After a first educational part on underlying mechanisms, the course will outline how learning development and maintenance takes place. In order to further complete this content part of the course will deal with principal pathologies in developmental age concerning attention, memory and learning disabilities. Consequently, instruments of investigations and prevention for children in pre-school age as well as diagnosis and treatment for patients in school age and after will be illustrated.
1. To provide the notions of neuro-functional architectures of cognitive and emotional processes. 2. To distinguish anatomical description level over the hierarchical one of its explanation through functional neuro-anatomy and architectural models of normal and pathological brain processes. 3. To acknowledge how these models can affect clinical evaluation and rehabilitation protocols.
At the end of the course students will be able :
The course is based on lectures and presentation of slides illustrating several aspects of the programme; students are expected to take an interactive role in the discussion of more complex arguments.
The course will be organized in two modules, consisting of both frontal lessons and the presentation and discussion of a series of scientific (research) papers.
Module 1:
Methods in Cognitive Neurosciences
The hierarchical Theory of Attention
Attention in learning processes
Attentive-Executive Control Systems.
Emotion
Attention Deficit Disorder
Neuropsychological tests used in assessment
Module 2:
Memory: types and mechanisms
Declarative (Explicit?) Memory
Decisional processes
Neural bases of written and spoken language
Types of dyslexia
- Purves D., Brannon E.M., Cabeza R., Huettel S.A., LaBar K.S., Platt M. L., Woldorff M.G. (seconda edizione 2015). Neuroscienze Cognitive. Zanichelli. Bologna.
- Benso, F. (2017). Attenzione Esecutiva, Memoria e Autoregolazione : modelli, valutazione e intervento. Edizioni Hogrefe.
SONIA DI TELLA (President)
LAURA MIGLIORINI
from Monday, September 23.
PHYSIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
The exam consists in a compulsory written test, with possibility of an oral integration.
Cloze test, multiple choice test and a test with two open-response questions. Students who pass the written exam will have the possibility to integrate it with an oral exam or with the evaluation of a short dissertation on a scientific subject.
The compulsory written exam lets students have a convenient time to verify all programme content.
In-depth examination is substantial for those students who will practise as both clinical and experimental psychologists.
Open-response questions will deal with general subjects and will be aimed to evaluate the importance of experimental approach, the transition from descriptive to functional anatomy, the use and application of theoretical aspects to clinical neuro-psychology.
Non attending students will not be required to face any other activities, given their disadvantage of not attending the lessons of such a complex subject, which should need the explanation and the contextualization of every single argument.
To sit examinations students are asked to register online at least five days before test on the following “Portale studenti”: https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/. Registration will be closed five days before exam date.
Students are requested to regularly refer to the following web page on “Portale studenti”: https://servizionline.unige.it/studenti/esami/. All information and materials for the course are posted exclusively on this web site.
