This undergraduate course is designed to introduce students to cognitive processes. The broad range of topics covers each of the areas in the field of cognition, and presents the current thinking in this discipline. As an introduction to human information processing and learning, the topics include the nature of mental representation and processing, the architecture of memory, pattern recognition, attention, imagery and mental codes, concepts and prototypes, reasoning and problem solving.

Remember that guy from 300? What was his name? ARG!!! It turns out our brains make and recall memories in different ways. In this episode of Crash Course Psychology, Hank talks about the way we do it, what damaging that process can do to us, and that guy... with the face and six-pack...

Chapters:
Introduction: Memory
Accessing Memory: Recall, Recognition, and Relearning
How Memory is Stored
Working Memory
Explicit Memory
Implicit Memory
Types of Long-Term Memory: Procedural & Episodic
Mnemonics, Chunking, and Memory Tricks
Shallow vs. Deep Processing
The Importance of Memory
Review & Credits
Credits

This resource is a video abstract of a research paper created by Research Square on behalf of its authors. It provides a synopsis that's easy to understand, and can be used to introduce the topics it covers to students, researchers, and the general public. The video's transcript is also provided in full, with a portion provided below for preview:

"Along with preventing pain, one function of anesthesia is to keep a person from remembering unpleasant experiences. And yet, after surgery, a very small number of patients report distressing events, which can have long-term effects, including PTSD. Anesthesia usually ensures patients lack explicit memory, but implicit memories can still form. Previous studies have suggested that implicit memory formation can occur under sedation, via circuits in the amygdala. To investigate this phenomenon, researchers in Israel conducted experiments on monkeys undergoing anesthesia using two different drugs: ketamine, an NMDA receptor antagonist; and midazolam, a GABA coagonist. The team made single-cell neuron recordings on sedated animals while the animals underwent classical conditioning using tones and an aversive odor. Specifically, the monkeys were conditioned to take a deeper breath after hearing a tone, in anticipation of a noxious odor that would make them inhale less deeply..."

The rest of the transcript, along with a link to the research itself, is available on the resource itself.

Lectures and discussions in this course cover the clinical, behavioral, and molecular aspects of the brain aging processes in humans. Topics include the loss of memory and other cognitive abilities in normal aging, as well as neurodegenerative conditions such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s diseases. Discussions based on readings taken from primary literature explore the current research in this field.

Psychology is designed to meet scope and sequence requirements for the single-semester introduction to psychology course. The book offers a comprehensive treatment of core concepts, grounded in both classic studies and current and emerging research. The text also includes coverage of the DSM-5 in examinations of psychological disorders. Psychology incorporates discussions that reflect the diversity within the discipline, as well as the diversity of cultures and communities across the globe.Senior Contributing AuthorsRose M. Spielman, Formerly of Quinnipiac UniversityContributing AuthorsKathryn Dumper, Bainbridge State CollegeWilliam Jenkins, Mercer UniversityArlene Lacombe, Saint Joseph's UniversityMarilyn Lovett, Livingstone CollegeMarion Perlmutter, University of Michigan

By the end of this section, you will be able to:Discuss the three basic functions of memoryDescribe the three stages of memory storageDescribe and distinguish between procedural and declarative memory and semantic and episodic memory