200098 VU Special Topics in Cognitive Psychology and in Neurosciences (2022W)

Important: The course will take place exclusively in presence according to the possibilities and requirements. Changes will be announced in the respective units and communicated to the participants via moodle. Covid or other illnesses count as excused absences after presentation of a certificate. Lecture language will be English or German depending on the preference of the final admitted students. Exception: October 31st - this unit will be held online.

The course serves to deepen the research approaches and fields of the research groups Biological Psychology and Cognitive Psychology of the Institute of Psychology of Cognition, Emotion and Methods. In parallel, the VUs "Research Approaches in Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience" and "Cognitive Psychology and Neuroscience" should be attended. The respective lecturer (this semester: Claus Lamm and Bernhard Laback, due to a semester off from Ulrich Ansorge; otherwise always: Claus Lamm and Ulrich Ansorge, as heads of the respective research groups Social Neuroscience and Cognitive Psychology) first presents current, specific research questions and topics in his research field in the form of an overview lecture. In the following course units these topics will be deepened by means of literature. Exemplary topics are: Empathy, prosocial behavior, attentional control and auditory perception, and their cognitive and neural bases. Master's students will gain a deeper insight into the research topics that can be addressed in the master's specialization "Psychological Foundations: Mind & Brain". One of the purposes of the course is to enable those students who take the master's specialization "Psychological Foundations: Mind & Brain" to decide on their own topic for the master's thesis at the end of the semester. Regular feedback is given by the lecturers, e.g. on the homework assignments.