PSYCHOLOGY 115 PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIORAL ...

PSYCHOLOGY 115PRINCIPLES OF BEHAVIORAL NEUROSCIENCESPRING 2008Description of the course: This course is designed to provide you with a survey of theanatomy, physiology, and pharmacology of the nervous system, with an emphasis on thebiological basis of behavioral processes.Lectures: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 2:00 – 3:15 PM in Moore 100Exams & Reviews: The midterm exam will be administered during class on Monday,May 6. The final exam will be administered at its scheduled time (Thursday, June 12, from11:30-2:30) at a location to be announced later. You must attend these exams.Textbook (Recommended): MR Rosenzweig, AL Leiman, SM Breedlove. BiologicalPsychology. Fourth Edition. Sinauer Associates, Inc.: Sunderland, MA, 2005. Thistextbook includes a Study Guide on a CD, called Learning Biological PsychologyFaculty:Week 1-5: Dr. H. Tad Blair, office hours on Mondays from 4-5 in Franz Hall 8619Week 6-10: Dr. Barbara Knowlton, office hours TBATeaching Assistants (TAs):Ben Bendig: office hours on ** from ** to **Bryant Horowitz: office hours on ** from ** to **Andrew Hill: office hours on ** from ** to **Virginia Long: office hours on ** from ** to **Lecture Slides: The slides for each lecture of the class and discussion sections will beposted on the course website by midnight on the day before the lecture. You are welcometo print out the slides and bring them to class with you to assist with your note-taking.Grading: Midterm Exam 30%, Final Exam 30%, Discussion Sections 25%, Paper 15%• All grades will be posted to my.UCLA for you to check. Grades will not be postedin any other location or format.• If necessary, final grades may be curved upwards to achieve a class distribution of~20% A’s, 30% B’s, 40% C’s, 10% D/F’s. BUT WE WILL NOT BE CURVINGANY ONE’S GRADE DOWN FOR ANY REASON.Re-grading policy: If you have questions about the grade you received on an exam, quiz,or paper, you must first submit an email request to your TA, who will evaluate yourconcerns. The professor will not consider your requests for a re-grade unless you haveaddressed your concerns to the TA first. If a regrading request is appealed to the professor,then the professor will re-grade the entire assignment by hand, not just the question thestudent is asking about.

Course Details:1. You must enroll in a discussion section, which will account for 25% of your finalgrade. Weekly discussion sections will be held during 8 of the 10 weeks in thequarter (no sessions in weeks 1 or 9). Please do not sign up for a discussion sectionthat conflicts with another course because Discussion section attendance ismandatory. If you are not enrolled in a discussion by the end of the second week,you will be automatically dropped from the course. Students with enrollmentconcerns should visit the Psychology Advising Office, 1531 Franz Hall.You may switch sections at the beginning of the quarter if you find someonewilling to swap with you, but all swaps must be completed prior to the end ofweek 2. After week 2, further swaps will not be possible, and you will onlyreceive credit for attending and taking quizzes within the section in which you areenrolled. You may receive TA permission to attend the lecture component of asection in which you are not enrolled, but you will not receive attendance orquiz credit in any discussion section other than the one you are registered in.The first ten minutes of each discussion section will consist of a quiz with questionspertaining to the previous week’s lectures; if you are more than 10 min late, youwill miss the quiz and get a score of zero. After the quiz, the TA will give a lectureon a topical issue that relates to the course. It is important to attend discussionlectures because the discussion lecture material will be covered on the midtermand final examinations, in addition to the class lecture material!Your discussion grade (25 points for the quarter) will be based on attendance (1/2 point perweek for 8 weeks, total of 4 points) and quiz grades (3 points per week for 7 weeks, total of21 points). There are only 7 quiz grades (rather than 8) because your lowest quiz scorewill be dropped. If you miss a quiz for any reason (including excusable absences),then that will count as your dropped quiz and you will not be permitted to dropanother quiz. You will not be allowed to retake a missed quiz for any reason.Discussion Section Schedule:DIS 1A M 8:00A 8:50A FRANZ A279DIS 1B M 9:00A 9:50A FRANZ A279DIS 1C M 1:00P 1:50P FRANZ A279DIS 1D M 2:00P 2:50P FRANZ A279DIS 1E W 4:00P 4:50P FRANZ A279DIS 1F W 10:00A 10:50A FRANZ A279DIS 1G R 11:00A 11:50A FRANZ 1571DIS 1H R 9:00A 9:50A FRANZ 1571DIS 1I F 9:00A 9:50A FRANZ 1571DIS 1J F 10:00A 10:50A FRANZ 1571DIS 1K F 12:00P 12:50P FRANZ A279DIS 1L F 1:00P 1:50P FRANZ A279

2. Exams: The exams count for 60% of your final grade.• Midterm exam (30%). Monday, May 6 during class. This exam covers topicsdiscussed in weeks 1-5. You will have the entire class period to complete the exam.• Final exam (30%). Thursday, June 12, 11:30-2:30; Place: To be announced later.This exam covers topics discussed in weeks 6-10 only (not cumulative over theentire quarter). You will have three hour to complete the final exam.• You must arrive on time for the exams. Points will be deducted if you arriveafter the start time of the exam, and you will not be permitted to take the exam at allif you arrive after the first exam has been turned in by another student (so you willget a zero on the exam in this case).• There will be no make-up exams or quizzes for students who fail to attend theexam or who arrive at the exam too late to take the test, so please make sure youare in class at exam/quiz times. If you miss an exam for a sanctioned reason (severeillness, etc.), you must inform the Professor or your TA in advance and you mustprovide documentation that satisfies us. Any medical excuse request must include avisit to a licensed physician who was visited on the day of the exam, and thephysician’s note must specify the symptoms and rationale for why the illnessprecluded the ability to take the exam at the pre-set time. We will call the treatingphysician for verification purposes for virtually every requested exception. In thosecases where an exam is missed for a sanctioned reason, a makeup exam (differentfrom the original exam) will be given on the last day of finals week (not before).You will only be permitted to take a makeup exam on the last day of finals if you:1) attend the final exam, 2) score well enough on the final and other assignments(discussion section & paper) to earn a ‘C’ or better in the course by getting an ‘A’on the makeup exam (so regardless of your reason for missing the exam, you willnot be allowed to take a makeup if you have performed so poorly in the class that aperfect score on the makeup will earn you less than a ‘C’ in the class).• Material covered by the exams will be derived from the class and discussion sectionlectures only. If we don’t talk about it in lecture or discussion, it won’t be on theexam. We may discuss things in class that are not in the book and/or that are not onour slides, and you will be responsible for this material, so YOU SHOULDATTEND LECTURE AND DISCUSSION EVERY DAY AND TAKE GOODNOTES. However, your will NOT be responsible for material in the textbook thatis not discussed in class.3. Paper assignment: A paper assignment will be due at the end of week 8 (Friday,May 23). Instructions for the paper assignment will be given in class before the endof week 6.

4. An honors discussion is listed as Psych 189, Sec 3***. Those wanting to earn Honorscredit for 115 may enroll in this section, as well. This section does not replace enrollingin one of the above sections. You will need to enroll in both sections to earn credit forthe course. The section will be held on Tuesdays from 4:00-6:00 PM in NRB ****.5. Contacting professors and TAs.Questions regarding course material, lectures, exams, etc.: All questions of thistype should be directed to the Course Website Discussion Board (not by email).This is to facilitate an efficient response to everyone’s questions and to ensure equalopportunity of communication of answers to questions with all students in the class.Confidential or personal issues that need to be addressed: You may, of course,email the professors or TAs directly if you have questions of a personal nature;however, any questions that come to our direct emails that contain questions aboutcourse content, etc., will be replied to on the course website only.Cheating and Fairness:Cheating can take many forms, none of which will be tolerated in this class. If youcheat on an exam or quiz or if you plagiarize, you will fail this course and be reportedto the Dean for disciplinary action.Everybody’s grade will be based on the same four assignments: the midterm, finalexam, discussion sections, and paper. YOU WILL NOT BE PERMITTED TOIMPROVE YOUR GRADE BY DOING EXTRA WORK, SO DON’T ASK FOR“SPECIAL FAVORS.” This class is a level playing field where everyone’s grade isbased on the same assignments, and special treatment will not be given to anyone.

COURSE SCHEDULEWeek 1 Note: No sections this week4/1 T Introduction Chapter 1 Blair4/3 R Cells and Neurons Chapter 2 and 3 BlairWeek 2 Note: Sections begin this week4/8 T Neurophysiology Chapter 3 Blair4/10 R Neurochemistry Chapter 4 BlairWeek 3 Note: No further changes in sections will be allowed after week 24/15 T Motor Systems Chapter 11 Blair4/17 R Somatosensation Chapter 8 Blair& chemical sensesWeek 44/22 T Hearing Chapter 9 Blair4/24 R Vision I Chapter 10 BlairWeek 54/29 T Vision II Chapter 10 Blair5/1 R Learning/Memory I Chapter 17 BlairWeek 6 Note: The midterm covers all lectures in weeks 1-55/6 T MIDTERM Knowlton5/8 R Learning/Memory II KnowltonWeek 75/13 T Knowlton5/15 R KnowltonWeek 85/20 T Knowlton5/22 R KnowltonWeek 9 Note: No sections this week (Memorial Day on Monday)5/27 T Knowlton5/29 R KnowltonWeek 106/3 T Knowlton6/5 R KnowltonNote: The final exam covers lectures in weeks 6-10 only6/12 R Final Exam (from 11:30 AM -2:30 PM)