Psychology

This course covers the main dementia subtypes and language change associated with each. In lab sessions, students work with language samples to understand the linguistic profiles of dementia first-hand.

This course offers an introduction to the field of psychology including concepts of human behavior as well as scientific research methods. It explores basic psychological processes including: attention, perception, motivation, emotion, negative and positive emotions, learning, memory, consciousness and its alterations, personality, etc. Additionally, this course discusses how scientific knowledge about human behavior and basic processes is applied to various specific fields of intervention in criminology: the study of lying, deception and simulation, ways to improve the memory of witnesses and victims, or the effect of traumatic events on the victims.

This course examines sensation and perception, with an emphasis on the psychology of seeing. Specific topics include the following: examination of the functional properties of sensory systems (e.g., auditory system, color vision, vestibular system, touch and kinaesthesia); phenomenology of sensation and perception; psychophysical limits of perceptual systems; goals of sensory coding; structure and evolution of sensory systems; theories of perception. 

This course examines psychology as a biological science. The emphasis is on understanding the links between the neurobiology of the brain, sensory organs and nervous system and human behavior. It covers diverse perspectives on psychology from various experimental traditions and levels of analysis – behavioral, cognitive and neurophysiological. Topics include memory and cognition, animal learning, psychobiology, perception, and abnormal psychology.

This course examines research and theory on memory. The focus is primarily on animal research but the application of this work to the understanding of memory in humans will be made explicit. For example, the implications of this work for our understanding of memory disorders in humans, and the origin and treatment of clinical disorders will be discussed. The laboratory component of the course will provide “hands on” experience in observing various aspects of rodent behavior that are frequently used in studies on the psychobiology of memory and an opportunity for small group discussion/debate on various issues relevant to the material described in the lecture component of the course.

This course provides a fundamental knowledge of philosophies and concepts for human development and social policy – its definition, theory, approaches and methods for studying social issues and development. The course also discusses the interdisciplinary nature and relevance of social policy for government policy and civil society engagement, based on global and regional frameworks – including case studies of national social policy and practices in various fields.

This course introduces a holistic approach to an exploration of normal patterns of development from infancy to old age. Social and familial conditions affecting growth at different stages in the life-cycle will be studied, together with related problems of adaptation and adjustment.

This course deals with meaning-making in art, its perception, and its cognitive basis. It has a special focus on visual works of art - that is, on how artists construct meaning in vision - but also integrates literary texts. In both domains, it conveys insight into the way in which artists creatively exploit fundamental properties of both visual and textual processing in order to produce given meaning effects. It shows how artists’ formal techniques are attuned to the properties of the visual and cognitive system, notably on the basis of recent findings in neuroaesthetics and the psychology of perception. Furthermore, this course provides a general insight into the reasons why artists’ meaning-making techniques are so efficient. Therefore, it develops the necessary tools for the precise analysis of meaning in visual and textual media, also outside the purely aesthetic domain.

This course provides an understanding of psychological knowledge in several inter-related domains concerned with the biological bases of behavior. Emphasis will be laid on basic experimental science from analysis of molecular and synaptic events, single cell studies, brain activity scans, and clinical studies, and the relationship between cognitive, emotional, behavioral, neurological, and physiological processes are examined.

This course provides a broad-based understanding of classic and contemporary theory and research in Physiological Psychology, including the development of the nervous system; the biological basis of human and non-human animal behavior, typical and atypical neuropsychology; evolutionary theories of behavior; the roles of hormones, genetics, and epigenetics in behavior; and critical evaluation of cognitive neuroimaging techniques.