Course Description

Everything you know was gained through the efforts of several memory systems working together to acquire knowledge and skills from your past experiences. Not only is memory is necessary for all other human cognition, from remembering how to ride a bike or reflecting on your undergraduate days to acquiring language or making decisions about the future, but collectively our memories allow us to form a learned identity. This course will provide a broad introduction to foundational concepts and classic and current issues in human memory, examining both the psychological and neurological approaches to data and theory. Topics covered include working memory, episodic encoding and retrieval processes, forgetting and false memories, skill learning, implicit learning, and the effects of aging and disease on memory systems.

Learner Outcomes

• Compare and contrast different memory systems, including the type of knowledge gained and their neural underpinnings
• Apply theories of memory systems to other contexts, including research into human cognition or learning strategies for future coursework
• Formulate a hypothesis and design an experiment to test a type of memory
• Given a disease or lesion location, assess the symptoms that would likely occur

Microcredential(s)

This course may apply toward the Biomedical Sciences Endeavor digital badge.