Unit ASSESSMENT OF COGNITIVE AND NEUROFUNCTIONAL FUNCTIONING
- Course
- Assessment of individual functioning in clinical and health psychology
- Study-unit Code
- A006025
- Curriculum
- Curriculum i
- Teacher
- Valerio Santangelo
- Teachers
-
- Valerio Santangelo
- Hours
- 72 ore - Valerio Santangelo
- CFU
- 12
- Course Regulation
- Coorte 2025
- Offered
- 2025/26
- Learning activities
- Caratterizzante
- Area
- Psicologia generale, fisiologica e psicometria
- Academic discipline
- M-PSI/01
- Type of study-unit
- Obbligatorio (Required)
- Type of learning activities
- Attività formativa monodisciplinare
- Language of instruction
- Italian
- Contents
- The course provides students with the theoretical and methodological foundations for assessing cognitive and neurofunctional processes. The first part of the course explores neuroscientific methods for studying the mind-brain system in depth. The second part addresses and examines some of the main experimental paradigms for the study of human cognition at behavioural and neuroscientific levels, as found in the scientific literature. The program and course contents are the same for attending students, non-attending students, and working students.
- Reference texts
- 1) Mandatory textbook (the study of this text is mandatory for all students – attending, non-attending, and working students): Senior C., Russell T., Gazzaniga M., eds., 2006. Methods in Mind. MIT press. 2) Course materials available on the Unistudium platform area dedicated to this course. 3) Scientific articles provided by the instructor and covered in class (also available on the Unistudium platform area).
- Educational objectives
- The main goal of the course is to provide students with an up-to-date overview of the state of the art regarding methods and paradigms for the study and evaluation of cognitive processes, both in behavioral and neuroscientific terms. To this end, in the first part of the course, neuroscientific methods for studying the mind-brain system will be explored in depth. The aim is to enable students to understand the theoretical and methodological foundations of neuroimaging, neurophysiological, and brain stimulation techniques, their specific characteristics and complementarities, their fields of application, and the possibilities and limitations related to their use. In the second part of the course, some of the main experimental paradigms for the study of human cognition in international scientific literature will be illustrated, addressed, and examined. The objective is to understand the major contributions that have enabled and continue to enable advances in the understanding of neural mechanisms and cognitive processes. The final goal is to make students autonomous in critically handling scientific literature, allowing them to acquire new information and skills regarding cognitive functioning, including the construction and design of new experimental paradigms for cognitive study and assessment.
- Prerequisites
- Knowledge of general psychology and cognitive psychology; basic anatomical and physiological knowledge of brain functioning; methodological foundations of cognitive sciences and neurosciences; basic concepts of psychometric statistics; English language proficiency.
- Teaching methods
- Lectures covering all topics in the syllabus; practical exercises on course contents and exam practice.
- Other information
- N/A
- Learning verification modality
- The exam is written and divided into 4 parts to be completed in a maximum of 90 minutes: Part 1) Quiz consisting of 20 multiple-choice questions (1 correct answer out of 4; correct answer = 0.5 points; incorrect or no answer = 0 points). The quiz will assess knowledge of the theoretical and methodological foundations presented during the course regarding the study of cognitive processes. The student must score at least 6 out of 10 points (at least 12 correct answers out of 20) to proceed to the next parts. Duration: 20 minutes. Part 2) Open-ended question, scored 0 to 6 points, aimed at assessing the student's ability to deepen course content, in terms of both understanding and applying the correct method and/or approach to experimental investigation or data analysis of a given research "problem." Part 3) Open-ended question, scored 0 to 6 points, requiring the student to comment on part of a scientific article (e.g., a text section, image, or graph from a real research article from the international scientific literature). Part 4) Writing an abstract (a summary of no more than 250 words), scored 0 to 10 points, of a research article from an international journal (in English) focusing on the study of cognitive processes. The use of an English dictionary is permitted. The abstract may be written in either Italian or English. Note: The abstract will only be graded if the combined score from parts 1, 2, and 3 is = 12 (i.e., at least half of the available points). Parts 3 and 4 will assess the student's ability to use knowledge acquired during the course to independently understand current international literature on course topics. Students will have a total of 70 minutes to complete parts 2, 3, and 4. Registration for the exam is required at least 48 hours before the exam date. Registration (or cancellation) can only be done via the Online Secretariat (SOL) at https://unipg.esse3.cineca.it/Home.do If a student wishes to take the exam earlier than planned in the study plan, it is recommended to attend the lecture cycle and take the exam at the first available session after classes have ended, in line with the scheduled semester of the course. Students with disabilities and/or learning disorders (DSA) are invited to visit the page dedicated to the available tools and measures and to arrange any necessary accommodations with the instructor in advance (https://www.unipg.it/disabilita-e-dsa).
- Extended program
- The course provides students with the theoretical and methodological foundations for the assessment of cognitive and neurofunctional functioning. To this end, the course is divided into two parts: 1. Neuroscientific methods for studying the mind-brain system: Theoretical and epistemological foundations; Methodological foundations; MRI methods: physical principles; MRI methods: anatomical techniques; MRI methods: functional techniques; Neurophysiological methods; Stimulation techniques in neuroimaging studies. 2. Experimental paradigms for studying human cognition: For this part, the scientific articles selected by the instructor and discussed in class will be relevant, and these will be made available on the Unistudium platform area dedicated to this course.