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, categorization, language, and creative thinking.
Prerequisites: Psychology 2800E, 2810 and one of Psychology 2115A/B, 2134A/B or 2135A/B, 2220A/Bv 2221A/B, or Neuroscience 2000 plus registration in third or fourth year Honours Specialization in Psychology or 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, 2135A/B, 2220A/B, 2221A/B, or Neuroscience 2000 also may enrol in this course.
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 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours, 0.5 course
2.0 COURSE INFORMATION
Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western
http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for a complete list of options about how to obtain help.
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 Student Accessibility Services (formerly known as Services for Students with Disabilities) at 519-661-2147.
3.0 TEXTBOOK
There is no required text. Course readings will be posted on OWL
Recommended Text:
The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 6th Edition (2010). Note: you will need this manual for the Honors Thesis course, so it is worth buying your own copy. Make sure you use the 6th edition – earlier editions contain formatting rules that are no longer current and may cost you marks. The 6th edition is available in the Taylor, Brescia, and Education libraries.
4.0 COURSE OBJECTIVES
By the end of the course students should have:
• Knowledge of the fundamental concepts in human cognition.
• Extensive exposure to human cognition research paradigms.
• Hands-on experience in designing research projects (including one experiment), data collection and analysis, and preparing research reports on human experimental research.
In the lab, each student will (with the instructors’ guidance) design, conduct, analyze, and write up a research project dealing with an issue in cognitive psychology. The aim of the course is to bridge what is learned in the second-year Research Methods course (2800E) and what is required of students in the fourth-year Honors Thesis course (4185E). Students will learn to narrow their focus to a particular question of interest in an area of cognitive psychology. Acceptable areas of focus include attention, memory, categorization, language processing, and thinking. The project will use a 2X2 ANOVA design. The student will develop a testable hypothesis, which must be approved by the TA, carry out the experiment, and present the findings and implications in a formal paper using APA style (Google “apa purdue owl”). Note that you can only recruit your classmates in this course as participants.
4.1 STUDENT LEARNING OUTCOMES
5.0 EVALUATION
The major assignment for this course is a research project and paper. Final course grades will be based on the following components:
Assignment % of the grade Due date
Research Summary 10 Oct. 2
Proposal & Ethics 10 Oct. 16
Midterm 20 Oct. 28
Presentation 20 Nov. 27, Dec. 2, & Dec. 4
Final paper 35 Dec. 18
Attendance 5
Deadlines are strictly enforced, and a penalty of 10% per day is applied to every 24-hour period an assignment is late. Extensions will be granted only for documented health reasons or on documented compassionate grounds. The midterm exam will be short answer (a paragraph) format. Final papers must be uploaded to the course OWL site no later than 5:00 pm on Wednesday, December 18.
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 ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE
Midterm exam: Monday, October 28 – covers readings and lectures up to October 23
The major assignment for this course is a research project and paper. Final course grades will be based on the following components:
Assignment % of the grade Due date
Research Summary 10 Oct. 2
Proposal & Ethics 10 Oct. 16
Midterm 20 Oct. 28
Presentation 20 Nov. 27, Dec. 2, & Dec. 4
Final paper 35 Dec. 18
Attendance 5
Deadlines are strictly enforced, and a penalty of 10% per day is applied to every 24-hour period an assignment is late. Extensions will be granted only for documented health reasons or on documented compassionate grounds. The midterm exam will be short answer (a paragraph) format. Final papers must be uploaded to the course OWL site no later than 5:00 pm on Wednesday, December 18.
7.0 CLASS SCHEDULE
Sept. 9 – Introductory Meeting.
Sept. 16 –Attention & Perception
Sept. 23 –Memory & Executive Function
Sept. 30 – Concepts & Categorization
Oct. 7 – Language & Bilingualism
Oct. 14 – No Class (Thanksgiving)
Oct. 21 – Creative Thinking & Cognitive Neuroscience
Oct. 28 – Midterm
Nov. 4 – No Class (Fall Reading Week)
Labs:
Sept. 11 – Introductions; Objectives of the lab
Sept. 18 – Research project description
Sept. 25 – Literature searches; Finding a topic; Defining a problem
Oct. 2 – Designing an experiment; Defining variables; Hypothesizing * Summary Due
Oct. 9 – Title pages; References; Ethics
Oct. 16 – Experiment Design; Consultation * Proposal & Ethics Due
Oct. 23 – Experiment Design; Consultation
Oct. 30 – Experiment Design; Consultation
Nov. 6 – No class- Fall reading week
Data collection & presentation:
Nov. 11 – Statistics; Data collection; Consultation
Nov. 13 – Statistics; Consultation
Nov. 18 – Statistics; Data collection; Consultation
Nov. 20 – Statistics; Consultation
Nov. 25 – Statistics; Data collection; Consultation
Nov. 27 – Presentation
Dec. 2 – Presentation
Dec. 4 – Presentation
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://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/PolicyPages.cfm?PolicyCategoryID=1&Command=showCategory&SelectedCalendar=Live&ArchiveID=#Page_12
The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/Academic_Consideration_for_absences.pdf
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
If you experience an extenuating circumstance (e.g., illness, injury) sufficiently significant to temporarily make you unable to meet academic requirements, you may request accommodation through the following routes:
- Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
- For medical absences, submitting a Student Medical Certificate (SMC) signed by a licensed medical or mental health practitioner in order to be eligible for Academic Consideration;
For non-medical absences, submitting appropriate documentation (e.g., obituary, police report, accident report, court order, etc.) to Academic Counselling in their Faculty of registration in order to be eligible for academic consideration. Students are encouraged to contact their Academic Counselling unit to clarify what documentation is appropriate.
Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation. The self-reported absence form may NOT be used for absences longer than 48 hours; coursework/tests/exams/etc., worth more than 30% of the final grade; or exams scheduled in the December or April final-exam periods: http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html
Students seeking academic consideration:
- are advised to consider carefully the implications of postponing tests or midterm exams or delaying handing in work;
- are encouraged to make appropriate decisions based on their specific circumstances, recognizing that minor ailments (upset stomach) or upsets (argument with a friend) are not normally an appropriate basis for a self-reported absence;
must communicate with their instructors no later than 24 hours after the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence
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
- 2019-2020 Calendar References
No electronic devices, including cell phones and smart watches, will be allowed during exams.
Copyright Statement: Lectures and course materials, including power point presentations, outlines, 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 lecture notes, wiki material, and other course materials publicly and/or for commercial purposes without the instructor’s written consent.
