- Docente: Elisa Ciaramelli
- Credits: 6
- SSD: M-PSI/02
- Language: Italian
- Teaching Mode: Traditional lectures
- Campus: Cesena
- Corso: First cycle degree programme (L) in Psychological sciences and techniques (cod. 8774)
Learning outcomes
Neuropsychology is a psychological science devoted to the understanding of cognitive processes and their neural substrates. Students will acquire knowledge about the scientific methods of neuropsychology (e.g., study of the behaviour of brain-damaged patients), and about humans' cognitive systems (e.g., memory, attention, language), their functional properties, their neural underpinnings, and their impairment.
Course contents
Methods in neuropsychology
Neuropsychology (neural and cognitive bases, functional properties, and dysfunction) of the following processes:
- Perception
- Attention
- Movement
- Memory
- Language
- Emotions
- Executive functions
- Social cognition
The macro-themes of the course, concerning the neural bases of cognitive processes, make contact with those in the Cognitive and Social Neurosciences course (II year). The Neuropsychology course, however, is more specifically focused on the neuropsychological approach to the study of human cognition. Therefore, it is more markedly based on the analysis of the cognitive profile and behavior of patients with acquired brain damage, and on the study of the specific experiments involving brain-damaged patients that have contributed to shape the prominent theories of the operation and neural underpinnings of cognitive processes in humans.
The course will take place during the first semester (September-November, 2017), at the Cesena Campus of the School of Psychology and Education (address: p.zza A. Moro, 90).
Readings/Bibliography
Làdavas E, Berti A. Neuropsicologia. Il Mulino. 2014
+ Required readings indicated during the course
Teaching methods
Frontal lectures, complemented with media contents such as powerpoint slides and videos of neuropsychological patients. Moreover, there will be interactive presentations and collective discussions of scientific papers focusing on debated topics studied with different neuropsychological methods.
Assessment methods
Written examination (duration: 1.5 hours), with 4 open questions, each of which can receive a score up to 7.5. The final score (expressed out of 30) is the sum of the scores attained at the different questions.
The student will have to demonstrate knowledge of: (1) t he different cognitive systems, their neural bases, and their dysfunction, (2) the main experiments at the basis of the principal neuropsychological theories, (3) the methods used in neuropsychology.
IMP: It is necessary to sign up for the examination through the dedicated website. Any problem in registering through the website should be promptly communicated to the administrative staff.
Teaching tools
Frontal lectures with Power Point slides
Scientific papers and reviews
Videos about the main neuropsychological syndromes
Collective discussion of clinical cases
Links to further information
Office hours
See the website of Elisa Ciaramelli