Learning and Memory

Lieberman, David A.David A. Lieberman was an undergraduate at Columbia University and received his Ph.D. from Brown University. He taught for four years at the University of Illinois, Champaign-Urbana, where he was twice selected as the 'most stimulating' teacher in psychology in university polls of graduating seniors. He moved to the University of Stirling in Scotland where his course on learning received the highest student ratings of any course in psychology. He served two terms as Associate Editor of the Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology and was one of two psychology members of the SERC panel that awarded research grants in psychology. He is the author of Learning and the Control of Behavior, Learning: Behavior and Cognition and Learning and Memory.

This innovative textbook is the first to integrate learning and memory, behaviour, and cognition. It focuses on fascinating human research in both memory and learning (while also bringing in important animal studies) and brings the reader up to date with the latest developments in the subject. Students are encouraged to think critically: key theories and issues are looked at in detail; descriptions of experiments include why they were done and how examining the method can help evaluate competing viewpoints. By looking at underlying cognitive processes, students come away with a sense of learning and memory being interrelated actions taken by the same human being, rather than two separate activities. Lively and engaging writing is supported by lots of examples of practical applications that show the relevance of lab-based research to everyday life. Examples include treatments for phobias and autism, ways to improve eyewitness testimony, and methods of enhancing study techniques.

Focusing on humans rather than animals, this is the first textbook to integrate learning and memory, behaviour and cognition.

Introduction; Part I. Learning: 1. Some basic assumptions; 2. Classical conditioning; 3. Conditioning principles and theories; 4. Reinforcement; 5. Reinforcement applications; 6. Punishment; 7. Theories of reinforcement; Part II. Memory: 8. Memory: an introduction; 9. Sensory and working memory; 10. Long-term memory; 11. Retrieval; 12. Practical applications; Part III. Learning and Memory: 13. Neural networks.