| Online Zoom Section | Email (@stanford.edu) | |
|---|---|---|
| Anthony Wagner (he/him) | Standing office hour: Tues [Time TBA] | awagner |
| tyler bonnen (he/him) | Section TB | bonnen |
| Julie Cachia (she/her) | Section JC | jcachia |
| Marc Harrison (he/him) | Section MH | marcharr |
| Julia Rathmann-Bloch (she/her) | Section JRB | jrbloch |
| Sanja Savic (she/her) | Section SS | sanjas |
| Shao-Fang (Pam) Wang (she/her) | Section PW | shaofang |
Alternate Exams TA: Marc Harrison
Additional Office Hour: by appointment
Lectures will be pre-recorded and posted on Canvas by Monday 6pm each week. Watching the lectures is critical because, beyond the few required readings (see below), the course material will be presented only in lectures.
As noted in the University’s recording and broadcasting courses policy, students may not audio or video record section meetings without permission from the instructor and TA. For the pre-recorded lecture videos, students may keep recordings only for personal use and may not post recordings on the Internet or otherwise distribute them. These policies protect the privacy rights of instructors and students, and the intellectual property and other rights of the University.
The course grade will be based on:
Midterms 1 & 2 (each 30%)
Thursday section attendance (10%)
Memory at the Movies section attendance & participation (20%)
Memory in action (10%)
Extra credit: Piazza responses (5%)
(Reminder: Grades will be S/NC)
The lectures and required readings contain ALL of the content that is necessary to excel in the course (in addition to the discussions in sections and the MiA Demos). If you master these materials, you will learn much about the psychological and neural mechanisms that enable us to learn and remember; you will acquire valuable analytic skills; and you will strengthen your understanding of the scientific method and your ability to reason about data.
You can supplement your learning by also reading the below textbook (chapters relevant for each week’s lectures are listed on the below detailed syllabus). This textbook complements the lecture content and will allow you to go deeper on some topics and to learn about other topics not covered in lecture. While we recommend doing the textbook readings as they will enrich your knowledge and course experience, these readings are entirely OPTIONAL; an e-book version of the text is available from the publisher or on Amazon.com.
Gluck, M., Mercado, E., & Myers, C. (4th Edition) Learning and Memory: From Brain to Behavior. NY: Worth Publishers.
Articles:
Note: Articles can be downloaded as PDF’s at PubMed
[NOTE: You will need to do this from a computer with Stanford site-license privileges.]
Every week, we will hold a smaller Thursday group discussion section about the course content. These discussions will provide an opportunity to engage on course content that is of particular interest to you, as well as to address points that were unclear from the lectures and readings. Sections will begin with seed prompts from the Teaching Assistant to facilitate discussion; following the discussion, sections will transition to an open office hour. Please view the week’s lectures at your convenience, but prior to the Thursday section.
On three Tuesdays spread across the term, we will hold a smaller Memory at the Movies discussion section. These sections will focus on considering how the workings of memory and their behavioral expressions are depicted in film. For three assigned films -- Inside Out, Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, and Memento ––students will discuss how memory is portrayed and critique how memory is accurately and inaccurately depicted. Each film should be watched prior to the corresponding section, with attention to the role of memory and manner in which it is portrayed. The TAs will seed the conversation, students will break out into smaller groups to surface their views, and then return to the full section to report out and for a group discussion.
Note
For the vast majority of students, we will schedule the Tuesday M@M and Thuesday discussion sections during the allocated class timme (9:00-10:20 AM PDT). We will arrange an alternative section time for those in a distant timezone or who have a scheduling conflict.
We have assembled a series of memory demos that can be performed on-line. Each demo will serve to illustrate a fundamental memory phenomenon and may also generate data from the class that we can discuss during lecture. For each demo, we will also pose a question or two, to which we ask that you provide brief responses (uploading your responses via Canvas). Demos should be completed by 12:00pm (noon) PDT on the Wednesday of the assigned week.
Note
Completing the MiA demos counts for 10% of the grade (2%/demo). The demos are available on the course website.
Late policy: in fairness to those who submit in a timely manner, we will not accept late MiA Demo submissions (unless there is a medical emergency). In addition, serious health or other issues that interfere with assignment dates can be discussed with the Alternate Exams TA (Marc Harrison).We will use Piazza for online discussion of class content. We encourage students to field questions, providing answers to posts from classmates. There are benefits for students who consistently provide accurate, thoughtful responses to posts — doing so is a form of retrieval practice, which will foster learning and retention; you also may receive up to 5 bonus points added to your grade.
Note
We have a great team of TAs. They will do everything they can to be responsive to queries posted to Piazza, and they are also available during their office hours (and by appointment).
| Date | Topic | Optional reading | Required |
|---|---|---|---|
| Week 1 Apr 6 |
Watch: Lecture 0 – Course structure & logistics Watch: Lecture 1 – Introduction to learning and memory Watch: Lecture 2 – Experimental methods From behavior to brain imaging |
Ch. 1 & 2 | Zoom TA Session 1 – Thursday, April 9th |
| Week 2 Apr 13 |
Watch Lecture 3 – Working memory I Watch Lecture 4 – Working memory II |
Ch. 9 |
Zoom TA Session 2 – Thursday, April 16th MiA #1: N-back Required: Putnam et al. (2016) |
| Week 3 Apr 20 |
Watch Lecture 5 – Working memory III Watch Lecture 6 – Cognitive control and memory [Tyler Bonnen] |
Zoom Memory at the Movies – Tuesday, April 21st: M@M #1: Inside Out Zoom TA Session 3 – Thursday, April 23rd MiA #2: Stroop |
|
| Week 4 Apr 27 |
Watch Lecture 7 – Episodic memory: Encoding I (How do we learn?) Watch Lecture 8 – Episodic memory: Encoding II (Neural mechanisms) |
Optional: Ch. 3 (pp. 86-95 & 106-110) & Ch. 7 | Zoom TA Session 4 – Thursday, April 30th |
| Week 5 May 4 |
Midterm I – Tuesday, May 5th Watch Lecture 9 – Episodic memory: Retrieval I (How do we remember?) |
Ch. 3 (pp. 86-95 & 106-110) & Ch. 7 | Zoom TA Session 5 – Thursday, May 7th |
| Week 6 May 11 |
Watch Lecture 10 – Episodic memory: Retrieval II (What do we remember?) Watch Lecture 11 – Semantic memory and statistical learning [Pam Wang] |
Ch. 6, pp. 249-255 & Review relevant sections of Ch. 7 |
Zoom Memory at the Movies – Tuesday, May 12th: M@M #2: Memento Zoom TA Session 6 – Thursday, May 14th MiA #3: Semantic memory |
| Week 7 May 18 |
Watch Lecture 12 – Multiple memory systems Watch Lecture 13 – Nonconscious forms of memory (conditioning) |
Ch. 4, 5, & 8 | Zoom TA Session 7 – Thursday, May 21st |
| Week 8 May 25 |
Watch Lecture 14 – Emotion and memory Watch Lecture 15 – Why do we forget? |
Ch. 10 |
MiA #4: Emotion & memory Zoom TA Session 8 – Thursday, May 28th |
| Week 9 June 1 |
Midterm II – Thursday, June 4th Watch Lecture 16 – False memories Watch Lecture 17 – Aging and memory [Marc Harrison] |
Ch. 12 |
MiA #5: False memory Required: Schacter (1999) Zoom TA Session 9 – TUESDAY, June 2nd |
| Week 10 June 8 |
Zoom Memory at the Movies – Tuesday, June 9th: M@M #3: Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind |