COURSE UNIT TITLE

: EVOLUTIONARY BASIS OF LEARNING AND COGNITION

Description of Individual Course Units

Course Unit Code Course Unit Title Type Of Course D U L ECTS
PSI 6124 EVOLUTIONARY BASIS OF LEARNING AND COGNITION ELECTIVE 3 0 0 5

Offered By

PSYCHOLOGY

Level of Course Unit

Third Cycle Programmes (Doctorate Degree)

Course Coordinator

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR DERYA DURUSU EMEK SAVAŞ

Offered to

PSYCHOLOGY

Course Objective

The aim of the course is to define, discuss and analyze how innate features and physical environment interact with the minds of different kinds which evolved to provide specified parts of the physical external environment. Fort his purpose, a comprehensive investigation related to the evolutionary basis of the learning and cognition. Main concept of the course is to understand how the biological mechanisms under the intellectual mechanisms come to todays understanding.

Learning Outcomes of the Course Unit

1   Be able to explain how evoultionary perspective can help to understand the human behavior.
2   Be able to discuss the importance of comparative methodology
3   Be able to offer solutions to topics that are scientifically problematic
4   Be able to evaluate biological functions and natural selection effects
5   Be able to analyze and report the learned material
6   Be able to follow and interpret the current literature on the evolutionary foundations of learning and cognition

Mode of Delivery

Face -to- Face

Prerequisites and Co-requisites

None

Recomended Optional Programme Components

None

Course Contents

Week Subject Description
1 Representations in animal cognition: An introduction
2 Representation of time
3 Event representation in Pavlovian conditioning: Image and action.
4 Levels of stimulus control: A functional approach.
5 Levels of stimulus control: A functional approach.
6 The representations of social relations by monkeys.
7 General Processes and adaptive specializations
8 General Processes and adaptive specializations
9 When will learning evolve
10 Simple recognition learning
11 Timing and Counting
12 Timing and Counting
13 Learning from others
14 Communication and language

Recomended or Required Reading

Gallistel, C. R. (1992). Animal cognition. Amsterdam, Nedherlands, Elseiver Science Publishers.
Shettleworth, S. J. (1998). Cognition, Evolution and Behavior. New Yor: NY, Oxford press.

Planned Learning Activities and Teaching Methods

Lectures will be guided by the instructor and come up with the participation of the students.

Assessment Methods

SORTING NUMBER SHORT CODE LONG CODE FORMULA
1 MTE MIDTERM EXAM
2 FCG FINAL COURSE GRADE
3 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE MTE * 0.40 + FCG* 0.60
4 RST RESIT
5 FCGR FINAL COURSE GRADE (RESIT) MTE * 0.40 + RST* 0.60


Further Notes About Assessment Methods

1. Midterm
2. Final

Assessment Criteria

There will be three exams in total. In all exams, question will cover knowledge, comprehension, analysis, interpretation and synthesis.

Language of Instruction

Turkish

Course Policies and Rules

Seventy percent attendance is obligatory

Contact Details for the Lecturer(s)

derya.emek@deu.edu.tr

Office Hours

Wednesday 14:00-15.00

Work Placement(s)

None

Workload Calculation

Activities Number Time (hours) Total Work Load (hours)
Lectures 14 3 42
Preparations before/after weekly lectures 14 3 42
Preparation for final exam 1 15 15
Preparation for midterm exam 2 10 20
Final 1 3 3
Midterm 2 6 12
TOTAL WORKLOAD (hours) 134

Contribution of Learning Outcomes to Programme Outcomes

PO/LOPO.1PO.2PO.3PO.4PO.5PO.6
LO.1454554
LO.2544545
LO.3445545
LO.4554454
LO.5544545
LO.6454444