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. In addition to reading every assigned reading every week, each student periodically (once or twice per semester) will be responsible for presenting one article to the class. Presenting an article will involve describing the key issues/questions/hypotheses surrounding the paper, the methodology used to address these questions, the results of the experiment and what the results mean in terms of the stated hypotheses. Everyone, whether presenting or not, 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.
Notice that I used the word 'us' in the last paragraph. Everybody in the class will be responsible for reading all of the thought papers for the week. I will set up a forum each eek. You can access the forum in either of two ways. First, you can logg into the Moodle site directly; the link to the forum for each week will be listed by scrolling down to the appropriate week in the week-by-week listing on the main page. Second, you can use the schedule page outside of moodle; click the link for the appropriate week and you will be taken directly to the Moodle page (although you will have to log into the Moodle site). You are excused from the Thought Paper assignment when it is your turn to present the extra paper. Your thought papers will be due by 9:00 PM on Mondays. 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:
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| Short Paper: (3-5 pages) For your short paper, I would like you to bridge the gap between theory and behavior. You may either choose the topic described below, or devise a topic of your own (however, you must clear your topic with me before you begin). The first draft of this assignment is due Friday, March 11th. The second and final draft of this assignment is due on Friday, April 8th. Choose a memory from your personal past and try to determine the accuracy of your memory. 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). 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 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. | ||||||||
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. |