Psychology 3130B 001 FW25

The Psychology of Thinking

Western University 

London                   Canada 

 

Department of Psychology 

Winter 2026 

Psychology 3130B    Section 001 

 

The Psychology of Thinking 

1 Calendar Description 

Theoretical and empirical studies on problem solving, reasoning, concept formation, thinking and cross-cultural variations in thinking processes. 3 lecture hours; Course Weight: 0.5. 

Prerequisites: Both Psychology 2801F/G (or one of Health Sciences 2801A/B, Psychology 2840F/G, Psychology 2855F/G) and Psychology 2811A/B (or one of Biology 2244A/B, Economics 2122A/B, Economics 2222A/B, Geography 2210A/B, Health Sciences 3801A/B, MOS 2242A/B, Psychology 2830A/B, Psychology 2850A/B, Sociology 2205A/B, Statistical Sciences 2035, Statistical Sciences 2141A/B, Statistical Sciences 2143A/B, Statistical Sciences 2244A/B, Statistical Sciences 2858A/B, the former Social Work 2207A/B), or the former Psychology 2820E, or both the former Psychology 2800E and the former Psychology 2810, and one of Psychology 2115A/B, Psychology 2134A/B, Psychology 2135A/B. 

Unless you have either the prerequisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enrol 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 Course Information 

Instructor: John Paul Minda, PhD 

Office & Phone: see Brightspace, 519-661-2111 ext 84689 

Office Hours: see Brightspace 

Email: jpminda@uwo.ca 

 

Teaching Assistant:  

Office: TBA 

Office Hours: TBA 

Email: TBA 

2.1 Course Operation 

Lectures are : See Timetable on Student Centre. The three-hour lecture includes a short break. Slides and lecture material will be available on OWL prior to class. Lectures are live streamed on Zoom and recorded. The videos are uploaded to OWL and YouTube. In-class participation is expected, but if you are sick or cannot attend class, I encourage you to watch the remote lecture. If Western in closed in the event of severe weather, our class will meet live on Zoom at the same time. 

  • see Brightspace for Zoom access

2.2 Instructor Office Hours 

My weekly office hours are: see Brightspace. You can either come to my office or join via Zoom. My office hours are for one-on-one meetings and are offered on a first-come, first-served basis. If you are coming to my office in WIRB, take the elevator to the 5th floor and use the hallway phone or email to let me know you are waiting, and I will let you in the office suite. If you have other concerns, please contact me by email. I generally reply to emails within 48 hours.  

  • see Brightspace for Zoom access

2.3 TA Office Hours 

For all questions related to course content, exam preparation, or scheduling, please check the relevant OWL forum or post your question there. For all other inquiries, please contact the TA. Please include the course number and section in the subject line of your email, along with a brief word or phrase detailing the nature of the email (e.g., 3130B 001: Midterm Exam Questions).  

All email correspondence must be from your @uwo.ca email; emails from other addresses will not be responded to. The TAs host weekly Zoom office hours on (TBA) and should be your first point of contact for reviewing course material after OWL forums. TA office hours are offered on a first-come, first-served basis.  

3 Course Materials 

3.1 Textbook 

There is one required textbook for this course: 

  • Minda, J. P. (2020). The Psychology of Thinking: Reasoning, Decision-Making and Problem-Solving, 2nd Ed. SAGE, London: UK. ($85.65 paperback, $69.00 eBook) 

The text is available: 

  • Used 
  • Free from various sketchy websites 

If you do not wish to buy the text, it is available at the library on course reserve. The first edition of the text may also be used and it is available for free at the library. The first edition is lacking some content, but it is possible to do well in the course with the first edition.  

3.2 Course Notes 

Notes and slides from each class are available on the course website (OWL). A copy of the slides will be available prior to class for review and for notetaking. Students may share their own notes on the OWL site or other note-sharing sites. Your notes are your intellectual property; you can share as much or as little as you feel comfortable.  

4 Course Objectives and Learning Outcomes 

 

Learning Outcome 

Learning Activity 

Assessment 

 

Students completing this course will gain insights into how people think and how the brain supports complex mental behaviour.  

 

 

Assigned readings and lecture attendance 

 

Quizzes and Exams 

 

Students completing this course will learn how psychologists and neuroscientists study thinking and other  

complex metal phenomena.  

 

 

Assigned readings, lecture attendance, and interactive demonstrations in class 

 

Quizzes and Exams 

 

Students completing this course will learn about thinking, cognitive biases, and heuristics and will understand how to improve their own thinking and apply cognitive psychological principles in their personal and professional lives 

 

 

Assigned readings, lecture attendance, and interactive demonstrations in class 

 

Quizzes and Exams 

5 Evaluation 

5.1 Quizzes 

There are five online quizzes on the schedule below. Each quiz will be available on OWL right after class from 12:30pm – 10:30pm (for 10 hours) on the day on which it is scheduled. You can take the quiz any time during the posted time window. Once you begin, you will have 30 minutes to complete the quiz. The quizzes are timed but not proctored. These quizzes are open book, open note. Each quiz is worth 5% of the final grade. I will drop the lowest grade of the five quizzes, and the remaining four quizzes will make up 20% of the final grade. Any missed quiz will be scored a “0”. Academic consideration will not be granted for missed quizzes.  

5.2 Exams  

There are two in-person exams in the course. Exam 1 is scheduled for Tuesday February 11 at the same time and location as the lecture (see Student Centre Timetable) and covers Units 1–5. The midterm is worth 40% of the final grade. Exam 2 will be scheduled by the registrar for the final exam period. Exam 2 covers the second half of the course (Units 6–11) and is worth 40% of the final grade.  

If you require or receive accommodation for extra time on course work, please connect with Accessible Education as soon as possible and let me know so that I can make accommodations. 

5.3 Makeup Exam Policy 

The evaluation and testing formats for this course were created to assess the learning objectives as listed in section 4 and are necessary for meeting these learning objectives. 

If you are unable to take an exam as scheduled, you must obtain permission from your academic Dean via your counsellor to make up the exam. You may not use an undocumented absence for Exams 1 and 2. See Section 10 for information on seeking considerations. Please note the Western Student Information Privacy Policy that instructors are not permitted to receive documentation directly from a student, whether in support of an application for medical grounds, or for other reasons.  

All documentation required for absences that are not covered by the absence reporting policy must be submitted to your home Faculty or Affiliate Academic Counselling/Advising Office. The current policy on student absences is available here. Information on accommodation appeals and medical certificates is available here. Following receipt of approved accommodation from Academic Counselling, a makeup exam will be rescheduled to take place approximately 10 days after the original exam date. 

5.4 Final Grade 

The final grade in this class will be a combination of your grades on the quizzes (20%), Exam 1 (40%), and Exam 2 (40%). This course is exempt from the Senate requirement that students receive assessment of their work accounting for at least 15% of their final grade at least three full days before the date of the deadline for withdrawal from a course without academic penalty.  

The expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages: 

Grade 

Description 

70% 

1000–level and 2099–level courses 

72% 

2100–2999 level courses 

75% 

3000–level courses 

80% 

4000–level courses 

 

The Psychology Department follows Western’s grading guidelines, (see the policy here.) 

Grade 

Range 

Description 

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 

 

If course grades are significantly higher or lower than these averages, instructors may be required to adjust course grades. Such adjustment might include the normalization of one or more course components and/or the re-weighting of various course components. 

5.5 Policy on Grade Rounding 

Course grades within the Psychology Department are rounded to the nearest whole number; no further grade rounding will be done. No additional assignments will be offered to enhance a final grade; nor will requests to change a grade because it is needed for a future program be considered.  

5.6 Exam Review 

Grades will be released on OWL. Exams and quizzes may be reviewed by making an appointment with the TA during their exam review office hours (TBA). Neither the TA nor the instructor will re-grade questions or award points after the grades have been released. 

6 Assessment/Evaluation Schedule 

Exam/Quiz* 

Date 

Location 

Content 

Value* 

Quiz 1 

Jan. 20 

online 

Classes 1–3 

5% 

Quiz 2 

Feb. 3 

online 

Classes 4–5 

5% 

Midterm 

Feb. 10 

See Timetable 

Classes 1–5 

40% 

Quiz 3 

Mar. 3 

online 

Classes 6–7 

5% 

Quiz 4 

Mar. 24 

online 

Classes 8–10 

5% 

Quiz 5 

March 31 

online 

Classes 1–11 

5% 

Final Exam 

April  

TBA 1 

Classes 6–11 

40% 

*Note: The lowest quiz grade will be dropped, you will be graded on the best 4 of 5 quizzes 

 

7 Class Schedule 

Unit 

Week 

Topic 

Readings 

1 

January 6 

Introduction 

Minda Ch. 1 

2 

January 13 

Similarity 

Minda Ch. 2 

3 

January 20 

Knowledge and Memory 

Minda Ch. 3 

4 

January 27 

Concepts and Categories 

Minda Ch. 4 

5 

February 3 

Language and Thought 

Minda Ch. 5 

- 

February 10 

Exam 1, Unit 1—5 

Minda Ch. 1–5 

- 

February 17 

Reading Week 

- 

6 

February 24 

Inference and Induction 

Minda Ch. 6 

7 

March 3 

Deductive Reasoning 

Minda Ch. 7 

8 

March 10 

Context, Motivation, and Mood 

Minda Ch. 8 

9 

March 17 

Decision Making 

Minda Ch. 9 

10 

March 24 

Problem Solving & Creativity 

Minda Ch. 10 

11 

March 31 

Expertise and Expert Thinking 

Minda Ch. 11 

- 

April TBA 

Exam 2, Units 6—11 

Minda Ch. 6–11 

8 Academic Integrity  

Scholastic offences are taken seriously, and students are directed to read the appropriate policy, specifically, the definition of what constitutes a Scholastic Offence, at the following Web site; 

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

8.1 Statement on Use of Electronic Devices 

No electronic devices on any kind may be used during an exam. Laptops, smartphones, and tablet devices may be used during class and can be used for interactive activities during lecture.  

8.2 Multiple Choice Exams  

Computer-marked multiple-choice tests and/or exams will be subject to submission for similarity review by software that will check for unusual coincidences in answer patterns that may indicate cheating. 

9 Academic Accommodations and Accessible Education 

View Western’s policy on academic accommodations for student with disabilities at this link. Accessible Education provides supports and services to students with disabilities at Western. 

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.  

 

If you think you may qualify for ongoing accommodation that will be recognized in all your courses, visit Accessible Education for more information.  Email: aew@uwo.ca  Phone: 519 661-2147 

10 Absence & Academic Consideration 

View Western’s policy on academic consideration for medical illnesses this link 

Find your academic counsellor here: https://www.registrar.uwo.ca/faculty_academic_counselling.html 

Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit required documentation in order to be approved for certain academic considerations. Students must communicate with their instructors no later than 48 hours after the end of the period covered SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence. 

Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Health and Wellness@Western https://www.uwo.ca/health/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help. 

10.1 Medical Absences 

Submit a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner to Academic Counselling in your Faculty of registration to be eligible for Academic Consideration. 

10.2 Nonmedical Absences 

Submit appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in your Faculty of registration to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate. 

10.3 Religious Consideration 

Students seeking accommodation for religious purposes are advised to contact Academic Counselling at least three weeks prior to the religious event and as soon as possible after the start of the term. 

11 Other Information  

 

11.1 Requests for Relief from Academic Decisions  

If you wish to appeal a grade, please read the policy documentation at:  

Please first contact the course instructor. If your issue is not resolved, you may make your appeal in writing to the Undergraduate Chair in Psychology (psyugrd@uwo.ca). 

11.2 Copyright Statement  

Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, videos and similar materials, are protected by copyright. You may take notes and make copies of course materials for your own educational use. You may not record lectures, reproduce (or allow others to reproduce), post or distribute any course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent. 

11.3 Policy on the Recording of Synchronous Sessions 

Some or all the learning sessions for this course may be recorded. The data captured during these recordings may include your image, voice recordings, chat logs and personal identifiers. The recordings will be used for educational purposes related to this course, including evaluations. The recordings may be disclosed to other individuals participating in the course for their private or group study purposes. Please contact the instructor if you have any concerns related to session recordings. Participants in this course are not permitted to privately record the sessions, except where recording is an approved accommodation, or the student has the prior written permission of the instructor.