Undergraduate Course: Working Memory (PSYL10117)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences |
College | College of Humanities and Social Science |
| Course type | Standard |
Availability | Available to all students |
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 10 (Year 4 Undergraduate) |
Credits | 10 |
| Home subject area | Psychology |
Other subject area | None |
| Course website |
http://www.psy.ed.ac.uk/ |
Taught in Gaelic? | No |
| Course description | 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. |
Information for Visiting Students
| Pre-requisites | Visiting students should have at least 3 Psychology courses at grade B or above (or be predicted to obtain this). We will only consider University/College level courses. Students are advised to enrol only if they have passed an introductory cognitive psychology course. |
| Displayed in Visiting Students Prospectus? | Yes |
Course Delivery Information
|
| Delivery period: 2014/15 Block 1 (Sem 1), Available to all students (SV1)
|
Learn enabled: Yes |
Quota: None |
|
Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
88 )
|
| Additional Notes |
|
| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
80 %,
Coursework
20 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| Exam Information |
| Exam Diet |
Paper Name |
Hours & Minutes |
|
| Main Exam Diet S2 (April/May) | Working Memory | 1:30 | |
|
| Delivery period: 2014/15 Block 1 (Sem 1), Part-year visiting students only (VV1)
|
Learn enabled: No |
Quota: None |
|
Web Timetable |
Web Timetable |
| Course Start Date |
15/09/2014 |
| Breakdown of Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) |
Total Hours:
100
(
Lecture Hours 10,
Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
88 )
|
| Additional Notes |
|
| Breakdown of Assessment Methods (Further Info) |
Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
|
| No Exam Information |
Summary of Intended 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 working memory
- Reason about how working memory theory can predict everyday cognitive functioning
|
Assessment Information
Course work (20%) Complete a practical demonstration on working memory measures and write an essay (maximum length 1000 words) on working memory measurement techniques. Feedback will be provided, to help students better prepare for their examination. Due 4pm, Thursday 23 October 2014.
80% examination.
Visiting Student Variant Assessment (100%)
Essay (3000 words) provided by the course organiser and due 4pm, Thursday 11 December.
|
Special Arrangements
| None |
Additional Information
| Academic description |
Not entered |
| Syllabus |
Not entered |
| Transferable skills |
Not entered |
| 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
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| Study Abroad |
Not entered |
| Study Pattern |
Not entered |
| Keywords | Not entered |
Contacts
| Course organiser | Dr Candice Morey
Tel:
Email: cmorey@exseed.ed.ac.uk |
Course secretary | Ms Fiona Graham
Tel: (0131 6)50 3440
Email: F.Graham@ed.ac.uk |
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