A course guide is available containing detailed information including teaching dates at the bottom of this page.
This course will help you to understand how the brain enables us to see, hear, speak, remember and think. Cognitive scientists, neuropsychologists and psychologists from across Cambridge will explore how the scientific method is being applied to the study of the mind, brain and behaviour.
Focusing on some of the most advanced areas of research in modern cognitive psychology, including perception, memory and language, we will explore how humans think, what is meant by intelligence and social cognition.
This course will also provide a conceptual introduction into the behavioural research methods used in cognitive psychology; we will complete a number of replications of important findings in psychology, and learn how to report the results of these experiments in the format of a science-journal article.
Who is this course for?
No previous experience in the subject is necessary and the course is open to anyone with an interest in the subject area.
What will I be studying?
Unit 1: History, Core Themes and Methods
Synchronous teaching dates: 11 October, 8 November, 22 November & 6 December 2021
This first unit introduces the history, core themes, and methods in the scientific study of the mind, brain and behaviour. The unit reviews the historical dominance of behaviourism in the early 20th century, the shift to cognitive science in the 1950s/1960s and the eventual adoption of the broader ‘cognitive neurosciences’. This unit explores a number of core themes in psychological research, and a number of key debates, such as the extent to which behaviour is learned or innate and the extent to which functions in the brain are localized to specific areas. Finally this unit introduces some of the key methods in modern psychology, from behavioural experiments, to neuroimaging and neuromodulatory techniques, to the study of clinical populations and individual differences.
Unit 2: Memory, Language and Perception
Synchronous teaching dates: 10 January, 31 January, 14 February & 7 March 2022
This unit provides an introduction to the study of memory, language and perception. This introduces you to the core distinctions between different memory systems (episodic, semantic, procedural), and explores their distinct neural underpinnings. Students are introduced to both auditory and visual perception, paying particular attention to how physical stimulation is converted into electrical signals at the cochlea and retina, and exploring how those signals are processed in the cortex. This until also introduces the nature of language processing, with a particular focus on language deficits in different patient groups.
Unit 3: Executive Functions, Intelligence and Social Cognition
Synchronous teaching dates: 28 March, 11 April, 9 May & 30 May 2022
This unit provides an introduction into some of the core topics in cognition, starting with classical models of executive function, and its relation to short term memory. It also explores the notion of general intelligence, and neural mechanisms involved in domain general problem solving. This unit also explores some of the core topics in social cognition, from theory of mind reasoning to the concept and implications of ‘mirror neurons’.
