PSYC 410 — Memory in Mind and Culture
This course will be a multidisciplinary and in-depth study of human memory. Students will explore the ubiquitous nature of memory from the mental processes that are involved in the formation and retrieval of memory to broad scale representations of memory in the form of historical narratives. We will cover the fallibility of memory in a variety of situations such as cognitive aging, eyewitness testimony, and line-up identification. Students will cover approaches in marketing, advertising, and politics to gain an understanding of what makes something more or less memorable based on certain characteristics. Finally, students will review novel approaches in history and sociology toward gaining an understanding of how larger groups of individuals can hold a ¿collective memory¿ and how narratives can vary across cultural and historical backgrounds.