Winter 2007
| Class: SCC 145: 1-1:50 MWF | Instructor: John H. Krantz, Ph.D. |
| Lab: SCC 148: 2:00-4:50 R | Office: Science Center 151 |
| Text: Cognitive Psychology, 6th ed. by Solso & CogLab by Francis et al. | Phone: x7316 email: krantzj@hanover.edu |
Feb 19, 2007
Get all of the my excel files for the class data here.
It is just a list, download what you need.
Jan 23, 2007
For the initial discussion of your project ideas, you are required to use
the human subjects application you used in Research Methods.
A link to the form is below.
Jan 08, 2007
Welcome to the Fall Term 2005. 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.
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.
Major Objectives: In the context of this major, this course is an upper level lab based course. As such the department has specified some goals for you. First, the department wants to develop a more independent level of thinking as you progress through the major. Thus, there will be less structure to the course and you will be given some responsibility for assignments. As part of this goal, you will also be asked to develop your own cognitive theory. Second, the department wants to have you prepared more for an independent research project which forms the senior capstone experience. Thus, you will be asked to design and implement a small research project to present at the end of the semester.
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. Relatedly, where ever possible you will be given as set of studies to do (the data are due by 5:00 pm on the Friday before they are discussed). We will used the data from our class as a jumping off point for discussion.
| Day/Date | Topic | Reading/Assignment |
|
Week 1, |
Introduction | Ch. 1 |
| F | Biological Bases of Cognition | Ch. 2 |
| Week 2, MW |
Perception
|
Ch 3 Signal Detection Tutorial Signal Detection Experiment, Muller-Lyer Experiment Cog Lab: Partial Report, and Visual Search Data by Friday of Week Before. |
| F | Pattern Recognition | Ch 4 |
| Week 3, MWF |
Attention | CogLab: Stroop Effect, Attentional Blink, Spatial Cueing, Simon Effect Data by Friday of Week Before. |
| Week 4, MW |
States of Consciousness | Ch 5 PsychExperiments: Implicit Associations Test Data by Friday of Week Before. |
| F | Test 1, Due 5:00 PM |
|
| Week 5, MWF |
Mnemonics and Experts | Ch. 8 |
| Week 6, MWF |
Memory Structures | Ch 6 CogLab Suffix Effect, Brown-Peterson, Memory Span, Sternberg Search, Serial Position Effect |
| Week 7, MWF |
Memory Theories | Ch 7,9 CogLab False Memory, Forgot it all Along, Remember Know, Von Restorff Effect Data by Friday of Week Before |
| Week 8, WF |
Mental Imagery | Ch 10; CogLab Mental Rotation Data by Friday of Week Before |
| Week 9, MWF |
Language: Structure and Abstraction | Ch 11; CogLab Lexical Decision Categorical Perception-Identification |
| Week 10, MWF |
Language: Words and Reading | Ch 12; Illustration of
McClelland and Rumelhart's Theory CogLab Word Superiority Effect Implicit Learning |
| Week 11, MWF |
Concept Formation, Logic, Decision Making | Ch. 14; CogLab Prototypes Typical Reasoning Monty Hall Risky Decisions Wason Selection Task |
| Week 12, MWF |
Problem Solving, Creativity Intelligence | Ch 15 |
| Week 13, MWF |
Artificial Intelligence | Ch 16 |
| Week 14, MWF |
||
| Dec 11-15 | Final Exam: Due at the End of Finals Exam Time |
| Lab Period | Laboratory/Article |
| Week 1 | Stroop I/Stroop (1935). Studies of Interference in Serial Verbal Reactions |
| Week 2 | Stroop II |
| Week 3 | Stroop III |
| Week 4 | Stroop due/Partial Report I/Siu (1986) Iconic Memory, Location Information, and Partial Report |
| Week 5 | Partial Report II |
| Week 6 | Partial Report III/Discuss Projects |
| Week 7 | Partial Report due/Lab 3 I |
| Week 8 | On Break |
| Week 9 | Lab 3 II |
| Week 10 | Lab 3 III |
| Week 11 | Lab 3 Due/Final Project Time |
| Week 12 | Final Project Time |
| Week 13 | Final Project Time |
| Last Week | Project Poster Presentations |
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, emailed as a Word file, 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:
Laboratories and Their 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. The labs are to be emailed to me in a Word format on the due date indicated.
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, and oral formats. The paper is due the same day on Monday of dead week. The paper will be emailed to me in a Word format by 5:00 pm that day.
The points for the various parts of this project are:
Initial Presentation of Idea 25 points Oral Presentation 75 points Written Version 75 points
Forms from Research Methods that might be helpful
Human Subject Application - required for initial presentation
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.
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:
| Grade | Percentage Range |
| A | 100 - >93% |
| A- | 93 - 90% |
| B+ | <90 - 87% |
| B | <87 - >83% |
| B- | 83 - 80% |
| C+ | <80% - 77% |
| C | <77 - > 73% |
| C- | 73 - 70% |
| D+ | <70 - 67% |
| D | <67 - 60% |
| F | < 60% |