Cognitive Psychology
Psy333

Fall 2000

Office Hours:  
    M    3 PM
    T    10 AM
    2 more TBD.

Announcements

Nov 27, 2000
Here is the link to Eliza.

Nov 27, 2000

Here is the second test.

Nov 8, 2000
Here are the results from the reasoning lab.  You will need to go back through the study to see what the popular choice was.

Nov 6, 2000
Here are the data from the prototype lab. 

Nov 3, 2000
Go here to find the link to the prototype lab.
Here is the data for the Word Superiority Effect Lab.

Oct 30, 2000
I have changed the lab for October 31 to the Word Superiority Effect at CogLab.  Look here for the link.

Oct 10, 2000
Here are the project teams and titles.  Check to see that I have your information correctly.

Oct 5, 2000
The results from the Sternberg search in Tuesdays lab are here.

Oct 3, 2000
1.    Here are the results from the release from proactive inhibition study we did in class last Thursday.
2.    Here are the results from the serial position effect study we did in class.
3.    Here are the memory span results.
4.    Here are the Brown-Peterson results.
5.    Here are the Sternberg search results.

Sept 26, 2000
Here are the results from the Stroop Lab Experiment.  The RT value is the time to read all of the 100 items and is in seconds.  I have included accuracy.  As in the last lab, we will not look a lot at it but it should be close across all conditions.

Sept 19, 2000
Here are the results from the feature detection laboratory.   A few comments are in order.  First, some data in the reaction time table are missing.  That is either due to data not being saved (perhaps a bug in the program) or an accuracy of 0.  Just ignore that for now but note what is does to the number of values in your averages.  Second, I did not post the accuracy data because there seems to be a bug in the program for these values.  Some of you had accuracies of up to 150% - not really possible.  So I ignored it for now.  That should make your report a little easier.  Finally, the data are in an excel sheet you can work right through the browser to calculate your averages if you want.  To use this feature you have to use the same computers as for the signal detection tutorial (IE 4.0 or later and have excel or office 2000 on your computer).  Remember the psych lab computers are set up this way.  Let me know how you like this.  If this is too awkward, I have other options.

Sept 14, 2000
Here are the results from the partial report experiment.  These date include this years and last year's class.

Sept 12, 2000
I have corrected the link to the Signal detection lab site in the lab schedule.

Sept 5, 2000
The class discussion group is now active.  Try it out using the link over on the left.

Sept 1, 2000
Welcome to the Fall Term 2000.  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 two take home exams.  These exams will be in an essay format.  You will get the questions about 1 week ahead of time.  They are due at the end of the day indicated above.  Each exam is cumulative and therefore each exam is worth more points.  The points are awarded as follows:

Test 1	100 points
Test 2	150 points

Theory Paper

During the semester you will be required to develop a theory about some aspect of cognition.  The first paper, due at midterm, will be a theory about some aspect of cognition from the first half of the semester.  The second paper will be a revision and extension of that theory.  The first paper is worth 100 points and the second paper is worth 150 points.

Here is a more extensive description of the theory paper.

Laboratory Reports

For each laboratory you write of a brief paper describing the lab and the results from the lab. The lab report will be divided into four (4) sections.  The section are Problem, Method, Results, Conclusion.

Problem.  Describe the theoretical question being addressed by the laboratory experiment. (15%) 

Method.  Describe the subject, equipment, stimuli, and procedures of the experiment in separate subsections. (25%)

Results.  This is the focus of these reports.  How do we clearly and articulately represent data to readers who were not part of the research effort. (50%)

Conclusions. Back to the theoretical question. How do our data impact on the theoretical question we started with. (10%)

The format of the reports will be APA.  I will cover the detail in lab.

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