Psychology 368: Autobiographical Memory - Syllabus! Back to: schedule | ||||||||
Professor Matthew Schulkind I remember everything as if it happened years ago\ From this point forth, we shall be leaving the firm | ||||||||
| Course Overview: Autobiographical memory encompasses everything we know about our personal past from information as mundane as our social security number to the most inspirational moments of our lives. Autobiographical memory is the way we define ourselves, so it not only shapes our personal identity today, it gives us the ability to think about who we might become in the future. This course will begin by examining the relationship between personality and autobiographical memory. We well then consider how autobiographical knowledge is structured and how that structure changes as we move from childhood to adolescence to adulthood to old age. We will consider individual differences in autobiographical memory, particularly those related to gender differences in socialization. In the second half of the semester, we will consider how autobiographical remembering functions in important applied settings like the courtroom. Towards the end of the semester, we will examine the consequences of breakdowns in autobiographical memory functioning in the context of several well-known diseases including amnesia, dementia, depression, and schizophrenia. Finally, we will all wrestle with the false/recovered memory controversy. | ||||||||
| Readings: You will be responsible for a handful of reading assignments each week. Everyone should read the articles critically; that is, you should not necessarily accept the authors' claims at face value. Are their hypotheses warranted? Do they do a good job of setting up an experiment to test their hypotheses? Are their interpretations of the data justified? Can some other theory also explain the results? How might you improve the experiment? What is the next experiment that should be done to further test the theory in question? | ||||||||
| Thought Papers: In addition to the weekly readings, you will also be responsible for composing a written response to the week's readings. You should use this paper as an opportunity to demonstrate your critical reading of the assignments (see above). Do not summarize the papers! Tell me what you think! What were the strong and weak points of the paper? What aspects of the argument/design need clarification? How might you counter the arguments/conclusions made by the author(s)? Do the data support the claims made by the researchers? Why or why not? What might you have done differently? What would be the next important question/experiment to pursue? Your thought papers should be NO MORE THAN one paragraph. If you have more to say, you can hold it for class, just give us the flavor of your thoughts. You do not need to address every paper; in fact, you should try to focus on a single paper, or the relationship between two papers. You only have to do 1 thought paper per week. You may choose whether to submit your thought paper for Monday or Wednesday.
Your thought papers will be due by 9:00 PM the night before class meets. Late papers will receive a grade of 5 out of 10; failure to turn in an assignment will result in a 0. | ||||||||
| Class Participation: A seminar is only as good as its participants and the contributions made by those participants. At the end of the semester, your peers and I will grade the quality of your contributions to class. Your peers will use whatever criteria they deem meaningful. I will grade your performance based on the frequency, creativity, and scientific relevance of your input. | ||||||||
Course Grade: Your course grade will be determined, as follows:
| ||||||||
Short Paper: (3-5 pages) Choose a memory from your personal past and assess how your memory for the event differs from others' recollections of the same event. To do so, you should probably choose a memorable event that involved multiple people. You would then interview the other people involved, consult objective sources – if applicable – and try to come to terms with both the consistencies and inconsistencies that you observe across sources (e.g., your own account versus someone else's account). These inconsistencies can relate to both content (what happened) and form (the language used to describe the event). You should also speculate about potential explanations for the specific in/consistencies that you observe. Your discussion should draw upon the psychological literature we have read and discussed throughout the semester (of course, you may and probably should also draw upon relevant literature that we have not discussed in class). | ||||||||
| Term Project: False / Recovered Memories I am going to ask you to engage in a group project surrounding the issue of recovered memories. We will split ourselves into two groups. Each group will be responsible for reviewing the literature on recovered memories; one will do so from the perspective of clinicians, the other will do so from the perspective of non-clinical psychologists. I will provide you with some references to get you started, but your group will be responsible for doing its own independent research in addition to the resources that I give you. Each group will present their review to the class in the form of a 20-minute oral presentation. It will be up to each group to decide how to construct their presentation. One person can do the entire presentation, or the presentation can be shared amongst group members. The presentation can be formal (power-point) or informal. It may include demonstrations but it need not do so. Your goal is to provide the most effective, cogent, convincing arguments to support your ‘side' of the debate. Each individual will also be responsible for writing a 5-7-page paper based on your group's work. Again, the goal of the paper is to present the strongest argument that you can to support your team's view. A draft of your paper MAY be turned in PRIOR to the start of the last day of class. The draft is optional. On the last day of class, we will listen to the two group presentations. We will use these conversations as a basis for a rounded discussion of the false memory controversy. Your final paper will represent your best effort to synthesize the research that you have read and that was discussed in class. Although you are 'required' to take a strong position supporting one side of the debate for the class presentation, you are free to make any argument that you feel is appropriate for your paper. The due date for your final paper is on the course schedule. | ||||||||
| Generative AI Policy: You may not use generative AI for any purpose at any time in this class. There are two reasons for this policy. First, my values actively conflict with those of generative AI. I design assignments with the goal of helping you become better readers, writers, and thinkers. Along the path to those goals, my core values include independence, novelty, and depth of analysis. Generative AI has a different set of values. The technology seems to value efficiency (how quickly can it generate a response to a prompt) and probability (what is most likely to come next). Efficiency undermines independence and depth of analysis; probability undermines all three. Second, research indicates that if you want a group to follow a policy or law, it is best to make that policy or law simple to follow. I have tried more 'common sense' approaches to generative AI but was forced to abandon them because students could not easily determine what was and was not permissible; students also failed to disclose their use of generative AI tools. Any suspected use of AI will be referred to the Student Affairs Office. Depending on the context and type of use, the penalty for violation of this policy may include a failing grade or a grade of zero on the assignment in question. Failure in the course is also a possibility, again, depending on the nature of the offense. Given the shifting nature of the AI space, I cannot provide a list of all possible programs and/or activities that might be considered a violation of this policy but given that the College has purchased and distributed Grammarly to the student body, I do want to comment on the use of this product. You are allowed to use the version of Grammarly covered by the College's license, but you may not use GrammarlyGo (which is not included in the College's license) for any work submitted for this class. | ||||||||
Accomodations: If you have a documented disability that requires accommodations, you will need to register with Accessibility Services for coordination of your academic accommodations. You can reach them via email at accessibility@amherst.edu, or via phone at 413-542-2337. Once you have your accommodations in place, I will be glad to meet with you privately during my office hours or at another agreed upon time to discuss the best implementation of your accommodations. |