Course abstract

In this course we propose to teach the rules governing learning and how they result in storage of information in the form of memory. The course structure is such that the lectures introduces the student/listener to the fundamental rules that determine learning through a historical perspective. Such a design helps the listener/student to understand how these rules came about, what were the experimental observations that led to the rules. In the course we will be using these rules and apply to various situations and experimental setting and analyse the behavioral outcomes. The framework for understanding associative learning is presented in the first few lectures followed by reinforcement learning/instrumental conditioning. In the end synergistic views of both the learning are presented followed by description of some of the modern behavioral paradigms. Towards the later part of the course the lectures connect these behavioral studies to molecular underpinnings