Learning and Memory

Learning and memory are fundamental brain functions of all animals living on this planet.

For humans, these cognitive abilities are indispensable for the acquisition and the passing on of knowledge, for self-reflection, the avoidance of dangers and, last but not least, for the successful passing of exams. Disturbed learning and memory functions occur in a variety of disorders, including dementias, which are characterized by memory deficits, and phobias, which are characterized by a strong aversive memory of a specific object or situation.

This is an introductory course to human learning and memory, which will cover the following topics: Overview of the human memory systems, methods to study learning and memory, declarative memory, memory deficits, short-term forms of memory, non-declarative memory, emotional memory and the phenomenon of superior memory. Here and there studies from our own group are presented to give an insight into memory research.

The course consists of short introductory videos to the topics, articles, links to external resources, and selected book chapters of “Cognitive Neuroscience: The Biology of the Mind; 5th Edition. Michael Gazzaniga, Richard B. Ivry, George R. Mangung”.

Some of the materials used in this course are freely accessible, others are only made freely accessible to students and members of the University of Basel who are enrolled in the course. The latter have access to such materials via ADAM. Please note that certain links are only available within the eduroam network if they concern publications for which the university has a campus license. If you are a member of the University of Basel and want to access university resources from home, you will need to install a VPN client.