Research in Memory

PSYCH 390 - Research in Memory
Winter 2022
University of Waterloo
Waterloo, Ontario, Canada

Course Description
This course explored memory research, from the classic studies of Ebbinghaus to modern work using neuroimaging.

As some examples, we addressed questions such as: How is information encoded and retrieved? What types of memory exist? How can we measure these forms of memory? Why does forgetting occur? What biological changes accompany memory loss? Can memory impairments be rehabilitated?

There was also a lab component to this course. The goal of the lab component was to introduce students to OpenSesame software, which is often used to collect data for research studies. The goal for these labs is to give students a hands-on opportunity to understand the basic methods in current memory research. Students designed, tested, and analyzed their own experiments during class time.

Several major themes in the area of memory research were explored in this course. Historically influential ideas, current theoretical debates, and the application of cognitive, social, neuroimaging, & neuropsychological approaches to the study of memory were reviewed and debated.