Postgraduate Course: Working Memory (PSYL11079)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) |
Availability | Not available to visiting students |
| SCQF Credits | 10 |
ECTS Credits | 5 |
| Summary | Working memory refers to the cluster of processes engaged while thinking: retrieving information already learned, attending to information in the environment, and using this information in the service of some goal. Theories of working memory describing how these functions relate to each other will be covered, drawing upon empirical evidence from cognitive experiments, typical and abnormal neural functioning, and development from childhood to adulthood. |
| Course description |
Tentative schedule of topics:
Week 1: Working Memory, Retrieval, and Knowledge
Week 2: Working Memory for Verbal Information
Week 3: Working Memory for Visual Information
Week 4: Variability in Working Memory
Week 5: Abnormal Working Memory Functioning
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Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites |
|
Co-requisites | |
| Prohibited Combinations | |
Other requirements | None |
Course Delivery Information
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| Academic year 2014/15, Not available to visiting students (SS1)
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Quota: None |
| Course Start |
Block 1 (Sem 1) |
Timetable |
Timetable |
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Seminar/Tutorial Hours 5,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
83 )
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| Assessment (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
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| Additional Information (Assessment) |
One 3000-word essay
Assessment Submission Deadline: Thursday 6th November 2014, 12 noon
Return Date: 28th November 2014 |
| Feedback |
Not entered |
| No Exam Information |
Learning Outcomes
After the course, students will be able to
¿ Demonstrate knowledge of current working memory theory, including the ability to critically evaluate evidence favouring various theories
¿ Demonstrate understanding of the methods used to measure WM
¿ Reason about how working memory theory can predict everyday cognitive functioning
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Reading List
Indicative Reading List:
Baddeley, A. (2012). Working memory: Theories, models, and controversies. Annual Review of Psychology, 63, 1¿29.
Barrouillet, P., Portrat, S., & Camos, V. (2011). On the law relating processing to storage in working memory.
Psychological Review, 118, 175¿192.
Buchsbaum, B. R., & D¿Esposito, M. (2008). The search for the phonological store: From loop to convolution. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 20, 762¿778.
Chein, J. M., & Fiez, J. A. (2010). Evaluating models of working memory through the effects of concurrent irrelevant information. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 139, 117¿137.
Cowan, N. (2001). The magical number 4 in short-term memory: A reconsideration of mental storage capacity. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 24, 87¿185.
Hu, Y., & Ericsson, K. A. (2012). Memorization and recall of very long lists accounted for within the Long-Term Working Memory framework. Cognitive Psychology, 64, 235¿266.
Johnson, W., Logie, R. H., & Brockmole, J. R. (2010). Working memory tasks differ in factor structure across age cohorts: Implications for dedifferentiation. Intelligence, 38, 513¿528.
Jones, D. M., Macken, W. J., & Nicholls, A. P. (2004). The phonological store of working memory: Is it phonological and is it a store? Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 30, 656¿674.
Lewis-Peacock, J. A., Drysdale, A. T., Oberauer, K., & Postle, B. R. (2012). Neural evidence for a distinction between short-term memory and the focus of attention. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 24, 61¿79.
Logie, R. H. (2011). The functional organization and capacity limits of working memory. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 20, 240¿245.
Morey, C., Morey, R., van der Reijden, M., & Holweg, M. (2013). Asymmetric cross-domain interference between two working memory tasks: Implications for models of working memory. Journal of Memory and Language, 69, 324¿348.
Oberauer, K. (2013). The focus of attention in working memory-from metaphors to mechanisms. Frontiers in Human Neuroscience, 7, 673.
Parra, M. A., Abrahams, S., Logie, R. H., Méndez, L. G., Lopera, F., & Della Sala, S. (2010). Visual short-term memory binding deficits in familial Alzheimer¿s disease. Brain: A Journal of Neurology, 133, 2702¿2713.
Unsworth, N., & Engle, R. W. (2007). The nature of individual differences in working memory capacity: Active maintenance in primary memory and controlled search from secondary memory. Psychological Review, 114, 104¿132.
Zhang, W., & Luck, S. J. (2009). Sudden death and gradual decay in visual working memory. Psychological Science, 20, 423¿428. |
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills |
Students will develop their writing and discussion skills through this course. During tutorials, they will be practicing communication and argumentation skills, which will transfer to any professional setting in
which effective communication and persuasion is important. |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Candice Morey
Tel:
Email: cmorey@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188
Email: Toni.noble@ed.ac.uk |
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