Most info comes from Dudai. Italicized text was taken from Schacter. Italicized and underlined text come from MacPhail.
 
I. Go over syllabus
  1. Grading
    1. A >89.99
    2. B 80-89.99
    3. C 70-79.99
  2. Recieve credit for participation, presentation, journal, quizzes and final exam. Weighting of each portion is outlined in syllabus.
  3. Readings - outlined in syllabus (required & optional), some handouts may be added to the required reading list at a later date.
  4. Due dates for various assignments
  5. Study guide.
II. Student background. What they expect.
III. Defining learning and memory?
The subject of Learning & Memory has been investigated by many different branches of science.  Thus, we encounter a problem right from the start.  This is a problem of semantics. Scientist from different fields have a different bias and vocabulary.  For instance  Behaviorist talk about adaptive changes in behavior, computer scientist discuss storage and output etc. Cognitive psychologists discuss internal representations or schemas.  Because of all of these different approaches we need to come to some concensus. The definition that we will use to guide our discussion this semester is as follows.

Learning is the process by which relatively permanent changes occur in behavioral potential, as a result of experience.
Memory is the relatively permanent record of the experience that underlies learning.

As a simple summary that encompasses all disciplines we can say that learning is a process while memory is the product of that process.

*in these definitions we've eliminated the term adaptive because the change in behavioral potential that is produced by learning does not necessarily facilitates survival. Some debilitating diseases whose manifestation can be explained using theories of learning. eg Obsessive/Compulsive disorders

Since I am a neuroscientist I will take our definition one step further by pointing out that because behavior is a function of activity in the central nervous system, learning is the production of relatively permanent changes in the central nervous system, as a result of internal and external stimuli.

Compare to above definition of learning.
 

IV. How is this process studies? Levels and approaches to studying L& M. Alluded to this idea of different approaches in previous section.
A. At various levels

  1. Behaving organism - phenomenological -
  2. Neuronal Systems (Dudai 'organ level'): - input - output or stimulus - response characteristics
  3. Circuit (Dudai 'suborgan level'): how does the different areas of the brain function as an integrated organ
  4. Cellular: individual neurons and their connections
  5. Molecular: biochemical biophysical events
B. Various approaches:
  1. Some researchers feel that the behaving organism is where one should start and move from there to the molecular. eg NMR This approach is referred to as the top- down approach. This approach is espoused by the Schacter text. Places heavy emphasis on reported memories which leads to the inevitable question of whether the retrieval process or the storage process is to blame for unrealistic memories. but that is a story we will get to soon.
  2. Some researchers feel that complex 'internal representations' or memories are the manifestation of interactions between processes that are fundamental and thus are found throughout the animal kingdom. These researchers thus study the molecular level and extrapolate to the behaving organism. This approach is a bottom-up approach.this approach is espoused by Dudai.
This course will be structured in the following manner.  First we will look at the study of L&M from a historical perspective.  We will then investigate different learning paradigms from a behavioral, cellular and finally molecular perspective.  A useful framework can formed by placing the learning paradigms along the top of a table and the different levels of investigating the phenomenon along the left margin of the same table.  As we move through the semester the intersections of these headings will eventually be filled in.