MEMORY DISORDERS Ira Fischler

PSY 4930 090 PSY Bldg

T 4, R 4-5 (5049x) 287 PSY 392-0601 ext 228

Spring 1999 fischler@psych.ufl.edu

Office Hours MTWR 3rd pd http://www.psych.ufl.edu/~fischler/

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This is a special-topics course being offered once a year. It parallels Human Memory (EXP 4504), but is more concerned with clinical and neurological aspects of memory pathology. Although much of our attention will be on case studies of memory impairment, we=ll be considering how these disorders can illuminate the nature of normal human memory. A course in general psychology, PSY 2013 or its equivalent, is the only formal prerequisite, although some exposure to experimental psychology, either through courses in cognitive, sensory, or psychobiology foundation classes or labs, will be helpful with some of the material.

TEXTS: There are two books required. Daniel Schacter=s Searching for Memory: The Brain, the Mind and the Past (Basic Books, 1996) is a broad introduction to human memory and its Afragile power@ in our lives. It includes chapters on various kinds of amnesia, false memories, and the role of emotion on remembering, but also reviews the nature of everyday learning, remembering and forgetting. Broken Memories (Blackwell, 1995), edited by Ruth Campbell and Martin Conway, presents a series of Acase studies@ of memory that is impaired by various forms of brain damage and malfunction; the theme is on how a careful study of individual pathologies can help us understand normal memory processes. It is organized by the kind of impairment, for example, autobiographical memory, semantic memory, short-term memory, etc. We will be reading most of Schacter, and about two-thirds of Campbell & Conway.

EXAMS: There will be three noncumulative exams, each worth 20% of your grade, drawing from the texts and from class lecture and discussions. The format will be a combination of short-answer and essay questions.

PRESENTATIONS: Each of you will be responsible for presenting a brief (10 minute) case study of memory impairment from recent (1997-99) accounts in the neuropsychology or psychiatric literature, during the last two-thirds of the semester. This, along with a written summary of the case, will be worth 10% of your grade.

TEXT-BASED QUESTIONS: You will turn in questions you have about the readings that will help us frame the discussions about that topic; we will divide up the assignments so that each of you hands in five sets of two questions each. Worth 10% of the grade.

RESEARCH PAPER: You will take on the role of science writer, to distill some of the material from the course and other resources from recent scientific publications, and produce a paper about 8 pages long, that communicates recent work about some aspect of memory impairment to a general audience. Guidelines and sample topics will be given later. Worth 20% of your grade. The paper will be due Tuesday, April 13.

MEMORY DISORDERS Spring 1998

Date Topic Readings (S=Schacter;

CC=Campbell & Conway)

HUMAN MEMORY: FORMS AND PROCESSES

1/7 The fragile power of memory (2) S:1; CC:1,2

1/12 Types and forms of Amemory@ (1)

1/14 Measuring memory performance in lab and clinic (2) TBA

1/19 Encoding and retrieval processes (3) S:2

1/26 Loss of memory over time (3) S:3; CC:3

2/2 Retrieval or reconstruction? Memory distortions (3) S:4

************************ EXAM 1: Tuesday Feb 9 **************************

THE DAMAGED BRAIN: ORGANIC IMPAIRMENTS OF MEMORY

2/11 Brain regions involved in memory processes (2) TBA

2/16 Impairments of episodic memory (4) S:5,6; CC:5

2/25 Impairments of memory control: Confabulation (2) CC:8,9,10

3/2 Impairments of visual imagery and spatial thinking (3) CC:15,12,14

3/16 Impairments of semantic and lexical knowledge (3) CC:16,17,24.25

************************ EXAM 2: Tuesday Mar 23 *************************

THE TROUBLED SOUL: PSYCHOGENIC AMNESIAS

3/25 Emotion, arousal and memory (2) S:7

4/1 Temporary amnesias for life periods (2) S:8

4/6 Dissociative Identity Disorders (2)

4/8 Memories of abuse: Recovered or false? (2) S:9

MEMORY IN THE TWILIGHT

4/15 Aging and memory (1) S:10

Alzheimer=s disease and the loss of self (1) CC:26,27

4/20 Stories of the Elders: Reminiscence and

the role of memory in society (1)

*********************** EXAM 3: Wednesday, April 28, 3 pm ********************