Module PSYS2121: NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES

Department: PSYCHOLOGY (APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY) [Queen's Campus, Stockton]

PSYS2121: NEUROPSYCHOLOGY AND PERCEPTUAL PROCESSES

Prerequisites

• Level 1 core modules.

Corequisites

• None.

Excluded Combination of Modules

• None.

Aims

• The aim of the module is to develop an understanding of theoretical, methodological and empirical approaches in neuropsychology and cognitive neuroscience, with particular emphasis on visual neuroscience and visual cognition.

Content

• The module will cover a broad range of topics including a survey of methods used in studying brain and behaviour and neuropsychology, a critical evaluation of their application, and coverage of a range of topics in vision and visual cognition, including topics such as the perception of colour, form, motion and depth and their development, together with higher-level functions such as face, scene and object recognition, visually-controlled action and visual attention and a range of important neuopsychological disorders. The module will build on the introductory coverage given to these topics in the Level One modules.

Learning Outcomes

• Students should be able to describe and evaluate the different research methods used in biological psychology and neuropsychology and explain how knowledge obtained using these methods affects our accounts of brain systems involved in various psychological processes.
• Students should acquire of a broad body of knowledge relating the brain processes underlying a variety of psychological functions together with a more advanced general understanding of cognition and perception and the neural substrates that underlie them.

• Understanding the relationship between theory and data, including the ability to evaluate theories and concepts.
• Ability to reason scientifically.
• Ability to interpret research findings and integrate these with other key findings in the literature.

• Ability to organize and utilize knowledge.
• Competence in written communication skills.
• Effective retrieval and organisation of material.
• Ability to locate, read and review a body of research evidence.
• Ability to evaluate critically the quality of evidence and arguments.
• Ability to adopt different theoretical positions and see relationships between them.
• Interpret theoretically and evaluate significance of empirical work.

Modes of Teaching, Learning and Assessment and how these contribute to the learning outcomes of the module

• Student acquisition of knowledge relating to the relationships between brain and behaviour, the methods used to study them, and to vision and visual cognition is guided by lectures and supplemented by reading.
• This knowledge will be assessed in the formative and summative assessments, and the written examination. These assessments will be essay-based, providing students with the opportunities to demonstrate their abilities to organise, review and evaluate evidence and theory, to provide critical appraisal, and to contrast theoretical positions. Feedback on progress in acquiring knowledge in the module is provided in the formative assessment.
• Understanding of the relationship between theory and evidence is supported directly by the lecture content and seminar activities that encourage students to interpret evidence theoretically, and to compare competing theoretical accounts. The development of students??? skills in this domain is assessed in the formative and summative essays, and in the examination.
• Abilities to reason scientifically and to effectively retrieve, locate, organise and use information is facilitated by the preparation for seminars and assessment activities, and by the feedback from the formative assessment. Scientific reasoning and organisation of written material is assessed in the formative and summative essays, and in the examination.
• The skills involved in preparing scientific reports to a satisfactory standard are supported by workshop activities and feedback from the formative assessment.
• A key component in the preparation of formative essays is the acquisition of adequate word processing skills. Feedback is providing regarding the adequacy of these skills where necessary.

Teaching Methods and Learning Hours

Summative Assessment

Formative Assessment:

Two assignments

■ Attendance at all activities marked with this symbol will be monitored. Students who fail to attend these activities, or to complete the summative or formative assessment specified above, will be subject to the procedures defined in the University's General Regulation V, and may be required to leave the University