Guides: PSYC 341 Learning and Memory: Getting Started

Psychology Databases

PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
The American Psychological Association’s (APA) resource for abstracts of scholarly journal articles, book chapters, books, and dissertations, is the largest resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health. It contains over 5 million records and summaries dating as far back as the 1600s. Journal coverage, which spans from the 1800s to the present, includes international material selected from around 2,500 periodicals in dozens of languages.
PsycARTICLES This link opens in a new window
From the American Psychological Association (APA), is a definitive source of full text, peer-reviewed scholarly and scientific articles in psychology. It contains more than 178,000 articles from 103 journals published by the American Psychological Association (APA), and from allied organizations. It includes all journal articles, book reviews, letters to the editor, and errata from each journal. Coverage spans 1894 to the present and nearly all APA journals go back to Volume 1, Issue 1.
ScienceDirect This link opens in a new window
Provides indexing and abstracting for over 2,500 scientific, technical and medical journals as well as access to 503 full-text Elsevier journals, and titles subscribed to by Pepperdine University Libraries, through the SCELC consortium, plus 45 titles in the Psychology backfile.
Sage Journals Online This link opens in a new window
Provides access to the full text of individual SAGE journals, including issues dating back to 1999. SAGE publishes journals in Business, Communication, Humanities, Social Sciences, and Science, Technology and Medicine and includes leading international peer-reviewed titles, including high-impact research journals published on behalf of over 245 scholarly and professional societies.
Taylor & Francis Social Science & Humanities Library This link opens in a new window
Access to over 900 online journals from Routledge, Taylor & Francis, and Psychology Press. Featured disciplines include Behavioral Science; Education; Business, Management & Economics; Media, Cultural & Communication Studies; Politics, International Relations & Area Studies; Sociology & Related Disciplines; and Sport, Leisure & Tourism.

Multidisciplinary Databases

These comprehensive databases contain articles on psychology topics.

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Provides full text coverage to nearly 9,100 journals, including over 7,900 peer-reviewed titles in the social sciences, humanities, general science, multi-cultural studies, education and more. Full-text coverage dates back to 1985 and is updated daily.
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Access the journal archives Arts & Sciences I, II, III, IV, VI, & VII and over 40,000 ebooks on the JSTOR platform; book chapters and journal articles are cross-searchable. JSTOR is an extensive archive of interdisciplinary journals and books, covering subject disciplines in Arts, Business & Economics, History, Humanities, Law, Science & Mathematics, Social Sciences, and Religion.
Scopus This link opens in a new window
Scopus is the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature: scientific journals, books and conference proceedings. Delivering a comprehensive overview of the world's research output in the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities, Scopus features smart tools to track, analyze and visualize research.

Journals

Learning & Behavior
Presents experimental and theoretical contributions and critical reviews concerning fundamental processes of learning and behavior in nonhuman and human animals.
Journal of experimental psychology. Learning, memory, and cognition.
Publishes original experimental and theoretical research on human cognition, with a special emphasis on learning, memory, language, and higher cognition.
Learning & Memory
A monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering the neurobiology of learning. Must use interlibrary Loan to obtain the full-text of articles published in the most recent 12 months

Understanding Journal Articles

How to read (and understand) a social science journal article

A useful guide made available by the ICPSR (Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research), a member organization that maintains and provides access to datasets for research and instruction. Pepperdine Libraries is a member.

Empirical Studies

Finding empirical studies in PsycINFO

To find articles that report on empirical research, some keywords you might want to use could be:

population, study, results, discussion, data, variables, limitations, implications, survey, respondents, or conclusion.

Such terms should be searched as keywords rather than subject terms because they reflect the kind of language used in an article describing empirical research, but they are not the topic or subject of the study.

Useful Books

Learning and Memory
ISBN: 9780028656199
Publication Date: 2002-09-20
A thorough revision of the 1992 edition of The Encyclopedia of Learning and Memory, the second edition features new articles and article updates that capture advances in the ever-changing fields of memory, neuroscience, and cognition.
Handbook of Contemporary Learning Theories by Robert R. Mowrer; Stephen B. Klein
ISBN: 9780585359014
Publication Date: 2000-01-01
These 14 chapters deal with the theoretical perspectives concerning the nature of the learning process, as well as the innovative research that supports these positions.
Oxford dictionary of psychology by Andrew M. Colman
ISBN: 0192806327
Publication Date: 2012
E-Book
Gale encyclopedia of psychology by Bonnie B. Strickland
ISBN: 0787677450
Publication Date: 2001
E-Book
The Corsini encyclopedia of psychology and behavioral science. by W. Edward Craighead
ISBN: 0471437298
Publication Date: 2001
E-Book

Course Description

An overview of the cognitive and neural organization of memory and learning. Includes consideration of operant and classical conditioning, social learning, working memory and executive control, episodic and semantic memory, and implicit forms of memory and learning. Emphasizes integration of cognitive theory with neuroscientific evidence.