Handbook

This course focuses on the behavioural and physiological basis of elementary learning processes. These include learning about relations between events (Pavlovian conditioning) and learning about relations between one’s behaviour and events (Instrumental conditioning). The content is delivered in a series of lectures that covers the history of associative learning, classic and contemporary approaches to the study of learning in animals and people, and applications of this study outside the laboratory (e.g., analysis of addiction, attachment and schizophrenia). This content is reinforced in tutorials that are designed to foster critical thinking skills, an appreciation of experimental approaches to psychology, and an understanding of the scientific method. It is unique in emphasizing psychological explanations of behaviour while grounding the different types of learning in neurobiology.