Learning objectives
The aim of this course is to provide students in depth knowledge on the ethical principles governing the medical profession, research in medicine, personal data protection, decision making processes, assessment of mental capacity, and the overall set of laws and regulations governing different aspects of the patient/doctor interaction; The student will (a) know the main advances in medical knowledge and practice and (b) acquire the capability of understand medical notions in an historical perspective; The student will have to deepen and integrate the knowledge of the cognitive and emotional systems of the brain through an experimental approach that provides the basis for understanding and measuring the complex interactions between the multiple mental processes (perception, attention, learning and memory). All these processes will then be related to reasoning and problem solving skills. By the end of the course I expect you to have an understanding of the fundamentals of mental functioning, to appreciate how basic research in the laboratory (both human and non-human research) helps to understand and identify these processes in behaviour.
Prerequisites
None
Course unit content
P1. Basic principles on the role of ethics in the medical profession, its governing principles, confidentiality, clinical trials, decision making process, informed consent, personal data protection, determining mental capacity, bioethics basic principles, relevant law.
P2. The course will concern the main advances in the medical theory and practice, with a focus on the history and evolution of the doctor-patient relationship, and the context in which it has evolved.
P3. The course deals with the following: -
Methods of investigation of mental and emotional functioning
Perceptual and attentional processes
Learning processes: classical and operant conditioning
Memory systems
Reasoning and decision-making processes.
Full programme
P1. Introduction to medical ethics, basic ethical principles, challenges in medical ethics, decision making, bioethics and it principles, moral dilemmas, choice, issues in implementing ethical principles, ethics and public health, ethics and medical research, informed consent, mental capacity assessment, personal data protection, relevant law and ethics.
P2. Who is the patient? history and evolution of the concept of patient and disease.
Who is the Physician? history and evolution of the concept of physician and therapy.
How does the doctor-patient relationship occur? History and evolution of medical ethics.
Where does the doctor-patient relationship take place? history and evolution of places of care.
.Medicine in art and literature.
P3. RESEARCH METHODS TO STUDY MENTAL FUNCTIONING:
-Correlational studies. Experimental studies. Single-case studies.
-How to measure mental processing and its neural correlates: “Mind reading” by measuring brain activity."
PERCEPTION AND ATTENTION: Relationship between perceptive process and reality; Selective attention and distraction.
LEARNING: Habituation; Classical Conditioning; Operant Conditioning Other Learning Processes.
MEMORY: Memory Systems; Working Memory and intelligence; Memory and Emotion; Memory errors; how to improve memory.
REASONING AND DECISION MAKING: deductive (syllogisms and logic) and inductive (heuristics) reasoning; Diagnostic Reasoning and Cognitive Biases.
Bibliography
Specific scientific articles will be provided for each lecture; Goldstein E. Bruce: Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. 5th edition.
Publisher: Cengage Learning,
ISBN: 9781337408271
* previous editions are also suitable. The teacher will use the 3rd edition.
Teaching methods
The course will be delivered in traditional mode through face-to-face lessons. The slides of the lessons as well as other support material for the preparation of the exam will be available on the Elly platform of this course.
Assessment methods and criteria
Final multiple choice written examination on the reading material, textbook and lecture material
Other information
This integrated course provides 6 CFU (60 hours of teaching)
