Pros: Extra credit.
Cons: Massive workload. Extremely difficult final exam. Required to work with other students.
Conclusion: Lectures were sleep inducing, and of course no Bruincast. The workload? Painful. Each of the 3 exams covered 150-250 pages of required reading (super dense and boring AF) + 200-250 slides. Unfortunately you HAVE to read the textbook to do well. The exam format was awful because you're forced to work with other students on the 2nd part of the exam..ugh! The first 2 midterms were OK, mostly straight-forward and directly tested you on the content. I guess too many people got As, which UCLA doesn't like, so Parkinson made the final MUCH harder than the midterms. How so? Almost every question on the final had "all of the above", "none of the above", and "a and b" answer choices. It was straight up designed to trick you; the kind of exam I hadn't seen since 100B! I was 1 question away on the final from getting an A in the class, and I could have done better had I not quit reading the textbook after I began experiencing mental burn out. Avoid this class if you don't live on campus, if you commute to school, have a job, have a research commitment/internship, are taking other neuroscience/neuropsych classes in the same quarter, or are just looking to maintain sanity.

Psych 188B, Neuroscience of Social Perception.

Great class! The content was very interesting and eye-opening (especially if you have little experience with psychology classes here at UCLA).

Professor Parkinson is very accommodating to students. She understands that since there are no requisites for this class (apart from Pysch 10), there are a lot of students with different experiences and knowledge in psychology. Given this, she designed lectures that explain the content very well. , Some of the upperclassmen may have found some sections as review and boring, but it was very helpful for a first-quarter sophomore like me.

She uploads the slides online, so I would not worry about copying the content and would focus more on Parkinson's lecture. I find that she often explains the denser and more research-based slides in simpler terms during lecture. She also likes to show videos, as she finds it helps students understand and remember concepts well. They certainly helped me!

Shannon Burns, the only TA, was very helpful. She made and sent out a study guide/review sheet of sorts before each of the three total exams for this class. Exams are all multiple choice!

There is a textbook required for this class, Student's Guide to Neuroscience. I found it as a free pdf online. I would recommend reading the chapters assigned, some of the material was tested on in the final exam. It also helps with the overall comprehension of the class content.

Other assigned readings included research papers, which the professor helpfully strip down and presents in a more digestible fashion during lecture.

Extra credit is, like many of the other psych classes, through participating in experiments with SONA system. Three hours equates to1.5 extra credit points (quoting from the syllabus; "which are added to your final 'out of 100' grade at the end of the quarter").

Overall, a great class. I would definitely take one again with Professor Parkinson!