed include: Why do some people begin having
sex before others? Why do some people use birth control
and others do not? Why do some people begin having
children in their teens and others in their 30's? Why
do some men "take responsibility" for their partners'
children and others avoid it? Why do some people
want to regulate people's reproductive decisions and others
do not?
180. Developmental Psychology.
(C) Society
Sector. All classes. Staff. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
A CGS section may be given.
A developmental perspective on the general empirical and theoretical
psychology of perception, cognition, language, learning,
comparative ethology, and socialization.
181. Cognitive Development. (C) Swingley. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
What infants and young children come to know about the world,
and how they learn it. Topics will include changes
in children's thinking, perceptual development, language
acquisition, and current theories of cognitive development
192. Psychological Testing. (C) Norman. Prerequisite(s): A course
in statistics.
History and social context of psychological testing; statistical
background; reliability, validity, and bias; tests of intelligence,
personality, and psychopathology; genetic and environmental
contributions to test performance; sensitivity, specificity,
and predictive power of clinical tests; lie detection.
Advanced Courses
Topics covered in the 200 level courses will change from term
to term. Not every course will be offered every term. Detailed
course descriptions will be available from the undergraduate
secretary before the preregistration period each semester.
SM 211. Special Topics in Perception. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 111 or 117 or
permission of Instructor.
SM 221. Special Topics in Learning. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 121.
SM 223. (BIBB423) Special Topics in Motivation. (C) Prerequisite(s): Psyc 109, 123 or
permission of the Instructor.
SM 233. Special Topics in Neuroethology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 133 or BIBB
233 or permission of instructor. Recommended BIBB
109 or BIOL 101/102. This seminar is intended for upper-level
undergraduates who have a strong interest in the biological
basis of behavior.
SM 241. Special Topics in Physiological and Comparative Psychology.
(C) Prerequisite(s):
PSYC 143 or 109.
SM 249. S/T Cognitive Neuroscience.
(C) Prerequisite(s):
PSYC 149/BIBB 249 or permission of instructor.
Hemispheric Differences. It has been known for over
a century that the right and left cerebral hemispheres
differ, to some degree, in their importance to various
cognitive functions, such as language and spatial processing. In
this seminar, we will review and discuss modern papers
utilizing many of the methods of cognitive neuroscience
to examine hemispheric differences across several cognitive
domains. There will be a heavy emphasis on theories
about the neural and computational asymmetries that underlie
these cognitive asymmetries.
SM 251. Special Topics in Cognitive Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 151, 157 or
107.
SM 253. (PPE 475) Special Topics in
Behavioral Law and Economics. (C) Baron. Prerequisite(s): Some background in judgments and
decisions, political psychology, philosophy, economics
or political science. Permission of instructor.
Economic theory has invaded legal scholarship and law schools,
in the form of "Law and economics." But the psychology
of judgments and decisions has invaded economic theory,
showing that people do not follow the classic model of
economic rationality. Many legal scholars, such as
Cass Sunstein, claim to have started a new field called
"Behavioral law and economics," which explores the implications of
psychology for legal theory. This seminar will review basic readings
in law and economics and then the recent review of the relevance of psychology. Topics
include risk regulation, liability, and regulation of politcal behavior.
SM 260. Special Topics in Personality. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 160 or 164.
SM 262. Special Topics in Abnormal Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 162.
SM 270. Special Topics in Social Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 170, 172 or
permission of instructor.
SM 278. Constraints on Family size.
(C)
Decisions to have children are influenced by cultural norms
and economic constraints. Cultural and economic conditions
have changed drastically, and, as a result, recent years
have seen a sharp, nearly worldwide decline in birth rate,
and exceedingly low birth rates in contemporary Europe
and Japan. The history, causes, and consequences
of this "fertility transition" are the central
topics of this seminar. Historical topics include
the emergence of the concept of deliberate family size
restriction, which fostered birth rate declines in some
countries long before the introduction of efficient contraceptives. Causes
include the escalating cost of rearing children. Consequences
include population aging and resultant difficulty funding
pensions for retirees. (The "social security
crisis" is much worse in Europe and Japan than in
the USA.) The seminar also considers contemporary women's
career-family conflicts, which illustrate some of the psychological,
sociological, and economic factors with which the seminar
is concerned. Non-BFS students do not need special permission
to enroll. Additional information is available at
http://psych.upenn.edu/~norman/syl278p05.htm.
SM 280. Special Topics in Developmental
Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 180 or permission of instructor.
Special Topics in Developmental Psychology
299. Individual Scholarly Research.
(C)
Individual research of a scholarly nature, under the supervision
of a faculty member, leading to a written paper. Normally
taken in the junior or senior year.
SM 311. (VLST212) Research Experience
in Perception. (C) Richards. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 111 or permission of instructor.
Experiments examining auditory and visual perceptual processing. Exercises
examining stimulus and response measures, replications
of classic perceptual experiments on contrast masking and
pattern/object perception.
SM 321. Research Experience in Learning.
(C) Rescorla.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 121 or permission of instructor.
Students will conduct research in elementary learning processes. Initially
the class will meet as a whole to conduct some present
experiments which provide an initial basis for a short
report.
Then students will work in small groups to formulate, conduct,
and write up projects of their own.
SM 327. Research Experience in Behavioral
Neuroscience. (C) Grill/Peoples. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 109, PSYC 127 or permission of instructor.
Students conduct supervised experiments on the physiological
basis of motivation. Topics will be chosen from the
intersection of issues in taste and nutrition, such as
the ability of animals to take in specific food substances
needed to maintain themselves. Class meets for lecture,
discussion, and conduct of an experiment.
SM 331. Research Experience in Animal
Behavior. (C) White.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology 131 or BIBB 231, BIOL 231
or permission of instructor.
Students will learn how to study scientifically the behavior
of animals. We will take an evolutionary and ecological
approach to studying several different types of behavior
across different species in both laboratory and field environments. Students
will gain experience designing and conducting animal behavior
experiments as well as analyzing results and presenting
their findings.
SM 335. Research Experience in Language.
(C) Dahan.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 135 or permission of instructor.
Students will work in research teams to read intensively in
an aspect of language learning, and then to design and
conduct an experiment with young children. Initial
meetings will discuss the projects of the various teams.
Later meetings will involve oral presentation of the results.
SM 343. Research Experience in Neuroethology.
(C) Prerequisite(s):
PSYC 111, 131, 109, or permission of instructor.
This course will focus on research in comparative psychology,
with emphasis on the analysis of animal behavior and sensory
systems. Research will be conducted on a variety
of different species, from electric fish to humans. A
major goal of the course will be to give participants experience
with all aspects of research, including observation, experimental
design, hypothesis formulation and evaluation, and the
analysis and presentation of data.
349. Research Experience in Cognitive
Neuroscience. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 149 or permission of the instructor.
Brain imaging, particularly functional magnetic resonance
imaging (fMRI), is a promising state-of-the-art tool used
to study specialized human brain regions that are involved
in cognitive functions. In the first half of the
course, we will review the basics of the fMRI technique,
current experimental design and analysis strategies, and
discuss the strengths and weaknesses of neuroimaging as
a tool for cognitive neuroscientists.
In the second half of the course, students will form into
groups and propose a new experiment. As a team, you
will program the experiment, acquire the fMRI data, and analyze
your data. Each student will submit a paper describing the
project and each group will give a presentation of their
research.
SM 351. Research Experience in Cognitive
Psychology. (C) Trueswell. Prerequisite(s): At least, two 100-level psychology courses,
including PSYC 151, and one semester of statistics, or
permission of instructor.
Students will explore topics in human memory, knowledge representation,
attention, and language processing. Laboratory exercise
will include replications of major experiments and novel
extensions permitting students to develop psychological
hypotheses and the experimental rationale to test them.
SM 353. Research Experience in Decision
Making. (C) Baron.
Prerequisite(s): Some prior familiarity with decision
making (e.g.
Psyc 153) or statistics would be helpful and students must
be willing to deal with computer programs (with help).
This course will focus on medical decision making.
After some background reading and homework, groups of students
will design experiments, analyze the data, and write
reports. Possible topics include decision biases,
judgments of the benefits of treatment or prevention,
adaptation to disability, and the development and evaluation
of decision aids. The experiments will be done
on the World Wide Web.
SM 362. Research Experience in Abnormal
Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 162 and statistics, or permission of instructor.
Students will collect, analyze, and write up a research project
in the domain of psychopathology, broadly construed. Reanalysis
of elements of large data sets, such as the National Depression
Collaborative Studies, will also be done.
SM 364. Research Experience on the
Theory of Persons. (C) Williams.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 164 or permission of instructor.
Personality theories rest on two traditions of measurement:
one focuses on general trends and population averages,
the other on particulars of individual cases. This
seminar will explore these traditions by designing and
comparing two experimental instruments, one rooted in each
methodology.
The seminar will contrast the assumptions underlying each
tradition, and examine the results obtained with the expesrimental
instruments in terms of the inferences--behavioral and theoretical--they
permit.
SM 370. Research Experience in Social
Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s):
PSYC 170 or permission of instructor.
Students will design, conduct, and report on an empirical
question in social psychology. The research may involve
experiments, content analysis, cross-cultural comparison,
interviewing, observations, or other methods. Class discussions
will help students formulate their projects and provide
an opportunity for reports.
SM 372. Research Experience in Biocultural
Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): Basic Statistics Course.
The areas of research that students will be able to choose
from in this course will include (1) mechanisms of social
learning such as prestige bias and conformism; (2) essentialism
of species and ethnic categories; (3) narrative memory;
and (4) experimental economics.
Students will develop a hypothesis, design an experiment,
carry it out, and write an analysis of the results.
SM 374. Research Experience in Evolutionary
Psychology. (C) Kurzban. Prerequisite(s): Any basic Statistics course.
In this course, students will, in consultation with the instructor,
develop hypotheses and then design, carry out, and write
up original research in evoluionary psychology. Topics
will focus on adaptations for social life, including: social
categorization, cooperation, social exclusion, mating,
friendship, and so on.
SM 386. Research Experience in Developmental
Psychology. (C) Prerequisite(s): PSYC 180 and Stat 111 (or its equivalent)
or permission of instructor.
This class will focus on observational methods of studying
children, with attention to the entire scope of the research
process.
Readings and class discussion will be aimed at supporting
the research projects which each student will do. Working
individually or in groups, students will define a research
question relevant to some issue in Developmental Psychology,
develop an appropriate observational measure, use the measure
to observe young children in a naturalistic setting, and
analyze and interpret the findings.
399. Individual Empirical Research.
(C)
Individual research involving data collection.
Students do independent empirical work under the supervision
of a faculty member, leading to a written paper. Normally
taken in the junior or senior year.
SM 400. Senior Honors Seminar in Psychology.
(C) Thompson-Schill.
Open to senior honors candidates in psychology. A two-semester
sequence supporting the preparation of an honors thesis
in psychology. Students will present their work in
progress and develop skills in written and oral communication
of scientific ideas.
SM 407. (BIBB451) Behavioral Genetics.
(C) Price.
Prerequisite(s): Basic statistics or permission of instructor.
This course will cover basic principles of human and animal
behavior genetics, including the genetics of normal variation
as well as extreme phenotypes represented by behavioral,
psychiatric and neurologic disorders. The course
will focus on methods necessary to critically evaluate
research findings on normal and abnormal human behavior. Animal
models will also be reviewed.
413. (MUSC090) Psychology of Music.
(C) Narmour.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
This course brings together two seemingly very different subjects,
the art of music and the science of psychology. Parallel
theories, empirical evidence, and demonstrations of how
fundamental psychological processes are used in the musical
repertory will explore common convergences between the
two fields. Major subjects covered include psychophysics;
perception and cognition of melody, rhythm, harmony, and
timbre; musical structures; learning, memory, tonality,
and musical style; development; emotion, affect, and aesthetics;
performance; social psychology; neural processing; and
the biological orgins of music.
SM 431. (BIOL432) Topics in Behavioral
Ecology. (C) Cheney. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 131 or PSYC 133 or BIOL 321/BIBB 231.
The aim of this course will be to provide advanced undergraduates
with a detailed review of a number of research areas in
behavioral ecology. Topics will change each year,
and students will be able to take the course more than
once.
SM 439. (BIBB460) Neuroendocrinology.
(C) Flangan-Cato. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 109. formerly Psyc 139.
This course is designed to examine the various roles played
by the nervous and endocrine systems in controlling both
physiological processes and behavior. First, the course
will build a foundation in the concepts of neural and endocrine
system function. Then, we will discuss how these
mechanisms form the biological underpinnings of various
behaviors and their relevant physiological correlates. We
will focus on sexual and parental behaviors, stress, metabolism,
neuroendocrine-immune interactions, and mental health.
SM 441. (BIBB441) Genetics, Evolution,
and Behavior. (C) Norman.
Genetic and environmental components of I.Q., personality,
and psychopathology. Evolutionary psychology; basic
evolutionary theory; evolution of altruistic, cooperative,
and competitive behavior. The course develops and
makes extensive use of elementary mathematical and statistical
models.
SM 451. Animal Communication. (C) Seyfarth. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 131/BIBB
231/ BIOL 231 or permission of the instructor.
This course will review recent research on communication of
animals, with particular emphasis on the vocalizations
of birds, dolphins, whales, monkeys, and apes. We
will consider the neural mechanisms that underlie signals,
the information they provide to listeners, and we will
examine how communication functions in social interactions. We
will also discuss the possible parallels that may exist
between the communication and human language.
SM 453. Research Experience in Decision
Analysis. (C) Baron.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 153 is recommended.
Students will learn to use the techniques for formal analysis
of decision, such as occur in medicine, business, government,
and personal life. Two major types of analysis will
be considered, those emphasizing uncertainty and those
emphasizing tradeoffs of conflicting goals.
Students will conduct projects in small groups and report
on those projects in class. This course fulfills the
research experience requirement for psychology majors.
SM 459. Visual Cognition. (C) Epstein.
This course examines the interaction of vision with higher-prder
cognitive processes. In plain terms: once the visual
system has recovered a set of surfaces from the surrounding
scene, what does the brain then do with that information
to make it useful? Possible topics will include:
object and face recognition, attention, awareness, mental
imagery, spatial cognition, and action. Particular
emphasis will be placed on cognitive neuroscientific work
that addresses these topics.
SM 462. Developmental Psychopathology.
(C) Prerequisite(s):
PSYC 162 or 160 or 180.
Students in this course will study major theories in developmental
psychopathology. Current knowledge about disorders
of cognitive, emotional and social functioning observed
in children and their determinants will be discussed. Clinical
applications (diagnosis, assessment, and psychotherapy)
will also be considered.
SM 471. Primate Behavior. (C) Seyfarth. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001
and 131 or 133.
This course will review what is currently known about the
evolution, ecology, and behavior of our closest animal
relatives, the nonhuman primates. Topics to be covered
include the divergence of New World monkleys, Old World
monkeys, and Apes; group formation and territoriality,
mating systems; kinship, dominance, and reciprocity; social
relationships, tool use, and intelligence.
474. Cooperation in Groups. (C) Kurzban. Prerequisite(s): PSYC 001.
Humans are unique in their abilities to cooperate in large
groups of non-kin. In this course, we will explore the
evolutionary origins of this phenomenon, and look at relevant
theory research in social psychology, anthropology, and
economics.
SM 475. (PPE 475) Philosophy, Politics
and Economics. (C) Baron. Students will write several brief papers about the reading and
one longer seminar paper on one policy issue.
The philosophy of utilitarianism, intended as a basis for
government, holds that government should try to increase
total good (or, looking at it from the other side, decrease
total bad). Modern governments try to do this in
several ways: economic theory itself is partly utilitarian;
some forms of cost-benefit analysis are more explicitly
utilitarian; and some citizens and politicians adopt this
as their own goal. Two impediments stand in the way
of this program: 1., the difficulty of measuring utility;
and, 2., the existence of powerful non-utilitarian intuitions
about fairness, agency, and politcal participation itself. This
seminar will first introduce some relevant utilitarian
theory and some psychological research on utility measurement
and moral intuitions, and it will then discuss attempts
to apply utilitarianism to public policy, with particular
emphasis on health care and environmental issues.
Possible topics (somewhat up to the class) include health-care
rationing, Superfund and risk regulation in general, fisheries
regulation, the Food and Drug Administration's policies for
new drugs, population policy, active euthanasia, and global
warming (international equity issues, and the Geritol solution).
First-Year Graduate Courses
501. (COGS501, LING545) Mathematical
Foundations for Language and Communication Science I.
(D) Liberman.
This two-semester sequence will provide basic mathematical
modeling and algorithmic tools for interdisciplinary research
in animal, human or machine communication, in association
with the IRCS IGERT program.
Topics include signal processing, statistical modeling and
machine learning, information theory, game theory, and formal
language theory. The courses will be taught in a laboratory
setting, and will emphasize practical skills as well as basic
concepts.
502. (COGS502, LING546) Mathematical
Foundations for Language and Communication Science II.
(D) Liberman.
This two-semester sequence will provide basic mathematical
modeling and algorithmic tools for interdisciplinary research
in animal, human or machine communication, in association
with the IRCS IGERT program. Topics include signal
processing, statistical modeling and machine learning,
information theory, game theory, and formal language theory. The
courses will be taught in a laboratory setting, and will
emphasize practical skills as well as basic concepts.
SM 600. Proseminar in General Psychology.
(C)
Choice of up to sixteen half or full course units, covering
the range of subjects and approaches in academic psychology.
601. Systems Neuroscience Proseminar.
(C) Palmer.
Prerequisite(s): Permission of course director.
As a basic introduction to systems neuroscience, this course
begins with a treatment of useful mathematical tools and
examples of their application to linear and nonlinear neural
systems and to single and multiple spike train analysis. The
rest of the course consists of studies of individual systems
(including physiological, anatomical, and behavioral techniques)
and concludes with an overview of experimental and theoretical
studies at the cognitive level.
602. Neuroendocrinology and Neuroendocrine-immunology
Proseminar. (K) Flanagan-Cato. Prerequisite(s): Permission of course
director.
Neuroendocrine regulation and interactions with the immune
function will be covered. The focus of the lectures
will be on in-depth understanding of selected general areas
rather than being an exhaustive but shallow overview. Included
are core lectures on the neuroanatomy of the hypothalamus
and basic concepts of immunology. There will also
be group discussions of groundbreaking, innovative approaches
to these fields.
SM 603. (INSC595) Behavioral Neuroscience
Prosem. (C) Fulfills the "Brain" requirement.
Current research on the neural basis of behavior is organized
in six subsections: animal communication, sex behavior,
circadian rhythms, variety energy and water balance, synaptic
plasticity and learning, andcommunication, addiction. Topics
are selected based on excitement surrounding recent research
developments. Each topic is analyzed initially at
thernal receptors behavioral level, followed by the systems
and the cell and molecularntrol of levels. Throughout
the course, attention is paid to the analysison of behavior
interesting stereotyped behaviors, e.g., bird song, lordosis,
licking,. whose description and neurology has provided
insights into the neuralal basis systems that contribute
to overall neural control of behavior. Attention is also
paid to the development of understanding of the neuroanatomy
of selected neural systems.
SM 604. (INSC592) Cognitive Neuroscience
Proseminar. (C) Farah.
Review of what has been learned about the neural mechanisms
underlying intelligent behavior in humans and animals. Traditional
topic areas of cognitive science are covered, specifically:
vision (early vision through object recognition), attention,
learning and memory, motor control, planning and problem-solving,
and language. Attempts are made to integrate results
of different neuroscience approaches to each topic, including
the study of human neurological patients, lesion studies
in animals, single unit recordings, neural network modelling,
and functional imaging techniques.
605. (INSC582, PHRM540) Behavioral
Neuropharmacology Proseminar. (C) Lucki and Staff. Prerequisite(s): Permission of course
director.
The effects of various drug classes on animal behavior are
examined. Behavioral studies identifying the neurochemical
mechanisms of action of psychotropic drugs are reviewed. Animal
models of neurological and psychiatric illnesses are discussed.
608. (OPIM900) Judgments and Decisions.
(C) Baron.
Thinking, judgment, decision making, beliefs, and probability,
with emphasis on faclacies and errors.
SM 609. (INSC573) Systems and Integrative Neuroscience. (A) Fulfills the Brain requirement.
611. (BSTA550, STAT500) Statistics for Psychologists.
(A)
612. (STAT501) Advanced Topics in Statistics. (B)
SM 630. (INSC630) Cognitive Neuroscience
of Memory. (C) Fulfills the Brain requirement.
This course will review the neural mechanisms of learning
and memory. Readings will include both seminal and cutting-edge
papers on topics ranging from perceptual memory to higher
order functions, including working memory, declarative
memory, skill learning, and semantic memory.
Within each topic we will attempt to integrate the results
of different neuroscience approaches, including the study
of human neurological patients, lesion studies and single
unit recordings in animals, neural network modeling, event-related
potentials, and functional imaging techniques.
631. (INSC631) Cognitive Neuroscience
of Affect. (C) Farah.
We will survey, and as far as possible, snythesize, three
bodies of literature on emotion and the brain, specifically:
(1) neuroimaging and pharmacologic studies of emotion and
the normal human brain; (2) the neuroscience of affective
disorders in humans; and (3) relevant studies of reinforcement
and learning in animals.
632. (INSC632) Cognitive Neuroscience
of Vision. (C) Epstein.
This course will review the neural basis of visual cognition. Emphasis
will be placed on linking cognitive theory to neuroscientific
methods. Topics will include object and face recognition,
scene perception, visual attention, mental imagery, and
visual awareness.
SM 664. Psychology of Human Nature.
(C) Williams.
Psychologists have studied people and their minds from many
perspectives, and when the findings and theories are put
together, a comprehensive portrait of human nature emerges. During
the semester, we will integrate major findings and concepts
from a variety of psychological subfields, including perception,
learning, cognitive, developmental, evolutionary, personality/social
and clinical psychology. Each week, we will consider
the contribution a particular subarea makes to the overall
picture we are developing, using original as well as text-book
sources.
In class, we will discuss what each week's material has contributed
to psychology's understanding of human nature as a whole. At
our last meeting, we will step back and examine the representation
of human nature that we have constructed: its strengths,
limitations, and relation to alternatives.
699. Individual Research for First-Year Graduate Students.
(C)
Seminars
SM 702. Experimental Psychopathology. (C)
SM 703. Special Topics in Psychology. (C)
SM 704. Research Methods and Statistical
Procedures for Social and Clinical Sciences. (C)
This course has three primary objectives: 1) developing criteria
and strategies for strong inference of causal relationships
in social and clinical psychology research; 2) examining
the array of research designs employed in the social/clinical
sciences together with the threats to internal and external
validity associated with each; 3) learning and applying
statistical analytical methods appropriate for questions
in the social/clinical sciences. The course will employ
a seminar format and a project-oriented approach to learning. Students
will be encouraged to utilize examples from their own research
programs in applying the design and analysis concepts covered
in the course.
SM 709. Special Topics in Clinical
Psychology. (C)
In this seminar we will review current evidence regarding
etiology of major psychosomatic disorders. We will
pay specific attention to current explanatory models that
invoke psychological contribution to disease.
SM 711. Basic Problems in Developmental II. (C)
SM 727. (INSC727) Electronics for
Scientists. (B) Andrews-Labenski.
Introductory electronics for scientists. A basic theory
and practicum course covering the principles of direct
and alternating current, test equipment, semiconductor
devices, analog and digital circuits, computer interfacing,
and signal processing.
SM 730. Special Topics in Motivation. (C)
SM 733. (INSC588) Special Topics in Vision. (C)
SM 736. Special Topics in Language. (C)
SM 739. Special Topics in Perception. (C)
SM 745. Special Topics in Cognitive Neuroscience. (C)
750. (INSC576, PHRM550) Special
Topics in Neuropsychopharmacology. (C) Lucki and Staff. Prerequisite(s): Permission of Instructor.
Biological issues relevant to neuropsychiatric illnesses are
covered in detail in four sections. The first section
covers clinical aspects of major psychiatric disorders
and includes some contact with patients. The second
section presents the neuroanatomy of the limbic systgem. In
the third section, emphasis is on the mechanisms of action
of psychotropic drugs, including antidepressants, antipsychotics,
anxiolytics, and stimulants. The final section covers
information relevant to understanding biological processes
that may be abnormal in neuropsychiatric illnesses, such
as stress, sleep, and circadian rhythms, as well as quantitative
genetics.
SM 751. Special Topics in Cognitive Psychology. (C)
SM 757. Language and Communication Sciences Research Seminar.
(M) Trueswell.
SM 769. Special Topics in Physiological Psychology. (C)
SM 770. (PSCI770) Special Topics in Social Psychology. (C)
SM 774. (COMM577) Attitude and Behavioral
Prediction. (C) Fishbein.
An introduction to the concept of attitude and its role in
behavioral prediction. The course will cover standardized
attitude measurement instruments (e.g., Thurstone, Likert,
Guttman and Semantic Differential Scales), expectancy-value
models, and psychological or individual level theories
of behavioral prediction and change (e.g., Health Belief
Model, Theory of Reasoned Action, Theory of Planned Behavior,
Social Cognitive Theory, Theory of Interpersonal Relations
and Subjective Culture, and the Transtheoretical Stage
of Change Model). Emphasis will be placed upon how
an understanding of theory and measurement is necessary
for developing effective behavior change interventions.
SM 810. Psychodiagnostic Testing. (A)
SM 811. Psychodiagnostic Interviewing. (A)
SM 815. Introductory Practicum. (B)
SM 820. Advanced Practicum. (C)
Intensive studies of single individuals including interviews,
tests, and experiments; also clinical experience at appropriate
community agencies.
999.
Individual Study and Research. (C)