Major at UCI..Psychology(Cognitive Science) or Psychology and Social Behavior?
Definitely Psychology (Cognitive Science) in the School of Social Sciences. This major offers courses in cognitive neuroscience: http://www.editor.uci.edu/catalogue/ss/s... The Psych & Social Behavior major focuses much more on human behavior and social interactions, so I don't think it's what you're looking for: http://www.editor.uci.edu/catalogue/se/s... It sounds like you are very interested in science, so you might even consider minoring in Biological Sciences and taking additional coursework in neurobiology (although this would require taking intro science and math courses as prerequisites, and it is difficult to get into most Bio Sci classes at UCI if you aren't a Bio major).
How do you study psychology?
I am going to assume that you are looking at independent study because if you attend university the pathway is pretty clear.First of all you have to understand that psychology is done within a scientific framework. People often imagine a couch and lots of talking and we had zero of that, neither in my Bsc nor in my Msc. Universities prepare you to become a psychology researcher. If you want to become a practitioner it’s helpful to know the concepts but a program that is lighter on the stats and research methodology might be better in that case.Here are the areas that people frequently study:Psychology 101 where you are introduced to the scientific method, quantitative versus qualitative research, the founding fathers of the discipline, evolutionary psychology, biological approaches, personality, important concepts such as bias, heuristicsDevelopmental Psychology (Child Development)Biological Psychology & Neuroscience (What’s your brain made of and how does it work?)Cognitive Psychology (Information processing in the brain)Social Psychology (How do we act in groups?)Clinical Psychology (this is the most famous part and it’s about dysfunctions and how to address them)and Positive Psychology (The science of what’s good and meaningful in life)UC Berkeley, The Open University and many others have both lectures (available as podcasts) and online courses on platforms like Coursera or FutureLearn where you can learn a lot for free.To me there’s nothing more amazing that you could possibly study so have fun with it.
What is the difference between long and short impulse pathways.?
That may refer to the speed with which specific drugs manifest their effect on a human's brain. Some kick in almost immediately, while others, such as LSD, tend to slowly permeate the sense processors.
What are the psychological processes underlying Mnemonics?
Actually I'm not quite clear about 'psychological processes' here means. It's so subjective and general for me, but I have to answer this to make it an essay and submit it. But, I really don't have any ideas about the psychological processes underlying mnemonics. You have some ideas? Thanks!