Psychology 3130B-001

The Psychology of Thinking

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

 

Revised Jan 5, 2022

Western     University

London                             Canada

 

Department of Psychology

2021 – 2022

Psychology 3130B 001
The Psychology of Thinking

1.0  Calendar Description

Theoretical and empirical studies on problem solving, reasoning, concept formation, thinking and cross-cultural variations in thinking processes. 3 lecture/discussion hours. Course Weight: 0.50

1.1          Antirequisites

Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. There are no antirequisites for this course.

1.2         Prerequisites

  • Psychology 2820E or both Psychology 2800E and Psychology 2810
  • One of Psychology 2115A/B, Psychology 2134A/B, or 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.

2.0  Course Information

Instructor: Dr. John Paul Minda

Office Hours: Tuesday, 1:30 – 3:00 on Zoom

Teaching Assistant: Neha Khemani

TA Office & Hours: TBA

Time & Location of Lectures: Tuesday, 9:30 – 12:30, on Zoom or 3M-3250

 

Delivery Method: Blended: Synchronous online and in-person

Students who are in emotional/mental distress should refer to Mental Health@Western 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.

2.1         Course Operation

Our course was originally designed to be a standard, in-person lecture course. However, we will begin as a synchronous, online course according to Western’s guidelines and transition to in-person lectures when it is safe to do so.

Zoom lectures — Zoom lectures are Tuesdays from 9:30 – 12:00 at the following link:

The course will be run in two sessions, roughly one hour each with a break in between. Slides and lecture material will be on OWL and MS Teams prior to class. The zoom lectures will be recorded, and the videos will be available on OWL and YouTube shortly thereafter. The videos will remain online for the duration of the course.

In-person lectures — In person lectures are Tuesdays from 9:30am – 12:20pm in 3M-3250. The three-hour lecture will include a short break. Slides and lecture material will be on OWL and MS Teams prior to class. The lectures will be live streamed on Zoom (same link as above) and the videos will be uploaded to OWL and YouTube. If you are sick or cannot attend class, I encourage you to watch the remote lecture.

If Western returns to a full lockdown, our course will continue as synchronous online and as according to the schedule. That is, I will record new lectures live by Zoom each Tuesday 9:30am – 12:30pm. See Section 12 for more information.

2.2         Course Calendar

You can subscribe to the Course Outlook calendar here (copy the text for the ics link). This is optional but I am making it available for your concenience.

https://outlook.office365.com/owa/calendar/cdc2d2644610426a9dd934d315a00350@uwo.ca/14fba85acc3b42e6ba8a8dd6153a6b0914671683566388259234/calendar.ics

The calendar can be added to your own Outlook /Google/Apple calendar and will updated weekly. All assignments and readings will be listed here.

2.3          Office Hours and MS Teams

The primary way to discuss the material and to contact me is on the Microsoft Teams site associated with this course. MS Teams is a collaborative messaging service like Facebook, Slack, or Discord. MS Teams includes group messaging, direct messages, and file sharing.  Once the course begins, please direct all correspondence to MS teams rather than email. I will attempt to respond within a 48-hour window.

I hold weekly office hours on Zoom on Tuesday from 1:30-3:00 and you must be logged into Western’s Zoom account to participate. The link is available on OWL, on the course calendar and here:

These meetings are for one-on-one meetings. You can join the waiting room and I’ll meet with people first come first serve.

3.0  Reading and Notes

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, Second Edition. SAGE, London: UK.

The text is available as softcover or e-book at the university bookstore, Amazon, and elsewhere. If you do not wish to buy the text, the previous edition (1st ed) is available at the library as an e-book.

3.2          Readings

There are some additional readings that accompany some of the lectures. These include scientific journal articles, blog posts, and popular articles. These additional readings are available on the course website for the topic in which they are relevant. Content from these readings will be on the quizzes and exams.

3.3          Course Notes

Notes and slides from each class will be available on the course website (OWL). A copy of the slides will be available prior to class for review and for note taking. I will record the Zoom audio and video for each lecture in class and will be available on the website after class. 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.

4.0           Course Objectives

This course covers thought and knowledge. We will study how people think and how psychologists study thinking and reasoning. The course will be taught as a combination of online lecture and online discussion.

4.1         Student Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of this course, students should be able to:

  • Describe key concepts, principles, and overarching themes relevant to the psychology of thinking. This outcome will be assessed though class discussion, four quizzes, and the two exams.
  • Articulate the concepts and current states of knowledge in both the natural science and social science aspects of the psychology of thinking. This outcome will be assessed though class discussion, four quizzes, and the two exams.
  • Engage in a critical scholarly discussion on a psychological topic using evidence to support claims. This outcome will be assessed though class discussion, four quizzes, and the two exams.
  • Critically evaluate the presentation of scientific ideas and research in the popular media. This outcome will be assessed though class discussion, four quizzes, and the two exams.
  • Apply psychological principles to the understanding of everyday problems. This outcome will be assessed though class discussion, four quizzes, and the two exams.

5.0  Evaluation

5.1          Quizzes

There are 3 online quizzes according to the schedule below. Each quiz will cover content from the previous 2–3 weeks but not the current week. Each quiz is worth 2% of the final grade and the quizzes make up 6% of the final grade. Each quiz will be available on OWL from 9:00am – 9:00pm (for 12 hours) on the day it is scheduled. The quizzes are timed but not proctored. You can take the quiz any time during the posted time. Once you begin you will have 15 minutes to complete the quiz.

If you require or receive accommodation for extra time on course work, please connect with Services for Students with Disabilities as soon as possible and let me know so that I can make accommodations. If you are accommodated with extra time, it will be added automatically to the online quiz.

5.2         Exams

There is one online exam and one in-person exam. Exam 1 is online on OWL and will be open book, open note. Exam 1 is timed at three hours but not proctored. You must take the exam during the scheduled time. Exam 2 will be schedule by the registrar for the final exam period and will be a written in-person exam. However, if we are required by Western to do online exams, Exam 2 will be run online in the same form as Exam 1.

  • Exam 1 is scheduled for Tuesday February 15 at the same time as the lecture (9:30am-12:30pm) and covers Topics 1-5. The midterm is worth 44% of the final grade. The exam is online and you must take the exam during this time.
  • Exam 2 will be scheduled by the registrar for the final exam period and covers Topics 6-11. The final exam is worth 50% of the final grade.

Each exam includes short answer questions, short essay questions, problems, and multiple-choice questions.

If you require or receive accommodation for extra time on course work, please connect with Services for Students with Disabilities as soon as possible and let me know so that I can make accommodations. If you are accommodated with extra time, it will be added automatically to the online quiz.

5.3          Make Up Policy

If you are unable to take an exam or quiz as scheduled, you must obtain permission from your academic dean via your counsellor order to make up the exam. See Section 10 for information on seeking accommodations. Please note the Western 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 the Academic Counselling Office of a student’s home faculty. The current policy on student absences is available here. Information on accommodation appeals and medical certificates is available here. Once I receive the verification of your eligibility for a makeup exam or quiz, a make-up exam will be scheduled approximately one week after the exam or quiz and will be the same format, but with different questions.

5.4         Final Grade

The final grade will be calculated according to the components shown in the breakdown. No grades will be rounded.

Component

Breakdown

Quizzes (3)

6% of final grade

Exams (2)

94% of final grade

5.5          Senate Policy

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%

2100–2990 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

 

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

Policy on Grade Rounding: Please note that although 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. To maximize your grade, do your best on each assessment within the course.

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. Neither the TA nor the instructor will re-grade questions or award points after the grades have been released.

6.0           Assessment / Evaluation Schedule

Exam/Quiz

Date

Location

Content

Value

Quiz 1

Feb 1

online

Units 1–3

2%

Exam 1

Feb 15

online

Units 1–5

40%

Quiz 2

Mar 15

online

Units 6–7

2%

Quiz 3

Mar 29

online

Units 8–9

2%

Exam 2

TBA

TBA

Units 6–11

54%

7.0  Lecture Schedule

Unit

Week

Topic

Readings

1

Jan 11

Introduction

Minda Ch. 1

2

Jan 18  

Similarity

Minda Ch. 2

3

Jan 25  

Knowledge and Memory

Minda Ch. 3

4

Feb 1    

Concepts and Categories

Minda Ch. 4

5

Feb 8

Language and Thinking

Minda Ch. 5

-

Feb 15  

Exam 1, Unit 1–5

Minda Ch 1–5

-

Feb 22

Reading week

---

6

Mar 1

Inference and Induction

Minda Ch. 6

7

Mar 8

Deductive Reasoning

Minda Ch. 7

8

Mar 15 

Context, Motivation, and Mood

Minda Ch. 8

9

Mar 22

Decision Making

Minda Ch. 9

10

Mar 29 

Problem Solving & Creativity

Minda Ch. 10

11

Apr 5

Expertise and Expert Thinking

Minda Ch. 11

-

TBA

Exam 2, Units 6–11

Minda Ch 6–11

8.0           Land Acknowledgment

We acknowledge that Western University is located on the traditional lands of the Anishinaabek, Haudenosaunee, Lūnaapéewak and Attawandaron peoples, on lands connected with the London Township and Sombra Treaties of 1796 and the Dish with One Spoon Covenant Wampum.

With this, we respect the longstanding relationships that Indigenous Nations have to this land, as they are the original caretakers. We acknowledge historical and ongoing injustices that Indigenous Peoples (e.g. First Nations, Métis and Inuit) endure in Canada, and we accept responsibility as a public institution to contribute toward revealing and correcting miseducation, as well as renewing respectful relationships with Indigenous communities through our teaching, research and community service.

9.0           Statement on Academic Offences

Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offences. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offences because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offence are described at the following link.

As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offences. 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.

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.

In classes that involve the use of a personal response system (PRS), data collected using the PRS will only be used in a manner consistent to that described in this outline. It is the instructor’s responsibility to make every effort to ensure that data remain confidential. However, students should be aware that as with all forms of electronic communication, privacy is not guaranteed. Your PRS login credentials are for your sole use only. Students attempting to use another student’s credentials to submit data through the PRS may be subject to academic misconduct proceedings.

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.

10.0      Policy on the Use of Exam Proctoring Software

When examinations and tests cannot be given in person (e.g., in courses coded as Distance Studies; in the event of a lockdown order), they may be conducted using either a monitoring platform such as Zoom or a remote proctoring service, such as Proctorio. If Zoom is used for exam invigilation, you will be required to keep your camera on for the entire session, hold up your student card for identification purposes, and share your screen with the invigilator if asked to do so at any time during the exam. The exam session using Zoom will not be recorded.*

If a remote proctoring service is used, the service will require you to provide personal information (including some biometric data). The session will be recorded. The instructor will alert you to the use of this software as close as possible to the start of the term, however, in the event that in-person exams are unexpectedly canceled, you may only be given notice of the use of a proctoring service a short time in advance. More information about remote proctoring is available in the Online Proctoring Guidelines. Please ensure you are familiar with any proctoring service’s technical requirements before the exam. Additional guidance is available at the following link: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/onlineproctorguidelines.pdf

* Please note that Zoom servers are located outside Canada. If you would prefer to use only your first name or a nickname to login to Zoom, please provide this information to the instructor in advance of the test or examination. See this link for technical requirements: https://support.zoom.us/hc/en-us  

11.0       Policy on Accommodation for Illness or Other Absences

Western’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found HERE :

The full policy for consideration for absences can be accessed HERE

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 must be submitted before the exam/coursework deadline in order to be valid. It 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

12.0      Contingency Plan for Return to Lockdown

In the event of a COVID-19 resurgence during the course that necessitates the course delivery moving away from face-to-face interaction, all remaining course content will be delivered entirely online, either synchronously (i.e., at the times indicated in the timetable) or asynchronously (e.g., posted on OWL for students to view at their convenience). The grading scheme will not change. Any remaining assessments will also be conducted online as determined by the course instructor.

13.0       Other Information

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

Student Development Services: www.sdc.uwo.ca

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

  • 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 Absence
  • Documentation
  • Academic Concerns
  • 2021-2022 Calendar References

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.

Policy on the Recording of Synchronous Sessions: Some or all of the remote learning sessions for this course (if scheduled) may be recorded. The data captured during these recordings may include your image, voice recordings, chat logs and personal identifiers (name displayed on the screen). 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.