Syllabus topics and presentations*:
Note: handouts are printed before class and are a tentative idea of what we will talk about. They also have intentional gaps where I will ask you questions and prefer to not reveal the answers yet. Slide presentations are put up after the class and account for what we actually covered, including corrections of errors in the handouts which we noticed in class.

1. Week 1 - Introduction - motivation, structure, requirements of the course; defining learning and decision making slides
2. Weeks 2-4 - Classical conditioning - basic phenomena, error driven learning and the Resorla-Wagner model, second order conditioning and the Temporal Difference model, dopamine in the basal ganglia, opponent processes: appetitive vs. aversive, inhibitory vs. excitatory, opponent process model, fMRI of temporal difference errors slides I slides II slides III slides IV slides V slides VI
3. Weeks 5-7a Instrumental conditioning - Thorndike, basic procedures, Skinner & free operant behavior, modeling action selection, Actor/Critic framework, neural substrates of Actor/Critic model, learning Q values, comparing models using neural data, modeling free operant behavior, actions and habits, S-R versus R-O, devaluation, dual neural pathways, uncertainty based arbitration slides I slides II-III slides IV slides V slides VI
4. Week 7b: Classical vs. instrumental conditioning - comparison of instrumental and Pavlvovian procedures and processes, omission (we did not cover Pavlovian to Instrumental transfer this year) slides
5. Weeks 8-9: Too much dopamine can be bad for you: Learning as a model of disorders - drug abuse, latent inhibition and schizophrenia addiction I addiction II latent inhibition
6. Week 10: Extinction - What do animals really learn? - renewal, reinstatement and spontaneos recovery, Bayesian inference and infinite capacity latent cause models slides
7. Week 11-12: Generalization and discrimination - phenomena & challenges, configural vs. elemental theories slides
8. Week 12: Summary & a brief touch on topics we did not cover - attention and associability, other neuromodulators, amygdala, summary - the big picture, advice for a young investigator slides

* Many thanks to all my colleagues and fellow teachers who have (mostly unknowingly) contributed much of the material that is included in the above slides

Readings: (for PDFs go to blackboard)

• Textbook: Learning and Memory: From Brain to Behavior by Gluck, Mercado & Myers (2nd ed) (See also the companion website for chapter outlines, summaries and online quizzes.)
  Note that this is not our textbook in the traditional sense, in that it covers more than we will be discussing (eg, memory) and does not cover everything that we will be discussing (eg, computational models)
  
  

Some books I recommend:

• Sutton, R. and Barto, A. - Reinforcement Learning (1998) - A very good and accessible book explaining the computational field of reinforcement learning (also available online .
• Mackintosh, N.J. - The Psychology of Animal Learning (1974) - Great book, although hard to find (out of print).
• Mackintosh, N.J. - Conditioning and Associative Learning (1983) - Shorter than the above and covers mostly theoretical aspects, not for complete beginners.
• Dickinson, A. - Contemporary Animal Learning Theory (1980) - Although this was contemporary a long time ago, it is still very good and easy to read.

• Classics in the History of Psychology - The classic papers in psychology ONLINE
• Behavioral Science Glossary - A useful glossary of many of the terms we use
• PsychWeb - Resource for psychology links
• The Psi Cafe - Resource for psychology links
• Sniffy the Virtual Rat - 20 day downloadable demo of Sniffy