A crucial part of neuroscience is understanding how function has its foundation in anatomy. This course traces neuroanatomical pathways through the central nervous system. It emphasizes the primate brain, especially the human brain. The course covers how nuclei, ganglia, and layered structures such as cortex are arranged physically in the brain, the fiber pathways by which they connect to each other, and how this connectivity relates to their function. The material will encompass systems within the brain stem, sensory systems, motor systems, higher cognitive systems, and the interconnectivity and interaction of these systems.

An intensive introduction to fundamental topics in neuroscience, including neuronal excitability, synaptic physiology, neural networks, and circuits that mediate perception, action, emotion, and memory. We will examine neuroscience at scales ranging from single neurons, to the activity of small sets of neurons, to the organization of brain and behavior. The course will address broad questions including: How does information enter the brain? What neural pathways transmit these signals? How is information processed and used to construct an internal model of reality? How does the brain choose and execute the correct behavioral response?

Computational psychiatry is an emerging field of research that strives to leverage recent discoveries in the computational basis of high-level cognitive functions in order to understand, diagnose, and treat mental illness. Psychiatry is the only field of medicine where there are currently no laboratory tests, due in part to a lack of understanding what is the biological basis of symptoms. Computational theories of the brain's mechanisms for evaluation and decision may provide a foundation for such an understanding, and tasks measuring their function can offer objective measures. This seminar will discuss recent findings in this field.

Advanced seminar that reflects current research on brain and behavior.

The study of human nature from the viewpoint of psychological science. Topics range from the biological bases of human perception, thought and action to the social-psychological determinants of individual and group behavior. This course can be used to satisfy the science and technology with laboratory general education requirement.

This sequence is designed to provide Sophomores with an in-lab research experience over two semesters, with PSY 230 in the Fall being the prerequisite for PSY 231 in the Spring. PSY 230 is a non-credit bearing class while PSY 231 carries a full unit of credit (both are graded P/D/F). Students will gain an introduction to research within a Psychology lab. Students are expected to spend a minimum of 6 hours per week engaged in research and attend weekly meetings as outlined by the mentoring faculty. At the end of each semester, students will submit a written report of their research experience (PSY 230) and present their findings (PSY 231).

One way to understand the various patterns and processes in our world is to think of them as "systems". There's a lot of talk about systems ("blame the system"; or "don't hate the player, hate the game"), but less understanding about how systems actually work. We will bridge this knowledge gap by learning about what human-made systems have in common, how they respond to change and why it is difficult to change them in predictable ways. To do this, we'll explore the tensions among laws and policing, gift-giving and capitalism, creativity and technology. Throughout, we will reflect on the roles of race, culture, economic status and history.

Babies, who look like helpless blobs, are capable of impressive feats of learning. 3-year-olds, who can't cross the street alone, know an astounding amount of information about their environments. We will focus on landmark studies that elucidate how children's biology, cognition, language, and social experiences interact to set the stage for what we do and who we are. Is the baby's world a 'blooming, buzzing confusion', or do babies enter the world prepared to make sense of their environments? How can we understand the collaboration between nature and nurture during development?

This course covers foundations of the research process for experimental Psychology: reviewing and evaluating published journal articles, refining new research questions, conducting pilot studies, creating stimuli, sequencing experiments for optimal control and data quality, analyzing data, and communicating scientific methods and results clearly, effectively, and professionally in APA style. Lectures survey time-tested excellent methods, and labs provide opportunities to recreate interesting experiments and innovate, building toward an original research final project.

Individuals are rarely isolated from one another. In our day-to-day lives, social interaction is ubiquitous, from communicating with one another, to jointly remembering the past, to coordinating our actions. Exploring humans in social interaction - as this course aims to do - will lead to significant advances in understanding the mind. It will also teach you how to be a more efficient and persuasive communicator, create more meaningful connections with others, and focus your motivation to achieve your goals.

Principles of psychology relevant to the theory and practice of education. Through readings, discussion, and classroom observations, students study theories of development, learning, cognition (including literacy), and motivation, as well as relevant individual and group differences; assessment; and the social psychology of the classroom. The course focuses on two main topics: 1) how learning at multiple school levels is influenced by one's own characteristics, experiences, and various learning contexts; and 2) how the practice of teaching is, in fact, a clinical practice and what that means for educators, students, schools and society.

The cognitive processes underlying the use and understanding of language, and in learning to speak. Topics include speech production and perception, grammar and meaning, knowledge and words, and pragmatic aspects of language.

Attention is our ability to select information relevant to behavior; focusing our limited cognitive/neural resources on those stimuli and thoughts that are critical to our current task. This course will review the neuroscience of selective attention, from the theoretical foundations provided by cognitive psychology to the neural underpinnings identified by systems neuroscience. The course will present a 'hands on' science experience, combining experimental demonstrations and discussions of current research topics to learn the design and analyses of contemporary experiments in the attention field.

Adversity is a powerful force in the human experience. From scarcity, to disasters, to marginalization, experiences of adversity play a pivotal role in how people think, feel, and act. This seminar will explore the psychological consequences of adversity, including its effects on beliefs, attitudes, decision-making, morality, self and identity, health and well-being, close relationships, and communities. We will consider not only the deleterious effects of adversity, but also how it can foster resilience, strengthen ties, and spark creativity. The course will balance psychological theories and research with personal and historic narratives.

This seminar will focus on the social and psychological experiences of people who possess (or are believed to possess) some attribute, or characteristic, that conveys a social identity that is devalued in a particular social context. A variety of topics will be discussed, including: how stigmatized individuals view their identities in society; the mental and cognitive consequences of being a member of a stigmatized group; how stigmatized individuals cope with their stigmatization; and interactions between stigmatized and nonstigmatized individuals.

Attitudes matter. Throughout the history of the world, people have taken extraordinary steps to support a set of attitudes and beliefs that helped to bring about a better world. Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela, and Martin Luther King led societies to new views of human dignity by their written words and their behaviors. Every day, people advocate for their ideals. They persuade and organize in the service of bringing about a better world. This seminar will explore the science of persuasion. We will examine empirical research and theory that lead us to understand how attitudes are formed, maintained, and changed.

This course will provide an overview of several theoretical orientations to psychotherapy and critically evaluate how the effects of therapies are measured and studied. Cognitive-behavioral approaches to psychotherapy will be explored in depth. Application of research findings to clinical practice will be examined closely, including issues related to psychotherapy integration and the treatment of diverse populations in various settings. The course will also include reviews of the current state of psychotherapy research for a number of psychological disorders and consider current controversies in the area of treatment outcome research.

This course provides a deep dive into the science of emotion. We will engage with primary readings on dominant theories, historical perspectives, ongoing debates, methods of study, recent innovations, and translational applications in this field. We will assess the strengths and weaknesses of different methods for generating both basic scientific understanding of emotions and translational impact. Students will play a substantial role in co-creating course discussions through in-class presentations, and the final will be a high-level research paper that aims to move the field forward through either a theoretical synthesis or study proposal.

Cognitive Proseminar: Introduction to graduate level cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience for first year graduate students in psychology. Course serves as the basis for more advanced graduate courses on specific topics in this area.

This graduate-level course covers foundations of statistics in psychological research. It is required of all first-year students in the psychology Ph.D. program. The purpose of this course is to introduce students to statistics with an emphasis on modeling. We cover many of the most widely applied data analysis models in psychology. We focus on data visualization, effect size estimation and interpretation, and using statistical analysis to inform scientific research questions. We develop practical skills related to data management, reproducibility, and statistical programming through the use of R, R Markdown/Quarto, and Github.

Psychological methods keep evolving: psychology researchers constantly adopt new statistical methods, computational tools, and research practices. This course covers the latest advances in research methods in psychological science through a series of lectures, tutorials, and seminars. Lectures are generally given by a guest speaker who introduces methodological and statistical issues relevant to psychology research. Tutorials provide students with the necessary computational skills to build reproducible and transparent research programs. Finally, students discuss timely topics in psychological methods in the context of seminars.

Current research and issues in cognition, perception, and learning. Seminar participants present ongoing research and discuss current topics of interest in the literature.

An advanced seminar that considers current research in social psychology. Contemporary research conducted by the seminar participants is discussed.

Examination of issues in the responsible conduct of scientific research, including the definition of scientific misconduct, mentoring, authorship, peer review, grant practices, use of humans and of animals as subjects, ownership of data, and conflict of interest.

Research internship at a host institution to perform scholarly research relevant to student's dissertation work. Research objectives are determined by advisor in conjunction with outside host. A mid-semester progress review and a final paper are required. Enrollment for full-time internships is limited to post-generals students for up to two semesters, contingent on department approval.

An introduction to the main issues and research findings underlying decision-making and judgment under uncertainty. The focus is on the contrast between the normative theory of judgment and choice, and the psychological principles that guide decision behavior, often producing biases and errors. Among other topics, we will consider political, medical, and financial decision-making, poverty, negotiations, and the law, along with the implications of the findings for the rational agent model typically assumed in economics, throughout the social sciences, and in policy making.