Psychology

Current theories of psychiatric and neurological disorders are largely derived from what is known about drugs that can mimic the symptoms or that are used for treating these disorders. Basic knowledge of the effects of drugs and their underlying neurobiological mechanisms will therefore help to understand these theories better. This course facilitates the understanding of therapeutic and side effects of psychoactive drugs. The course presents major classes of CNS drugs and their use in prominent disorders, such as anxiety, depression, and schizophrenia, and presents the mechanisms and effects of a number of recreational drugs such as cocaine, LSD, and ketamine. The course recommends a basic understanding of neuroanatomy and neurotransmission as a prerequisite.

This course examines the cognitive development and changes that occur from early childhood to adolescence. Topics include: perception, attention, and memory; origin of communication; sensorimotor intelligence; representation systems; language; intuitive theories; intelligence and reasoning. 

This course explores the psychology of thought including characteristics that make it adaptive and flexible and limitations such as biases, memory, and processing capacity. Topics include: cognitive models of different facets of thinking; normative theories on logical thinking and theories of probability, statistics and economics; the difference between everyday and normative thinking; the influence of evolution on human thought.

This course explores the principles of neuropsychological and psychopharmacological intervention based on scientific knowledge about the relationship between the brain, behavior, and cognitive process. It discusses diagnostic and therapeutic applications to the main types of cognitive dysfunctions, brain injuries, and mental disorders.

The course examines the core phenomena of religious and spiritual belief and practice – faith, guilt and forgiveness, worship – through the lenses of different psychologies. Psychoanalysis, social, cognitive, behavioral, biological, evolutionary and positive psychology have all addressed these. Students explore their theoretical perspectives, methodologies, and the types of empirical data they have gathered. They also look at distinctive features of human culture that, while not specifically religious, are arguably fundamental to the experience of being human, such as art, fiction, and humor. Core to the course is consideration of multiple rationalities and the nature and status of different types and levels of knowledge – religious vs. scientific, psychological vs. sociological, evolutionary vs. humanistic – in understanding the human condition.

The course is an introduction to social theories in Artificial Intelligence (AI). The course draws reflections and theoretical comparisons between how humans engage in meaningful interactions with other humans and with social robots. The course begins with an overview of the standard and contrasting accounts of social cognition and its development, spanning from the Theory of Mind, embodied and situated approaches, and neural mirroring theories. Mainstream research paradigms to investigate human-robot interactions will be also presented. Finally, the course advances some current psychological and philosophical critical issues related to ethical, relational, and functional issues of using social robots as partners in human daily interactions.

People communicate, for the most part, through language. Language (speaking, listening, reading, and writing) is so ordinary and commonplace that one often forgets that it is actually a highly complex and miraculous capacity, with its own specific laws and peculiarities. Understanding the properties of the language system is very important for understanding and clarifying the process of communication. This course covers the following topics: how psychologists and linguists view the structure and functioning of the human mind and the place of language competence in it; how a language is acquired and the difference between language acquisition by children and acquisition by adults; the processes that take place in our heads when we perceive and interpret the written or spoken language; impairments in the ability to use language and how are they related to defects (congenital or acquired) in the brains; how and where language knowledge and language processing is represented in the brain, and how we can make its investigation measurable and visible; the genetic basis of language; and how participants in a conversation understand each other's intentions.