2017/18 Undergraduate Module Catalogue

PSYC3537 Contemporary Memory Research

15 creditsClass Size: 70

Module manager: Dr Denis McKeown
Email: d.mckeown@leeds.ac.uk

Taught: Semester 1 (Sep to Jan) View Timetable

Year running 2017/18

Pre-requisite qualifications

Successful completion of all pass for progression modules in Level 2 of: BSc Psychology or MPsyc, BSc Advanced Psychology or BA Philosophy, Psychology and Scientific Thought (and its International and Industrial variants)

This module is not approved as a discovery module

Module summary

A course of lectures on contemporary memory research in psychology, with lectures based on essential readings of selected recent published research papers, largely on human non-verbal visual and auditory memory. Thus the material will be quite new to students of psychology who are already familiar with the 'standard' (e.g. working memory') models of memory. Thus models concerned with short-term working memory and long-term memory familiar in psychology text books will play only a very minor role in the course. A review paper will provide an overview of much of the core content, and each of 8 topics will have an associated key paper provided for study.

Objectives

Students will specialise in conceptual and theoretical issues relating to core topics in the mind sciences spanning verbal and especially non-verbal memory, allowing students to critically reflect upon most recent selected research papers. A variety of research methodologies will be discussed, including neuroscience using event-related potentials and auditory timbre matching tasks.

Learning outcomes
On completion of this module students should be able to:

1) demonstrate experimentally informed understanding of the literature on (largely) non-verbal memory;

2) gain important insights into research into contemporary advances in encoding and retrieval of information over the short term (from seconds to minutes to hours);
3) understand the development and testing of some selected models of memory beyond the 'standard models' (that is, new models that do not adhere to short- versus long-term memory distinctions; nor rely on sub-vocal rehearsal for maintenance and encoding into long-term memory);
4) critically evaluate published studies and reviews in human memory, especially non-verbal memory.

Skills outcomes
The module supports the development of
- analytic thinking
- evident-based reasoning
- information retrieval and evaluation of published studies and reviews

Syllabus

Auditory non-verbal memory, including memory for pitch and timbre; visual non-verbal short-term memory, including recognition and recall studies of forgetting; mechanisms of maintenance including sub-vocal rehearsal and refreshing; mechanisms of forgetting including proactive and retroactive interference and decay; models of verbal memory as they may apply to maintenance or forgetting of non-verbal information; encoding as pattern separation; retrieval as pattern completion.

Teaching methods

Delivery type	Number	Length hours	Student hours
Drop-in Session	1	1.00	1.00
Lecture	10	1.50	15.00
Private study hours			134.00
Total Contact hours			16.00
Total hours (100hr per 10 credits)			150.00

Private study

Reading and private study will be based on key journal articles which will be demanding and of current theoretical 'hot topics' in the area of memory and cognition, in high-impact journals (including selected articles published on-line ahead of print) providing students with insight into the development of ideas in the field.
Students will have 135 hours of private study, including studying the essentials readings across the lectures 2-10 (9 x 6 = 54 hours), and independent literature searches, reading and preparation for a two-hour examination (80 hours).

Opportunities for Formative Feedback

Students will receive instructions for completing the reflective log (strict 500 words due week 8). The latter will allow monitoring of progress in the preparation of the examination component.

Methods of assessment

Coursework

Assessment type	Notes	% of formal assessment
Reflective log	500 words	10.00
Total percentage (Assessment Coursework)		10.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Exams

Exam type	Exam duration	% of formal assessment
Unseen exam	2 hr 00 mins	90.00
Total percentage (Assessment Exams)		90.00

Normally resits will be assessed by the same methodology as the first attempt, unless otherwise stated

Reading list

The reading list is available from the Library website

Last updated: 26/04/2017

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