Prague centre for Psychoanalytic studies

1. Introduction to Experimental Psychology

Homework:

Chapters 1 in course textbook (Gazzaniga et al. 2012, Psychological Science).

Epstein: Philosophy of Science

Further reading:

An Introduction to Philosophy of Science Malcolm Forster

2. Research Methododologies and Ethics

Homework:

Chapter 2 in the textbook

Introduction to Research Methods and Experimental Design,

Further reading:

Karl Popper

American Psychological Association (APA) Ethical Principlies and Code of Conduct.

British Psychological Society: Ethical Guidelines

Qualitative vs. Quantitative Research,

Experimental Design and Paper Write Up

3. Genetics and Evolution

Homework:

Leda Cosmides & John Tooby: Evolutionary Psychology: A Primer (1997)

Jaak Panskepp and Jules Panskepp: The Seven Sins of Evolutionary Psychology (2000).

Confer, Easton, Fleischman, Goetz, Lewis, Perilloux and Buss (2010) Evolutionary Psychology Controversies, Questions, Prospects, and Limitations

Further reading:

William Dickens and James Flynn: Heritability Estimates vs. Large Environmental Effects: The IQ Paradox Resolved (2001).

Ned Block: How Heritability Misleads about Race (1996).

Charles Darwin: The Voyage of the Beagle and The Origin of Species. Robert Young: Science and the Humanities in the Understanding of Human Nature (2000).

Summary of Steven J. Gould's Mismeasure of Man,

University of Plymouth: Evolutionary Psychology Resources

Evolution: Why Sex?

4. The Brain and Nervous System

Homework:

Chapter 3 in textbook.

Solms and Turnbull: The Brain and the Inner World chapter 1

Chapter 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 9

S. Jones: Reading the Record

5. Animal and Comparative Psychology

Gregory Caray: Introduction to Evolutionary Psychology,

One of the following: Harry Harlow: Love in Infant Monkeys (1959). James Olds: Pleasure Centre's in the Brain. Joseph Brady: Ulcer's in 'Executive' Monkeys (1958). Burrhus Fredric Skinner: 'Superstition' in the Pigeon (1947). Harry Harlow: The Nature of Love (1958).. University of Plymouth, Psychology Learning Materials: Coping with Stress.

6. Sensation and Perception

Our Sense of Touch, Psychological Science Animations and Videos, Laura Chivers: Blindsight and Consciousness (2002). Visual Illusions, Michael Bach: Optical Illusions & Visual Phenomena including 'equiluminance'. Psychophysics, Sensation and Perception Tutorials, Sensation and Perception, Gestalt Principles of Perception, Rorschach Tests. Thematic Apperception Test, Henry Murray: Individual Differences: Thematic Apperception Test MANUAL.Projective Tests. Walter J. Freeman: The Physiology of Perception (1991), Freud lecture, A. E. Kazdin: Subliminal Perception (2000). Barry Arons: A Review of The Cocktail Party Effect, Aldous Huxley: The Doors of Perception (1954).

7. Learning and Reward

8. Memory

Anosognosia reading

9. Consciousness and Free Will

William James Papers: Does 'Consciousness' Exist? (1904), The Stream of Consciousness (1892).

Libet's Brain Experiments, Consciousness and Free Will, Libet's Short Delay, Daniel Dennet: Freedom Evolves (2003). Antonio Damasio: The Feeling of What Happens (2000), Paul Newall: An Introduction to the Philisophy of Mind (2005). VIDEO: Split-Brain Experiments with Gazzaniga, The Mind-Body Debate. The Philosophy of Mind and the Mind-Body Problem. Dennis Overbye: Free Will: Now You Have It, Now You Don’t (New York Times, Jan 2007), Dennett on Consciousness. Solms & Turnbull: Mind and Brain

10. Cognition and Language Development

Prospect Theory, The Suggestibility of Children, Gerd Gigerenzer and Daniel G. Goldstein: Models of Bounded Rationality (1996). Trina C. Kershaw: Key Actions in Insight Problems: Further Evidence for the Importance of Non-Dot Turns in the Nine-Dot Problem (2006). Phillippe Mongin: Expected Utility Theory (1997), Peter Hepper: Unravelling our beginnings: the embryonic science of fetal psychology (2005). Amir Khella: Knowledge and Mental Models in Human-Computer Interaction (2002),Ann Arbor: Memory Starts To Decline In Our Mid-20s (2001). Karen Kersting: Measuring cognitive decline: Tests that measure age-related cognitive decline may not be completely accurate (2003). Heuristics, Garde et al: Decline in intelligence is associated with progression in white matter hyperintensity volume (2004). Douchemane & Fontaine: Can Fluid Intelligence Decline with Aging be explained by Complexity? (2003). Robert R. Provine: Laughter: A Scientific Investigation (2001), Donald Winnicott: Playing and Reality (2005). Margaret Snowling: Language Skills and Learning to Read (2004), Nim Chimpsky, Animal Language, Sign Language Studies. Famous Monkeys, Animal Communication, A Broken heart, Laura Petitoto: Impish chimp changed science (2000), Genie. Freud Guides: Jokes and Their Relation to the Unconscious. S. Herron: Bewilderment and Suspension Bridges: The Joke as Symptom of Language (2006). Lacan and Language. Lecture: Stephen Pinker: The Stuff of Thought (and interview)

11. Emotion and Motivation

Leda Cosmides & John Tooby: Evolutionary Psychology and the Emotions (2000). Daniel J. Burdick: The Neurobiology of Fear: Emotional Memory and Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (2001). Duke University: How Brain Gives Special Resonance To Emotional Memories (Science Daily, 2004). Motivation, homeostasis, W. Huitt: Motivation to learn: An overview. Educational Psychology Interactive (2001). Deirdre Scully and Ruth Lowry: Why we do – And why we don't! On ‘participation motivation’ in sport and exercise (2002). Ruiz & Cid: Interactive Effect of Self-Efficacy and Incentive Value on Peripheral Physiological Reactivity in The Performance of a Cognitive Task (1997). Hans-Joachim Kornadt: Social Motives and their Develipment in Cultural Context (2002), Albert Bandura: Self-Efficacy Defined (1998). Holsen et al: Abnormal Food Motivation in Prader-Willi Syndrome: Relationship between Neural Dysfunction and Obesity using fMRI. Circadian Rhythms

Solms: on Korsakoff's, depression and addtion (The Feeling Brain)

12. Sleep and Dreams

Solms and Turnbull: on dreams. Gray, Braver & Raichle: Integration of emotion and cognition in the lateral prefrontal cortex (2002), International Neuro-Psychoanlysis Society. Mark Solms: The Interpretation of Dreams and the Neurosciences. Mark Solms: Dreaming and REM Sleep are Controlled by Different Brain Mechanisms, Behavioral and Brain Sciences 23 (6) (2000). Sigmund Freud: The Interpretation of Dreams (1900). Freud Guides: The Interpretation of Dreams. Mark Solms: Freud Returns...(Hobson: ...Like a Bad Dream). William Domhoff: The Problems with Activation-Synthesis Theory (2006). Evolutionary Neurobehaviour Lab, Boston University School of Medicine: 1. Encorporation of Episodic Memory Fragments into Dreams. 2. Encorporation of Emotion into Dreams, 3. REM and NREMDifferences in Simulation of Social Interactions. 4. REM and NREM Differences and Interactions in Production of Emotional Content, Jolanda Jetten: Sleep on a Problem, It Works Like a Dream (The Psychologist, March 2006). Prague Neuropsychoanalysis Group: Videos and Articles

14. Information for the Final Exam

The final exam will be a choice of essay questions. You will choose any two of the final three topics covered and write two essays on these topics. Write approximately 1.5-2 pages per essay. The topics are:

i) Memory and the mind: describe research into the psychology and neuroscience of memory, and describe what we can learn about normal memory from studying memory disorders (both neurological and psychological)

ii) Emotions are central to our psychological lives. How has affective neuroscience increased our understanding of emotion and motivation in the mammalian brain? In your answer discuss Jaak Panksepp’s ‘basic emotion systems’ and other research on emotions.

iii) ‘Dreams are froth’? Discuss this with reference to experimental studies on sleep and dreaming and the controversy between Hobson and McCarley’s ‘activation-synthesis model’ and Mark Solms’ neuropsychoanalytic model of dreams, and what lessons this provides for experimental psychology.

Good Luck!