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Unit Summary
Unit type
UG Coursework Unit
Credit points
12
AQF level
Level of learning
Advanced
Former School/College
Unit aim
Covers learning and memory in an integrated fashion. Learning and memory are concerned with understanding the processes by which behaviour is acquired through experience and expressed in later performance. Topics will include basic principles of behaviour change, learning and addictive behaviours, information processing account of memory, the role of implicit memory and learning, and the effects of aging on learning and memory.
Unit content
Examines key topics in Learning and Memory including:
- Short-term and Working Memory
- Long-term memory
- Every day and Applied Memory (e.g. Memory improvement, memory and the law, ageing and memory, autobiographical memory, Skill memory)
- Basic processes in Pavlovian (Classical) conditioning
- Models of Pavlovian (Classical) conditioning
- Instrumental learning (Operant Conditioning) and the analysis of behaviour
- Learning emotional responses
- Applying Learning to problems in the real world (e.g. Behavioural psychopharmacology and addictive processes, Verbal behaviour, Two-process learning theories and fear appeal marketing)
- Learning and Memory research methods and dissemination of research.
Learning outcomes
Unit Learning Outcomes express learning achievement in terms of what a student should know, understand and be able to do on completion of a unit. These outcomes are aligned with the graduate attributes. The unit learning outcomes and graduate attributes are also the basis of evaluating prior learning.
| On completion of this unit, students should be able to: | GA1 | GA2 | GA3 | GA4 | GA5 | GA6 | GA7 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | describe the ways in which learning and memory have been studied, the critical results of these investigations, and competing theories that have been developed to account for these results | |||||||
| 2 | describe how knowledge of the theories and principles of learning and memory can be utilised in an applied context | |||||||
| 3 | critically evaluate theories of learning and memory in order to derive hypotheses about potential empirical tests of their principles | |||||||
| 4 | design and conduct empirical research that examines one or more theoretical constructs in learning and memory | |||||||
| 5 | write a research report based on methods and data from a learning and/or memory study as provided, and adhering to American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Guide style. | |||||||
On completion of this unit, students should be able to:
-
describe the ways in which learning and memory have been studied, the critical results of these investigations, and competing theories that have been developed to account for these results
- GA4:
-
describe how knowledge of the theories and principles of learning and memory can be utilised in an applied context
- GA2:
- GA4:
-
critically evaluate theories of learning and memory in order to derive hypotheses about potential empirical tests of their principles
- GA2:
- GA4:
-
design and conduct empirical research that examines one or more theoretical constructs in learning and memory
- GA2:
- GA6:
-
write a research report based on methods and data from a learning and/or memory study as provided, and adhering to American Psychological Association (APA) Publication Guide style.
- GA6:
Prescribed texts
- Gluck, MA, Mercado, E & Myers, CE, 2016, Learning and Memory: From Brain to Behavior, 3rd edn, Worth, NY.