General provisions

The student should be admitted to the Master's programme in social sciences with specialisation in psychology. Within undergraduate education or the equivalent, she/he should have acquired basic knowledge in cognitive psychology.

Learning outcomes

On completion of the course, the student should be able to: · Define and describe the basic issues that are focused on in psychological research about thought and knowledge processes in humans and be able to account for current research and knowledge within these areas, · report on both the potentials and limitations of central methods used within research in cognitive psychology, mainly information processing models, connectivity-related models, and the use of functional brain imaging, · reproduce central theoretical cognitive-psychological models and describe how these have been developed and modified in light of research in recent years and · critically examine cognitive-psychological research in light of an understanding of the current knowledge base and of limitations of the methods that are central to the field.

Content

The course gives an overview of current research about thought and knowledge processes and focuses on, among other things, attention -, memory - and thought processes in humans. The emphasis lies on traditional symbolic cognitive-psychological models, but in separate sections, both research inspired by so-called neural networks (connectivity-related models), and research that is based on functional brain imaging will also be considered.

Instruction

Teaching is given in the form of lectures that are followed by literature seminars.

Assessment

The student will be examined in writing with individual short essays and based on active participation in seminar exercises. At examination, the grades used are passed with distinction, passed, and failed.

Other directives

Student must participate in at least 75% of the seminar sessions to obtain a passing grade. Other possible requirements of compulsory attendance is evident from the course syllabus, schedule, or other information at the introduction of the course. A student who does not meet the requirements for compulsory attendance is usually given the opportunity to complete this during the next time the course is given. Scientific original works, mainly published scientific articles and book chapters, all according to separate literature list that is announced in connection with the course introduction.