Program Overview

---

Human Learning and Memory (PSYC0030)

Key Information

• Faculty: Faculty of Brain Sciences
• Teaching department: Division of Psychology and Language Sciences
• Credit value: 15
• Restrictions: This module is only available to students from BSc/MSci Psychology, BSc/MSci PALS, IBSc Psychology, BASc, Human Neuroscience, Human Sciences, Natural Sciences, Biomedical Sciences, Affiliate students, MSc CODES, MSc Social Cognition and MSc Brain and Mind Sciences.

Alternative Credit Options

There are no alternative credit options available for this module.

Description

Content

This module provides an extensive overview of our current understanding of learning and memory from behavioural, cognitive, and neural perspectives, with particular emphases on theoretical ideas about the ways in which distinct memory processes can be isolated and identified, and on the practical applications of research.

Teaching Delivery

This module is taught in 15 hours of in-person lectures spread over 10 teaching weeks (usually 5 2-hour sessions in one half of term and 5 1-hour lectures in the other half of term).

Indicative Topics

Indicative lecture topics based on module content, subject to possible changes:

• Short-Term Memory
• Working Memory & Neuroplasticity
• Encoding Processes
• Consolidation
• Reliability of Long-Term Memory
• False Memory
• Memory and Self
• Forgetting under Pristine Conditions
• Aging
• Dementia
• Metamemory
• Mechanisms of Memory Retrieval
• Test-Enhanced Learning
• Transfer-Appropriate Processing
• Neuroscience of Memory

Module Aims

Students are introduced to the idea of a processing stream from initial encoding and storage in short-term memory to subsequent consolidation in long-term memory and retrieval. The elements of this stream are not independent but are linked via interactions among component processes occurring at different points in the stream (transfer-appropriate processing). A key objective of the module is to equip students with the ability to evaluate evidence regarding the existence of distinct memory processes in this stream. Broad understanding of aspects of the neural basis and neuropsychology of memory are relevant to this objective, hence the characteristics of amnesia are discussed in depth. Students also learn about the multiple ways in which influences of memory can manifest themselves in behaviour. Applied topics such as aging, memory distortions, cognitive enhancement, and eyewitness memory are included in the module.

Module Deliveries for 2026/27 Academic Year

Intended Teaching Term: Term 1, Undergraduate (FHEQ Level 6)

Teaching and Assessment

• Mode of study: In person
• Methods of assessment: 100% Coursework (2 assessments)
• Mark scheme: Numeric Marks

Other Information

• Number of students on module in previous year: 125
• Module leader: Professor David Shanks

Intended Teaching Term: Term 1, Postgraduate (FHEQ Level 7)

Teaching and Assessment

• Mode of study: In person
• Methods of assessment: 100% Coursework
• Mark scheme: Numeric Marks

Other Information

• Number of students on module in previous year: 11
• Module leader: Professor David Shanks

Intended Teaching Term: Term 1, Undergraduate (FHEQ Level 7)

Teaching and Assessment

• Mode of study: In person
• Methods of assessment: 100% Coursework
• Mark scheme: Numeric Marks

Other Information

• Number of students on module in previous year: 2
• Module leader: Professor David Shanks

Last Updated

This module description was last updated on 10th March 2026.