Postgraduate Course: Discourse Comprehension (PSYL11002)
Course Outline
| School | School of Philosophy, Psychology and Language Sciences | 
College | College of Humanities and Social Science | 
 
| Credit level (Normal year taken) | SCQF Level 11 (Postgraduate) | 
Availability | Available to all students | 
 
| SCQF Credits | 10 | 
ECTS Credits | 5 | 
 
 
| Summary | This course will cover a range of issues concerned with how humans interpret multi-sentence text. The course will cover a range of current theories, and will discuss how these theories can be tested using modern experimental techniques. | 
 
| Course description | 
    
    Students will be exposed to a range of current theoretical debates covering issues such as (a) the interpretation of pronouns and other referential expressions; (b) the role of inference in discourse comprehension; (c) the mental representation of discourse structure. Students will also be exposed to a number of experimental techniques, and will learn how these methods can be used to adjudicate between different theoretical claims.
    
    
 | 
 
 
Entry Requirements (not applicable to Visiting Students)
| Pre-requisites | 
 | 
Co-requisites |  | 
 
| Prohibited Combinations |  | 
Other requirements |  None | 
 
 
Information for Visiting Students 
| Pre-requisites | None | 
 
		| High Demand Course? | 
		Yes | 
     
 
Course Delivery Information
 |  
| Academic year 2017/18, Available to all students (SV1) 
  
 | 
Quota:  None | 
 
| Course Start | 
Block 3 (Sem 2) | 
 
Timetable  | 
	
Timetable | 
| Learning and Teaching activities (Further Info) | 
 
 Total Hours:
100
(
 Lecture Hours 10,
 Feedback/Feedforward Hours 1,
 Programme Level Learning and Teaching Hours 2,
Directed Learning and Independent Learning Hours
87 )
 | 
 
| Assessment (Further Info) | 
 
  Written Exam
0 %,
Coursework
100 %,
Practical Exam
0 %
 | 
 
 
| Additional Information (Assessment) | 
Coursework 100% (2500 word essay) | 
 
| Feedback | 
Some of the time in each lecture will be devoted to discussion of a recently published paper.  Students will be encouraged to offer critical opinions on the paper, and the lecturer will provide comments. Students will be offered a choice of whether these discussions will follow a seminar style with class discussion, or alternatively, small group presentations followed by questions and answers. | 
 
| No Exam Information | 
 
Learning Outcomes 
    On completion of this course, the student will be able to:
    
        - demonstrate an advanced understanding of the core theoretical issues in current research on discourse comprehension
 - demonstrate an understanding of some of the key experimental findings, and evaluate the theories in the light of these findings
 
     
 | 
 
 
Additional Information
| Graduate Attributes and Skills | 
The course will encourage the development of skills required of PhD students in the psychology of language. These skills include critical thinking, understanding of experimental design, and academic writing. | 
 
| Additional Class Delivery Information | 
Attend all lectures as scheduled | 
 
| Keywords | language,discourse,comprehension,psycholinguistics | 
 
 
Contacts 
| Course organiser | Dr Patrick Sturt 
Tel: (0131 6)51 1712 
Email: Joshua.Stapp@ed.ac.uk | 
Course secretary | Miss Toni Noble 
Tel: (0131 6)51 3188 
Email:  | 
   
 
 |    
 
© Copyright 2017 The University of Edinburgh -  6 February 2017 9:23 pm 
 |