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Instructor: Dr. Robert Goldstone
Office: 338 Psychology Bldg. Email: rgoldsto
Office hours: Monday 1:30-3:30 Phone: 855-4853
Teaching Assistant: Mike Fragassi
Office: 291C Email: mfragass
Office hours: Tu: 10:00-11:00, We: 2:00-3:00 Phone: 855-8755
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Readings
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (4th edition).
The course pack can be picked up from Mr. Copy, at the corner
of 10th and Dunn St.
Breakdown of grade:
Lab 1 Writeup (Feature Search): 18%
Lab 2 Writeup (Memory): 18%
Lab 3 Writeup (Concept Learning): 18%
Independent Project Writeup: 28%
Independent Project Talk: 8%
Lab and Class participation, and homework: 10%
Course Structure
This course is designed to provide an intensive introduction to laboratory methods in cognitive psychology. The course is grounded in a "learning by doing philosophy." There will be very few general lectures. The majority of our time will be spent discussing research issues as they relate to particular experiments. You will learn about experimental control, statistical analysis, research writing, and analysis techniques, but you will learn about these topics while investigating real issues in cognitive psychology. Rather than try to give a broad overview of all of the major areas in cognitive psychology, I have chosen to select four specific research areas that are within the mainstream of cognitive psychology. Although you will not get a general survey of cognitive psychology, you will acquire a depth of understanding about some areas.
Quite a bit of work is expected of students in this course.
As you will see from the syllabus, there are many reading assignments,
and many required written assignments. It is vital that you keep
up with the class work (late assignments will be accepted, but
you lose one half of a letter grade for every late day).
Policies.
Labs. Your principle activity in this class will be to conduct experiments in cognitive psychology, and prepare written reports of the experiment outcomes. The goal of this class is to give you hands-on experience with what it is like to conduct actual experiments. All of your labs will be written up in APA style. Your labs will be evaluated on the following criteria: completeness of introduction, thoroughness and accuracy of procedure and result sections, appropriateness of discussion, interest and creativity, grammaticality and style of manuscript, and general coherency and comprehensibility. There may be associated worksheets or assignments associated with the lab report.
Students have the option of revising their lab reports. After the reports have been graded and handed back, students will be given one week to rewrite the report. Only the last grade on the report will be permanently recorded.
Independent Final Project. The class will culminate in each students' preparation of an individual project. The student will do background reading on a topic related to Influences of Experience, Thoughts, Knowledge and Cognition on Perception, design an experiment, conduct the experiment, analyze the results, and prepare a written APA-style report. The research question for the individual project must be approved by me, and must deal with this fairly broad topic. Creativity and originality are encouraged. Students are be discouraged from pursuing cliche, non-original, or atheoretic projects (e.g. effects of music, or caffeine, on perceptual discrimination). The research should directly address theories of perception and knowledge. To get a feel for what mainstream cognitive psychology research involves, look through articles in the following journals: Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition, Cognitive Psychology, Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Perception and Performance, Memory & Cognition, Psychological Review, Journal of Memory and Language, and Psychonomics Bulletin and Review. The subjects for your independent study should be friends, or other students in the class. You can use the lab software (from Labs 2-4) for running your independent project, but you should not feel constrained by these labs. You do not have to use computers for running your subjects.
Talk on Independent Project. After the independent project has been completed, students will prepare a short 15 minute presentation on their topic. Students should prepare overhead slides to describe their ideas, methods, results, and conclusion. In general, you should try to make your talk a genuine learning experience for your peers. Your talk should probably follow the same rough organization as your final written report.
Computer use. Research in cognitive psychology has been
revolutionized by computer technology. Computers are now involved
in every facet of research (running subjects, analyzing the results,
displaying the results, and writing the article). For this class,
you will need buy at least five 5 3/4" floppies for Macintosh
computers. You will need to learn how to use several Macintosh
programs: Statview, Microsoft Word, Telnet, Chooser, and Macdraw.
Although we will spend some class time demonstrating these programs,
it will also be necessary for you to spend time outside of class
learning how to use these programs. Many of the lab experiments
will also involve the use of Macintosh programs written by myself.
You will have to modify these experiments in order to create
original studies or to address assigned questions.
Disclaimer. This syllabus is not definitive. Course
policies are subject to change at any time. You will be notified
of any changes.
Plagiarism and Cheating. According to the university's
bylaws: "It is the responsibility of the student not only
to abstain from cheating but, in addition, to avoid the appearance
of cheating and to guard against making it possible for others
to cheat." Cheating will be dealt with harshly.
Class schedule
| Tu 1/9 | Introduction, expectations, policies, overview | |
| Th 1/11 | Experimental Methods for Cognitive Psychology (computer information)
Mitchell, M., & Jolley, J. (1992). Research design explained. Fort worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. [pp. 15-32] | Gain familiarity with Mac computer cluster |
| Tu 1/16 | Experimental Methods for Cognitive Psychology
McBurney, D. H. (1994). Research Methods. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole. [Control] | Gain familiarity with Microsoft Word |
| Th 1/18 | Statistics with Statview
Read Tutorial Handout on Statview | Gain familiarity with Statview |
| Tu 1/23 | Statistics and Graphing | |
| Th 1/25 | Lab 1: Feature Search (Outlining the problem)
Read Feature Search Lab description Treisman, A. M., & Gelade, G. (1980). A feature-integration theory of attention. Cognitive Psychology, 12, 97-136. | Statistics Assignment due |
| Tu 1/30 | Lab 1: Feature Search (Lab Software and group project)
Halberlandt, K. (1994). Cognitive Psychology. Boston: Allyn and Bacon. [pp. 81-88]. Wolfe, J. M. (1992). The parallel guidance of visual attention. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 1, 124-128. | Run yourself in group experiment |
| Th 2/1 | Lab 1: Feature Search (Data analysis, and poossible research questions) | Group data for lab 1 due, run yourself in individual project |
| Tu 2/6 | Lab 1: Feature Search (Discuss individual experiments) | Individual Lab 1 data due |
| Th 2/8 | Writing up Experiments and More Methods
McBurney, D. H. (1994). Research Methods. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole. [True experiments, Part 1: Single-factor methods] McBurney, D. H. (1994). Research Methods. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole. [Reporting the results] | |
| Tu 2/13 | Getting ideas for experiments, and statistics that you will need
Mitchell, M., & Jolley, J. (1992). Research design explained. Fort worth: Holt, Rinehart and Winston. [pp. 49-78] | Lab 1 writeup due |
| Th 2/15 | Lab 2: Memory (Issues about memory)
Read Memory Lab description Schacter, D. L. (1987). Implicit memory: History and current status. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 13, 501-518. | |
| Tu 2/20 | Lab 2: Memory (Lab software)
Reed, S. K. (1992). Cognition: Theory and application. Pacific Grove: Brooks/Cole. [Short-term memory] Ellis, H. C. (1972). Fundamentals of human learning and cognition. Dubuque: Brown Co. Pub. [Characteristics of verbal learning] | Run yourself in group Lab 2 |
| Th 2/22 | Lab 2: Memory (analyze results, discuss possible experiments) | Group data for Lab 2 due, run yourself or others in individual lab |
| Tu 2/27 | Lab 2: Memory (discuss individual experiments) | Individual Lab 2 data due |
| Th 2/29 | Miscellaneous topics (literature search, ethical considerations, and design issues) | One page description of Final Project is due. |
| Tu 3/5 | Lab 3: Concept learning (Preliminary issues)
Read Concept Learning Lab description Posner, M. I., & Keele, S. W. (1968). On the genesis of abstract ideas. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 77, 353-363. | Lab 2 writeup due |
| Th 3/7 | Lab 3: Concept learning (Lab software)
Posner, M. I., & Keele, S. W. (1970). Retention of abstract ideas. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 83, 304-308. Shin, H. J., & Nosofsky, R. M. (1992). Similarity-scaling studies of dot-pattern classification and recognition. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 121, 278-304. | |
| Tu 3/12 | SPRING BREAK | |
| Th 3/14 | SPRING BREAK | |
| Tu 3/19 | Lab 3: Concept learning(analyze results, discuss possible experiments) | Group data for Lab 3 due, run yourself or others in individual lab |
| Th 3/21 | Lab 3: Concept learning(discuss individual projects) | |
| Tu 3/26 | Influences of thought on perception.
Goldstone, R. L. (1995). Effects of categorization on color perception. Psychological Science, 6, 298-304. Bruner, J. S., & Postman, L. (1947). Emotional selectivity in perception and reaction. Jounral of Personality, 16, 69-77. Bruner, J. S., & Minturn, A. L. Perceptual identification and perceptual organization. Journal of General Psychology, 53, 21-28. Bruner, J. S., & Postman, L. (1949). On the perception of incongruity. Journal of Personality, 18, 206-223. | |
| Th 3/28 | Influences of thought on perception, and apparent motion demonstrations
Rock, I. (1985). Perception and Knowledge. Acta Psychologica, 59, 3-22. Solso, R. L. (1994). Cognition and the visual arts. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press. (pp. 110-122). Coren, S., Porac, C., & Ward, L. M. (1984). Sensation and perception. Orlando, FL: Academic Press. (pp. 481-496). | |
| Tu 4/2 | Professor Goldstone's Final Project | Lab 3 writeup is due |
| Th 4/4 | Work on Final Project (office visits) | |
| Tu 4/9 | Work on Final Project (office visits) | |
| Th 4/11 | Work on Final Project (office visits) | |
| Tu 4/16 | Presentations | |
| Th 4/18 | NOTHING - professor out of town | |
| Th 4/23 | Presentations | |
| Th 4/25 | Presentations | Final Project due 4/29 |