Section 7 NSCI 222: Learning
Essential Question: What are some essential DEI topics I can teach in NSCI 222?
Abstract: Updating your learning class will involve many of the same considerations for NSCI 175/PSYC 220 (S and P) Most of the research up through the 2000’s and represented in Learning textbooks was conducted by white men. The General Tips listed for those classes could certainly be used for S&P also. Additionally you can find a list of POCs who have done work relevant to the course content, along with a brief description of their contribution here.
Class Topics and Learning Objectives
- Topic: Role of Classical Conditioning in Prejudice
- Objective: Consistent pairing of specific racial groups with negative valance stimuli and words (such as may be common on the news) can lead to conditioned emotional responses to those groups- particularly if there is no previous exposure. Discusses one mechanism of how prejudices may form, and studies that have attempted to use counter-conditioning to decrease conditioned emotional responses. This topic can be introduced when discussing applications of classical conditioning (Chapter 4 of the Chance text). This topic is also related to Latent Inhibition with a discussion of the role that exposure to diverse racial groups (e.g. in public education, etc) from an early age could help to make exposure to future pairings (common on the news, etc) less effective.
- Slide Deck: Here.
- Resources: Chance text on pages 102-104
- Objective: Consistent pairing of specific racial groups with negative valance stimuli and words (such as may be common on the news) can lead to conditioned emotional responses to those groups- particularly if there is no previous exposure. Discusses one mechanism of how prejudices may form, and studies that have attempted to use counter-conditioning to decrease conditioned emotional responses. This topic can be introduced when discussing applications of classical conditioning (Chapter 4 of the Chance text). This topic is also related to Latent Inhibition with a discussion of the role that exposure to diverse racial groups (e.g. in public education, etc) from an early age could help to make exposure to future pairings (common on the news, etc) less effective.
- Topic: Other Race Face Effect- Neural Plasticity (Assignment)
- Objective: Demonstrate how neural plasticity is related to learning in the context of the learning to recognize other-race faces. This can be taught in the Learning & the Brain/ Neural Plasticity section of the course.
- Resources:
- Background reading: James W. Tanaka, Bonnie Heptonstall & Simen Hagen (2013) Perceptual expertise and the plasticity of other-race face recognition, Visual Cognition, 21:9-10, 1183-1201, DOI: 10.1080/13506285.2013.826315
- Assignment Sheet
- Topic: Pavlovian Conditioning in Moths
- Topic: Exploring Learning Scientists of Color (Assignment)
- Objective: Despite the fact POCs are missing from much of the textbook content, they are responsible for much of our understanding about learning both historically and currently.
- Resources:
Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion in Teaching by UNC Psychology & Neuroscience DEI Education Subcommittee is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.