Psychology 3185F-001

Research in Cognitive Psychology

If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.

1.0    CALENDAR DESCRIPTION

Cognitive theorists face a unique problem: the understanding of mental structures and processes that are not directly observable. A variety of methods used to address this problem will be surveyed, by introducing research questions of enduring interest. Students will be expected to use the techniques learned. Cognitive domains to be examined include attention, memory, problem- solving, and thinking.

 

Prerequisites: Psychology 2800E, 2810 and one of Psychology 2115A/B, 2134A/B or 2135A/B, 2220A/B, 2221A/B, or Neuroscience 2000 plus registration in third or fourth year Honours Specialization in Psychology, Honours Specialization in Developmental Cognitive Neuroscience or Honours Specialization in Neuroscience.

 

Third or fourth year Psychology Majors and Psychology Special Students who receive 70% or higher in Psychology 2820E (or 60% or higher in Psychology 2800E and 2810), plus 60% or higher in one of Psychology 2115A/B, 2134A/B or 2135A/B also may enrol in this course.

2 lecture hours and 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course.

 

Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.


2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor:                                                   Dr. Patrick Brown

Office and Phone Number:                         SSC 7328 / Ext. 84680

Office Hours:                                              Tuesday 1:30 – 3:30

Email:                                                         brown5@uwo.ca

 

Teaching Assistant:                                     Hamad Alazary

Office:                                                        Announced in first lab meeting

Office Hours:                                              Announced in first lab meeting

Email:                                                         halazary@uwo.ca

 

Time and Location of Classes:                    Monday & Wednesday 4:30 – 6:30, SSC 3120


If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you.  Please visit:  http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you. You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

3.0  TEXTBOOK

In lieu of a textbook we’ll read recent papers from the cognitive psychology literature (see below). This year, the readings focus on applications of cognitive psychology research in the student’s life.

 

4.0    COURSE OBJECTIVES

By the end of the course students should have:

  • Knowledge of the fundamental concepts in human cog
  • Extensive exposure to human cognition research paradigm
  • Hands-on experience in designing research projects (including one experiment), data collection and analysis, and preparing research reports on human experimental resea

   4.1    STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES

Outcome

Evaluation

Articulate the concepts and current states of

knowledge in relevant natural and social science aspects of cognitive psychology

Exam short answers and essay questions

Access, interpret, and critically evaluate

appropriate research in cognitive psychology

Lab assignments (literature review; proposal;

experiment report); Exam short answer and essay questions based on weekly readings

Evaluate the appropriateness of different

methodological approaches to address a specific question in cognitive psychology

Exam short answer and essay questions; lab

assignments, particularly experiment proposal

Formulate a research hypothesis to address a

psychological question and design a research project to test that hypothesis

Lab assignments (literature review; research

proposal; poster presentation; written report)

Apply relevant quantitative skills to the analysis

and interpretation of psychological phenomena

Analysis of experiment project data, evaluated in

the form of Results section of final report paper

Engage in a critical scholarly discussion or debate

on a psychological topic

Lab assignments (research proposal; poster

presentation; final paper); final exam essay questions

Apply ethical standards to the practice of their

own research

Research proposal and ethics review form are

graded

Communicate in writing accurately, clearly, and

logically, using the discourse of the discipline of cognitive psychology

Lab assignments (research proposal and final

paper); Exam short answer and essay questions

Communicate orally accurately, clearly, and

logically, using the discourse of the discipline of cognitive psychology

Lab assignment (poster presentation)

 

5.0     EVALUATION

Final course grades will be based on two major components – lab grades and exam grades. The lab component, which is described in detail in the lab outline, will be worth 50% of the final course grade. The other 50% will be based on two exams, a midterm and a final exam, each worth 25% of the final course grade. The midterm exam will feature a combination of short answer and essay questions. The final exam will be a take-home exam featuring essay questions. Final exam papers should be provided in printed form for grading. Please use a header containing just your last name and a page number. Final exam papers must also be uploaded to the course OWL site for Turnitin.com analysis.

 

Note: You must pass the essay component to pass the course. That is, the average mark for your written assignments must be at least 50% .


Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:


70%     1000-level and 2000-level courses
72%     2190-2990 level courses
75%     3000-level courses
80%     4000-level courses
   
The Psychology Department follows Western's grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/general/grades_undergrad.pdf ):

A+  90-100      One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A    80-89        Superior work that is clearly above average
B    70-79        Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C    60-69        Competent work, meeting requirements
D    50-59        Fair work, minimally acceptable
F    below 50    Fail



6.0  TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

Midterm test            November 1, 2017 (in class)

Final exam              Questions will be posted on 6 December 2017. Exam papers will be due no later than 21 December 2017 at 5 pm.


7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

Week 1 – Laptops and lectures

 

Mueller, P.A. & Oppenheimer, D.M. (2014). The pen is mightier than the keyboard: Advantages of longhand over laptop note taking. Psychological Science, 25 (6), 1159 – 1168. DOI: 10.1177/0956797614524581

 

Ravizza, S.M., Uitvlugt, M.G., & Fenn, K.M. (2017). Logged in and zoned out: How laptop internet use relates to classroom learning. Psychological Science, 28 (2),171-180. doi: 10.1177/0956797616677314

 

Week 2 – Mind wandering during lectures

 

Farley, J., Risko, E., & Kingstone, A. (2013). Everyday attention and lecture retention: the effects of time, fidgeting, and mind wandering. Frontiers in Psychology, 4, Article 619. DOI: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00619

 

Szpunar, K.K., Khan, Y.N., & Schacter, D.L. (2013). Interpolated memory tests reduce mind wandering and improve learning of online lectures. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America. 110. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1221764110.

 

Week 3 – Reducing exam anxiety

 

Ramirez, G., & Beilock, S. L. (2011). Writing about testing worries boosts exam performance in the classroom. Science, 331, 211-213.


 

Brooks, A.W. (2014). Get excited: Reappraising pre-performance anxiety as excitement. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 143 (3), 1144–1158. DOI: 10.1037/a0035325

 

Week 4 – Procrastination

 

Rebetez, M.M.L., Barsics, C., Rochat, L., D’Argembeau, A., & Van der Linden, M. Procrastination, consideration of future consequences, and episodic future thinking, Consciousness and Cognition, 42, 286-292, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.concog.2016.04.003.

 

Hershfield, H. (2011). Future self-continuity: How conceptions of the future self transform intertemporal choice. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences. 1235. 30-43. 10.1111/j.1749- 6632.2011.06201.x.

 

Week 5 – Fall Reading Week – no classes Week 6 – Enhanced cognition

Madan, C.R. (2014). Augmented memory: A survey of the approaches to remembering more.

Frontiers in Systems Neuroscience, 8, Article 30. doi: 10.3389/fnsys.2014.00030.

 

Farah, M.J., Smith M.E., Ilieva, I., & Hamilton R.H.. (2014). Cognitive enhancement. Wiley Interdisciplinary Reviews: Cognitive Science, 5, 95-103. doi: 10.1002/wcs.1250

 

Whetstine, L.M. (2015). Cognitive enhancement: Treating or cheating? Seminars in Pediatric Neurology, 22 (3), 172-176, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.spen.2015.05.003.

 

Week 7 – Do you have a learning style – or do you just think you have one?

 

Knoll, A.R., Otani, H., Skeel, R.L., & Van Horn, K.R. (2017). Learning style, judgements of learning, and learning of verbal and visual information. British Journal of Psychology, 108(3), 544 – 563. http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/bjop.12214.

 

Pashler H., McDaniel M., Rohrer D., & Bjork R. (2009). Learning styles: concepts and evidence.

Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 9 (3), 105–19.

 

Willingham, D.T., Hughes, E.M. & Dobolyi, D.G. (2015). The scientific status of learning styles theories. Teaching of Psychology, 42 (3), 266-271. DOI: 10.1177/0098628315589505

 

Week 8 – Midterm exam (in class)

 

Week 9 – Training working memory

 

von Bastian, C.C. & Oberauer, K. (2013). Distinct transfer effects of training different facets of working memory capacity, Journal of Memory and Language, 69 (1), http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jml.2013.02.002.

 

Ang, S.Y., Lee, K., Cheam, F., Poon, K., & Koh, J. (2015). Updating and working memory training: Immediate improvement, long-term maintenance, and generalizability to non-trained tasks. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 4, 121 – 128. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2015.03.001.


 

Week 10 – Effects of working memory training on emotion regulation

 

Schweizer, S., Grahn, J., Hampshire, A., Mobbs, D., & Dalgleish, T. (2013). Training the emotional brain: improving affective control through emotional working memory training. Journal of Neuroscience, 33 (12), 5301-5311. DOI: 10.1523/JNEUROSCI.2593-12.2013

 

Xiu, L., Zhou, R., & Yihan, J. (2016). Working memory training improves emotion regulation ability: Evidence from HRV. Physiology & Behavior. 155. 25-29. 10.1016/j.physbeh.2015.12.004.

 

Week 11 – Cognitive control

 

Amer, T., Campbell, K.L., Hasher, L. (2016). Cognitive control as a double-edged sword. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 20 (12), 905-915. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2016.10.002.

 

Cohen, A.O., Breiner ,K., Steinberg, L., Bonnie, R.J., Scott, E.S., Taylor-Thompson, K.A., et al. (2016). When is an adolescent an adult? Assessing cognitive control in emotional and nonemotional contexts. Psychological Science, 27 (4), 549 -562. DOI: 10.1177/0956797615627625

 

Week 12 – The testing effect

 

Smith, M.A. & Karpicke, J.D. (2014). Retrieval practice with short-answer, multiple-choice, and hybrid tests. Memory, 22 (7), 784 – 802. DOI: 10.1080/09658211.2013.831454

 

Benjamin, A.S. & Pashler, H. (2015). The value of standardized testing: A perspective from cognitive psychology. Policy Insights from the Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 2 (1), 13 – 23. DOI: 10.1177/2372732215601116.

 

Roediger, H.L. & Pyc, M.A. (2012). Inexpensive techniques to improve education: Applying cognitive psychology to enhance educational practice. Journal of Applied Research in Memory and Cognition, 1, 4, 242-248, http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jarmac.2012.09.002.

 

Week 13 – Metacomprehension

 

Wiley, J., Griffin, T.D., Jaeger, A.J., Jarosz, A.F., Cushen, P.J. & W. Thiede, K.W. (2016). Improving metacomprehension accuracy in an undergraduate course context. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Applied, 22, 393-405. 10.1037/xap0000096.

 

Ikeda, K. & Kitagami, S. (2013). The interactive effect of working memory and text difficulty on metacomprehension accuracy. Journal of Cognitive Psychology, 25, 94-106. 10.1080/20445911.2012.748028.

8.0     STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES

Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link:  http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf

As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com

Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.



9.0    POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS

Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2017/pg954.html 

Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html


10.0        OTHER INFORMATION

Office of the Registrar web site:  http://registrar.uwo.ca

Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca

Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:

    http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html

- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences
- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2017 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.