| Georgetown University | Home | A-Z Index | Contents | Directories | Search |
|
|
|||||||||||||||
Spring 2003
Last updated 12/09/02.
NOTE: Several modules are filled. To determine present availability, please email the Director
Details regarding individual modules for the Spring 2003 are posted below. Each student enrolled in the course is to take exactly 3 modules throughout the semester.
You will need the Director's written permission to enroll in the course. Students first choose the modules they want to take, rank ordering by their preference, and email them to the Director. Students are asked to list more than three in order of their preference.
In the spring of 2003, each module will be offered during one of four
periods of the semester. These periods meet during the following weeks.
Students may distribute their modules across three of the four different periods
or, if preferred, take more than one in a given period as long as there is no
time conflict. For the exact meeting times for each module, see the
summary table and the module descriptions
themselves.
| Period # | Weeks | Modules |
| 1 | Jan 13, 20, 27, Feb 3 | Eden, Kainen, Schwartz |
| 2 | Feb 10,17, 24 | Aisen/Saunders, Barr, Friedman,, Ramey/Ramey |
| 3 | Mar 3, 17, 24 | Howard, Malkova, Walker |
| 4 | Mar 31, Apr 7, 14, 21 | Mackey, Hoffman |
Summary of Meeting Times (See individual module descriptions for more details)
| Period 1 | Eden | Tuesdays 3:30-5:00 on Jan 14, 21, 28 |
| Kainen | Tuesdays Jan 14, 21, 28, 5-6:30 | |
| Schwartz | Thursdays, January 16, 23, 30, 2:30-5:00 | |
| Period 2 | Aisen/Saunders | Thursdays 9 – 11am, Feb 6, 13, and 20th |
| Barr | Thursdays 4-7 on Feb 13, 20, 27 | |
| Friedman | Wed Feb 12 & Thu Feb 13,10:30-12, Wed Feb 19 10:30-11:30, Thu Feb 27 10:30 -11:30 | |
| Ramey/Ramey | Friday afternoons Feb 7, 14, 28 | |
| Period 3 | Malkova | Thursday mornings or afternoons, to be arranged with students once they enroll |
| Howard | Thursdays Mar 6, 20, 27. 6-9pm | |
| Walker | Tuesdays Mar 4, 18, 25. 6-9pm | |
| Period 4 | Mackey | Thursdays, Exact Time TBA (i.e., arranged with students who enroll) |
| Hoffman | Tuesdays 2:30-5 on April 1, 8, 15 |
Descriptions of Modules for Spring 2003
Prof Paul Aisen & Prof Pamela Saunders
Department of Neurology, GU Medical Center
psa@georgetown.edu, saunderp@georgetown.edu
http://geriatrics.georgetown.edu/faculty.html
Meeting Times: Period #2: Thursdays 9 – 11am, Feb 6, 13, and 20th
Meeting Place: TBA
Maximum enrollment: 5
Research on Alzheimer's Disease: An Introduction
In this module, students will be introduced to a several areas of research and care for persons with Alzheimer’s disease. First, Dr. Aisen will provide an overview of Alzheimer’s disease and current research. Second, students will read and discuss issues of communication and aging with Dr. Saunders. Third, students will talk with two nurse practitioners about assessment and patient care for AD patients. Students will learn to administer cognitive assessments. They will also have the opportunity to observe a session with a research subject. This module will meet for three sessions. Students will be required to write a short paper. In addition they will be required to arrange a time to observe a research subject. Grading will be based on class participation and write up.
Department of Psychology
http://www.georgetown.edu/departments/psychology/faculty/barr.html
Meeting Times: Period #2, Thursdays 4-7 on Feb 13,
20, 27. In addition, students will arrange to go on one home
visit to an infants' home over the course of the three weeks.
Meeting Place: 308 WGR (confirm with professor prior to first meeting)
Maximum enrollment: 10
Infant Cognition
Infant cognition has been studied extensively for only 30 years and creative experimental methodology has been developed to study the preverbal cognitive mind. This module will evaluate and critique, the methods, the data, and the interpretations arising from the data. There will be three main interrelated parts. First, we will focus on how methods were derived. Not surprisingly, many methods were based on methods used to study cognition in nonhuman nonverbal animals. Second, we will focus on different topics of infant cognition to illustrate different methodologies and current trends in the field. Topics will include methods on infant ís understanding of objecthood. On what basis do infants segment objects, do they have a concept of number, do they perceive events as causal? Given that my research focuses on the development of infant learning and memory, we will also examine how infant learning and memory are studied. A final section of the course will discuss a theoretical issue arising from studies of infant memory. The findings from studies of infant memory have led researchers to question the origin of infantile amnesia. Infantile amnesia is the typical inability of adults to recall events before the age of 3 or 4 years. The paradox arises that if infant memory is functional and formative years of life are so important for subsequent development why is it that we cannot remember those early years?
Each student will be required to write a paper, either critiquing an experiment or theory or else proposing an experiment, based on my lectures and related reading. Grades will depend on classroom participation and the paper.
Department of Pediatrics, GU Med Center
http://csl.georgetown.edu/index.html
Meeting Times: Period #1, Tuesdays 3:30-5:00 on Jan 14, 21, 28
Meeting Place: Room 172, Building D Medical Center
Maximum enrollment: 10
Methods and Application of Functional Bain Imaging to Study Human Cognition
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) allows for non-invasive studies of the neurobiological basis of perception and cognition. In this module we will discuss how this novel technique aids our understanding of the brain processes involved in reading and how they differ in adults and children with the reading disability developmental dyslexia. During the three classes we will (1) review the imaging literature of reading, (2) learn how reading and related cognitive skills are measured using standardized tests and (3) discuss the role of functional brain imaging and behavioral measures in assessing reading remediation.
Department of Neurology, GU Med Center
Tel: 784-4134
http://www.giccs.georgetown.edu/labs/friedman/index.html
Meeting time: Period #2:
class 1: Wed. Feb 12 10:30-
12:00
class 2: Thurs. Feb 13 10:30 - 12:00
class 3: Wed. Feb 19
10:30-11:30
One hour patient observation, to be scheduled individually,
sometime Thurs Feb 20 through Wed Feb 26
class 4: Thurs Feb 27
10:30 - 11:30.
Meeting place: Bldg D Room 207E
Maximum enrollment: 8
Assessment and Rehabilitation of Acquired Disorders of Reading (alexias) in Patients with Stroke or Head Injury
Students will read general articles on aphasia and alexia. We will discuss the process of reading, and the symptoms and syndromes of alexia. We will learn how to diagnose the various types of alexia, and students will make "diagnoses" based upon real patient data. Next we will discuss possible remediation strategies for the different types of alexia. Students will then sit in on one treatment session with a patient. In the final class meeting we will discuss our observations of the patients.
Center for the Study of Learning & Department of Pediatrics, GU Med Center
phone: 784-4978
http://csl.georgetown.edu/index.html
Meeting times: Period #4: Tuesdays 2:30-5 on April 1, 8, 15
Meeting place: Building D/Room 172
Maximum enrollment: 10
Face Perception and Social Cognition
Faces provide a wealth of information that facilitates social communication. In this module, we will review some of the historical work on face perception that shows how faces are treated differently from other objects, as well as more recent neuroimaging work that demonstrates that areas in the human and monkey brain respond selectively to faces. Particular attention will be given to social cues that are transmitted by faces, such as eye gaze and facial expression, and how these cues inform us about another's state of mind. Students will participate in a face perception experiment as research subjects and we will interpret the data together in the final class meeting. Each student will also be required to write a short paper (3-4 typed pages plus an annotated bibliography) on a topic of their choice that is related to face perception. Grading will be based on class participation and the term paper.
Department of Psychology
http://www.georgetown.edu/departments/psychology/faculty/howard.html
Meeting times: Period #3; Thursdays, Mar 6, 20, 27, 6-9 pm
Meeting place: 308 WGR
Maximum enrollment: 10
The Aging Mind & Brain: Implicit Learning and Memory
My research investigates how and why learning and memory change (and don't change) in the course of healthy human aging. I'll assign several articles/papers from my laboratory for students to read ahead of time, and I'll ask students to prepare questions for discussion. We'll have a total of 3 class meetings, each approximately 2 ½-3 hours long. During the first we'll discuss the assigned readings and students will visit our lab and see a demonstration of the tasks we are using in our current studies. During the second meeting, the class will design and set up a simple experiment for which students will then collect data from friends before the next class. In the final meeting, we'll discuss our findings and how they relate to broader issues in the study of learning and memory. Each student will be required to write a short paper (7 typewritten pages or fewer) on the readings and the class experiment. The grade will be determined by the quality of the discussion questions the student proposed for the class, the quality of the student's contribution to our class meetings and experiment, and the quality of the written paper.
Department of Mathematics
72703 (phone or voice-mail)
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/kainen/
Meeting Times: Period #1, 5-6:30 Tuesdays Jan 14, 21, 28
Meeting place:: Reiss 256
Maximum enrollment: 8
Aspects of Mathematical Perception
Artists have written about mathematical ideas. Kandinski's Point and Line to Plane, for example, admirably blends both domains, as does Louis Kauffman's poem to the quaternions. We'll look at some examples and discuss mathematical structures involved in the concepts of form and dimension. These theoretical derived phenomena may be visibly demonstrated (or imagined). The cognitive ability to correctly determine dimensionality and form indicates an innate mathematical performance on the part of the organism. Mathematical aptitude will be helpful but formal course work is not necessary. Attending the classes, doing some reading and preparing a paper will be your side of the equation.
Department of Linguistics
http://www.georgetown.edu/faculty/mackeya/
Meeting times: Period #4, Thursdays, Exact Time TBA
Meeting place: ICC 460 and ICC 201
Maximum enrollment: 5
Second Language Acquisition and Working Memory Capacity
My research investigates the ways in which
humans learn second languages. I
am currently exploring the relationship between feedback and second language
(L2) learning. A number of empirical studies have shown that when language
learners receive feedback on their linguistic output during conversational
interaction, positive effects on their grammatical abilities can be
identified. An interesting and open question concerns how (and why) such
feedback is helpful. In particular, why does it benefit some language
learners, but not others? Some researchers have suggested that working
memory capacity may play a part in feedback-driven second language learning.
It has also been suggested that feedback may be beneficial because it can
help learners to notice, or pay attention to grammatical forms. In this
module, the discussion will be focused on the process of learning second
languages, with particular reference to the role of feedback, working memory
and learner attention to L2 form.
We will meet to discuss several key concepts and terms from the field of
second language acquisition. These discussions will be at the introductory
level and no specific background is necessary. I will distribute research
articles, sets of data from experiments involving second language learners,
and examples of psychometric tests of working memory capacity. Together, we
will carry out L1 listening span tests. We will discuss the findings of
recent experiments, and how these findings should be interpreted for the
field. Students will present their ideas for further analyses,
interpretations and experiments.
Assessment: Students can choose to submit either final (6-7 page) papers on
the readings, or original coding and interpretations based on the data-sets.
Students may work in pairs on both the presentations and the final paper.
Department of Pharmacology, GU Medical Center
http://neuroscience.georgetown.edu/Faculty/IPN_malkova.html
Meeting times: Period #3, Thursday mornings or afternoons, to be arranged with students once they enroll
Meeting place: TBA
Maximum enrollment: 10
Neural Substrates of Socioemotional Behavior
This module is directed to the neural substrates of socioemotional behavior and some aspects of learning and memory studied in animal models. Special interest will be aimed at the involvement of medial temporal lobe structures, i.e., amygdala, hippocampus, and temporal lobe cortical areas, in these functions. This module will review the research in animals that uses pharmacological manipulations of discrete brain regions by focal drug infusions and lesions made by various techniques. Findings from animals studies will be related to some human disorders, such as amnesia and autism. Each student will have to write a paper on a topic related to the module according to their choice. They will be graded based on the paper and class participation.
Prof Sharon Ramey & Prof Craig Ramey
Georgetown Center on Health and Education, GU School of Nursing and Health Studies
sr222@georgetown.edu, ctr5@georgetown.edu
http://snhs.georgetown.edu/academics/cherith.html
Meeting times: Period #2, Friday afternoons Feb 7, 14, 28
Meeting place: Georgetown Center on Health and Education, First Floor St. Mary's
Maximum enrollment: 10
Early Educational Interventions and Altered Developmental Trajectories
This research module will engage students in a thorough review of the theory, the designs and methods, and the key findings from 13 randomized controlled trials designed to enhance the development of children at environmental and/or biological risk for poor cognitive development. Students will have direct access to longitudinal datatsets to conduct additional analyses and test hypotheses. In addition, students will have opportunities for direct observation of children and adult caregivers in diverse early intervention programs and home settings. The scientific and political controversies, as well as the practical applications, related to the evidence about the malleability of human intelligence across the lifespan and across diverse risk groups will be explored in detail.
Department of Psychiatry & Washington, DC VA Hospital
http://neuroscience.georgetown.edu/Faculty/IPN_schwartz.html
Meeting times: Period #1: Thursdays, January 16, 23, 30, 2:30-5:00
Meeting place: Psychiatry Service, VA Medical Center
Maximum enrollment: 8
Neurocognitive Function in Schizophrenia
In the last decade, researchers in the field of schizophrenia have discovered the central role that cognitive dysfunctions play in this complex disorder. This module will provide an overview of the clinical symptoms, brain pathology and neurocognitive dysfunctions of schizophrenia. Our “hands-on” experimental work will involve the study of face perception problems in schizophrenia. This work looks at basic mechanisms of face perception to understand schizophrenia patients’ difficulties in expressing and identifying facial expressions. We will have three class meetings. In the first two meetings we will discuss assigned readings and I will show students the types of neuropsychological and cognitive tests used to assess cognitive problems in schizophrenia. In the last meeting, students will observe the administration of face perception tests used in our research. Each student will have an opportunity to observe a research patient. Students will be required to write a short paper (about 5 pages) on a topic covered in our overview of schizophrenia. Grading will be based on class participation and the quality of the written paper.
Department of Psychology
http://www.georgetown.edu/departments/psychology/faculty/walker.html
Meeting times: Period #3, Tuesdays Mar 4, 18, 25; 6-9pm
Meeting place:
Maximum enrollment: 9
Developmental and Acquired Diseases
One way to examine how the brain works is to examine the brain
during a disease state. One technique often utilized to do this is to create an
animal model of that disease and test the animal on some behavioral or
electrophysiological metric. In these experiments, the experimenter can create a
more simple version of these complex diseases in order to manipulate certain
aspects of the nervous system and watch for behavioral or neuronal changes. In
this module we will examine an animal model for epilepsy (and autism if time
permits) in order to uncover the mechanisms of treatments. This will involve
getting to know and working closely with the animal that is used most often for
these experiments, the laboratory rat. In subsequent weeks, the students will
learn surgical techniques and behavioral testing. We will meet for three 3 hour
sessions and grades will be based on a short, 2-3 page, write up and active
participation.
Cognitive Science