Thad A Polk
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 1
Language
English
Description
Beginning with a clear, working definition of the concept of "learning," Professor Polk eases you into a course overview with simple examples of some of the topics that will be covered, including how scientists study learning, the neural basis of learning, and effective learning strategies.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 17
Language
English
Description
Diving back into the brain itself, this lecture explores the neuroscience behind working memory in much the same way earlier lectures examined explicit memory and implicit memory. Are different parts of the brain responsible for storing visual information versus verbal information in working memory? Prepare for an illuminating ride.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 6
Language
English
Description
Caffeine and nicotine are two of the most common psychoactive drugs in our society. How do they work? How dangerous are they? After reviewing how each of these drugs affects the brain - and why nicotine in particular is so addictive - Professor Polk offers several strategies to quit tobacco use.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 7
Language
English
Description
Set your highlighters and pens down and stop re-reading your material! These are actually two of the least-effective study techniques. Professor Polk explains why these old techniques don't really work and offers four different and more efficient, approaches to studying, which have been scientifically demonstrated to work more effectively.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 8
Language
English
Description
To wrap up the course's section on conscious, explicit learning, Professor Polk delivers an enticing "myth-busting" talk about controversial topics in the field. Do people repress traumatic memories and can such repressed memories later re-emerge? Professor Polk cuts through the hype and lays out the actual scientific findings related to each of these controversies.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 20
Language
English
Description
Ask almost anyone where they were when they heard about major events like the 9/11 attacks or the Challenger explosion and they remember immediately. Why, psychologically, do those memories remain so vivid? And do short, quick moments of stress versus chronic stress affect our memories differently? How? These answers and more await you.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 15
Language
English
Description
Begin with an overview of working (or short-term) memory, which is vital to rational thought. This lecture introduces you to the idea of working memory and discusses one of the most important mechanisms involved, the "phonological loop," which we use to store language sounds like words for brief periods of time.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
In the 1950s, a Connecticut man named Henry Molaison became an unfortunate but invaluable source of information about how learning is implemented in the human brain after an experimental brain surgery led to profound amnesia. Studies of how he could (and couldn't) learn - and what those studies uncover about how the rest of us learn - are detailed in this revealing lecture.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 19
Language
English
Description
Enjoy this eye-opening discussion about our drive - or lack thereof - to learn, and the enormous impact our motivation can have. Our personal interest in a subject, our belief in our own ability to learn it, and several other factors profoundly impact what we retain about that subject. Improve your learning ability today with this practical lecture.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 21
Language
English
Description
If you think "getting a good night's rest" is the only way that sleep affects learning, think again. Our brain is often just as active during sleep as it is while we're awake, and what happens at a neural level during sleep has a profound impact on what we remember, and what we forget. Different stages of sleep influence different kinds of learning and memory, and that's just the beginning.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Round out your survey of the world's major drugs with an examination of opium and its derivatives, from regularly prescribed painkillers like codeine and morphine to heroin, often considered the most harmful drug of abuse in the world today. Learn about the neurological effects and treatment options for opiate drugs.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 4
Language
English
Description
Investigate how people may be susceptible to addiction on a genetic level. Thanks to studies of twins and DNA analysis, scientists are homing in on the genes that predispose us toward addiction. While there is no single "addiction gene," our DNA can significantly influence whether we become addicts.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 2
Language
English
Description
Explore the brain's mechanisms for learning from reinforcement. You'll start with the psychological aspects, discovering the way humans learn by a series of trials and rewards. Then you'll find out what parts of the brain process pleasure, self-control, and craving, and see how the psychology and neuroscience of reward processing converge.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 16
Language
English
Description
Several important components of working memory are covered here: the visuospatial sketchpad, which retains images from both recent perception and from long-term memory; the central executive, which decides which cognitive functions to perform and when to perform them; and the episodic buffer, which links information from other working memory components into integrated wholes.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 10
Language
English
Description
Compare the first time you tried to tie your shoes to your present-day, shoelace-tying mastery. How did you come such a long way? Practice alone doesn't begin to cover the intricate process of your brain learning a skill. See which stages are involved in acquiring skill-based knowledge and how you put them all together, with this insightful discussion.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 6
Language
English
Description
Take a fantastic voyage into your brain to uncover the physical mechanisms involved in forming explicit memories. The voyage begins in the hippocampus, the seahorse-shaped structure in each temporal lobe, where explicit learning begins. It continues out to the cerebral cortex - the grey matter on the outside of the brain - where memories become consolidated and integrated with other memories.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 18
Language
English
Description
Psychological elements of working memory? Check. Neurological elements? Check. Next, we learn about the controversial topic of improving your working memory. Some scientists believe that training your working memory can improve your overall intelligence and reduce ADHD symptoms; others disagree. Both sides of these widely debated controversies are discussed.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 14
Language
English
Description
How can learning go wrong? Using the knowledge you've been taught so far, you can unmask the dark side of unconscious associations and reward-seeking behavior: addictions to drugs and alcohol. Professor Polk delves into the psychological, chemical, and neural mechanisms underlying addiction to help understand this serious and delicate subject.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 1
Language
English
Description
Begin your course by defining "addiction," which is diagnosed based on characteristics such as abuse, dependence, and craving. Professor Polk then surveys the history of drug use, from ancient history through the development of synthetics in the 19th and 20th centuries. Finally, he reviews government regulation and the substantial costs of drug abuse, both to the individual and to society.
Author
Series
Great Courses volume 12
Language
English
Description
The course concludes with an exploration of other potentially addictive behaviors. Professor Polk argues that some artificial stimuli - junk food, pornography, and video games to name three - are "supernormal," meaning that they actually activate the brain's reward circuit more strongly than natural stimuli do, leading to some of the same neurological effects as drug use.