Cognitive Psychology
Psy333

Fall 1999

Office Hours:  
    M: 12
    T: 10 
    R: 11 + 12

Announcements

Dec 10, 1999
Here is the link to the page with the PowerPoint slides from the class projects.

Dec 6, 1999
The final exam is posted now.
        Here is a web page version.
        If you have the current version of word (2000), you can download a word version here.

Nov 12, 1999
The data from the reasoning lab can be found here.  But still check the discussion group from instructions and other information.

Nov 3, 1999
The demonstration of the McClelland and Rumelhart model of word recognition that I showed in class is here.

Nov 1, 1999
Run the Lexical Decision task at Coglab and as usual, post the data on the discussion group.  Do this by Wednesday Morning, Nov 3, at 8:00 am.

Oct 13, 1999
Run yourselves on the Mental Rotation task at Coglab and post your data on the discussion group by Thursday, Oct 21.

Oct 5, 1999
Here are the graphs of the class data that we have collected:
            Partial Report             Serial Position Effect           Brown-Peterson
            Memory Span            Sternberg Search

Sept 30, 1999
For Monday, you need to run yourself in the Brown-Peterson Task, Memory Span and Sternberg Search task at Coglab.  The homepage is here.  Please post your data on the class discussion group by Monday at 8:00 AM.  This is a homework.

Sept 20, 1999
The URL for the stroop effect study for class is: http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/Stroop/SP.html

Sept 13, 1999
The url for the signal detection laboratory has been added to the syllabus in the lab section.  It is: http://coglab.psych.purdue.edu/coglab/SignalDetection/SD.html

Sept 7, 1999
I have modifies how the laboratories will be written up and handed in.  Please see the laboratory reports section of this syllabus and the Laboratory Notebook document.

Sept 6, 1999 
As you can see above the office hours have been posted.

Sept 3, 1999
If you got this syllabus before this date you might want to print out another copy.  I have added a few missing pieces of information.

Sept 1, 1999
Welcome to the last term of the 1900's.  I hope you had an enjoyable summer.   All changes to the course will be posted here.  In addition, if new resources become available, you will be able to find them here.

Definition of Cognitive Psychology

What is this course that you are embarking upon? What is cognition?  In the most basic terms cognition is the action of the brain or mind to understand the world around us and to determine an appropriate action.  To unpack that barebones definition, there are many activities that are required.  For example, you need to perceive the world around you, remember past events to compare present events to, select the important parts of the world to attend to, store what has been learned from the current experience for later use, understand and transmit language, etc.

Course Objectives

My primary goal for this course is to develop your ability to think soundly and well using the material of cognitive psychology.  As part of this goal you will need to comprehend the substance and methods of cognitive psychology.

Attitude Toward Text

I want you to consider the text book not so much as a document as to the current nature of cognitive psychology, which is its attempt, but as a theory of cognitive psychology, which is what it is.  The author tries to present several theories about cognitive psychology  but definitely has an overall sense of how cognition works that guides his presentation.  It would be dishonest to do otherwise, to present a theory or idea that he believes is demonstrably false just for the sake of balance.  So as you read, read with your critical mind awake critiquing the ideas and using the evidence you have at hand to determine what you think is correct.  A truism in science is that most major discoveries are made by those new in the field that have unjaundiced eyes. Thus your inexperience may be a great benefit is seeing what those more experienced may miss or misunderstand.  

Expectations

• Attend Class.
• Hand assignments in on time.
• Participate in laboratories.
• Participate in class
• Leave opinions in your rooms and bring evidence to bear on all of your in-class statements.  Sound reasoning requires that our ideas are based upon evidence that others can examine.  For this course that evidence will come from our book, library articles, laboratories and other exercises.
• Seek help when you need it.

Schedule 
(Dates in red are dates where I am scheduled to be out or town or might be out of town.  That day's activities will be announced later)

¹ This site requires Internet explorer 4.01 or later and Microsoft Office Web components which requires a license to Office 2000.  This is available on the computers in the psychology lab in SH208. 

Laboratory Schedule

Assignments

Exams

Over the course of the semester there will be three in class exams.  These will be a mixed format of short answer, multiple choice and essay.  Each exam is cumulative and therefore each exam is worth more points.  The points are awarded as follows:

Test 1	80 points
Test 2	100 points
Test 3	120 points
Final Exam	200 points

Homework

Periodically over the term there will be short homework assignments you will be asked to do and hand in to be checked over.  These homework assignments will be to help you prepare for in-class discussions and to deal with some of the quantitative issues necessary to understand the material in class.  Each assignment is to be handed in on time.  No late homework will be accepted.  The homework must be typed unless computations are part of the homework.

Laboratory Reports

For each laboratory you will keep a laboratory notebook.  See the link for a detailed description of what this entails.  For some of the labs, an APA style report will be added to this notebook as a formal write-up of material.  For labs without APA formal reports, they will be worth 25 points.  If the lab has an APA formal report then the lab will be worth 50 points.  The lab notebook will be collected twice throughout the term.  See the laboratory schedule above for the lab and the types of write-ups required and the dates of notebook collection.

Final Laboratory Project

In teams of two or three, you will design and conduct an experiment in the realm of cognitive psychology.  To prepare you for this project, you need to develop teams and develop an idea for the project by the lab period set aside to discuss the projects.  During this lab the class will act a research group.  Each team will present their project idea and the whole class will discuss the project, anticipate projects and suggest solutions and improvements.  At the end of the term you will present the project in written, oral, and poster formats.  The paper is due the same day the posters are presented which is the last lab period of the term.  The last week of class is for oral presentations of the projects.

The points for the various parts of this project are:

Initial Presentation of Idea	25 points
Oral Presentation	50 points
Poster Presentation	50 points
Written Version (Includes a laboratory notebook)	50 points

Grading and Policies

Class Participation:

To help ensure that students actively participate there is a participation grade of 100 points. Attendance alone cannot but provide for half of these points.  As stated above, sharing of your views and critiquing the ideas of others is a necessary part of this class.  These behaviors are necessary for the remainder of the class participation grade.  

Late Policy:

An assignment is late 1 minute after the beginning of class. One letter grade will be subtracted for the first day late and another letter grade for each additional day.  No assignment will be accepted more than three days late.  The one exception to this rule is for homework.  No late homework will be accepted at all.

Grades will be converted to percentiles and letter grades will be assigned as follows:

since August 18, 1999