Mar 28, 2024  
Academic Catalog 2020-2021 
    
Academic Catalog 2020-2021 [ARCHIVED CATALOG]

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PSY-706 Cognitive and Affective Bases of Behavior

4 semester credits
This broadly conceived course includes knowledge derived from history, philosophy, early psychology, and contemporary neuroscience. Some of its foci, notably involving the nature of consciousness, address questions that remain insufficiently answered and possibly ultimately unanswerable by those with human brains and nervous systems. Students investigate how human behavior is shaped and modulated by cognition, affect, and their interaction. The course includes theories and empirical bases of learning, perception memory, language, motivation, affect, emotion, and executive function, as well as factors that influence cognitive performance and emotional experience and their interaction. Topics include (1) contemporary perceptual, cognitive and affective neuroscience, (2) false and distorted memories, (3) the nature of consciousness, (4) basic emotions, (5) culture, gender, cognition and affect, and (6) interrelationships among cognitions/beliefs, behavior, affect, temperament, and mood.
Delivery Method: Distance/Electronically Mediated
Grading Default: Letter Only
Note: This course cannot be taken in conjunction with PSY-707.
Learning Outcome(s):  

  1. Be familiar with the primary models of emotion, including “wet mind/dry mind” approaches, interactions and consequences.
  2. Be familiar with the theories and models of memory, including metacognition, paradigms and paradoxes.
  3. Be familiar with the theories of consciousness, including biological, mathematical, and phenomenological models.
  4. Be familiar with the models and research foundations of cognitive science, including neural networks and their implications, and artificial intelligence’s contributions to the understanding of cognitive processes.
  5. Be familiar with cultural and individual diversity and individual differences related to the cognitive and affective bases of behavior.



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