Psychology 3185G-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.

 

Revised Jan 11, 2022

 

WESTERN UNIVERSITY 

LONDON               CANADA 

Department of Psychology 

2021-2022 

Psychology 3185G  Section 001 

 

Research in Cognitive Psychology  

 

 

  • 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. 

 

Prerequisite(s): Psychology 2800E, Psychology 2810 and one of Psychology 2115A/B, Psychology 2134A/B, or Psychology 2135A/B, Psychology 2220A/B, Psychology 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 Psychology 2810), plus 60% or higher in one of Psychology 2115A/B, Psychology 2134A/B, Psychology 2135A/B, Psychology 2220A/B, Psychology 2221A/B, or Neuroscience 2000 also may enrol in this course. 

 

Extra Information: 2 lecture hours, 2 laboratory hours. 

 

Course Weight: 0.50 

 

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: Sonia Yasmin   

Office and Phone Number: https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/99691606470 // (613) 404-3809  

Office Hours: By appointment + Wednesdays from 2:00 pm to 3:00 pm  

Email: svarma6@uwo.ca  

 

Teaching Assistant:  

Office:  

Office Hours:  

Email:  

 

Time and Location of Classes:  Mondays and Wednesdays from 4:30 - 6:30 pm In-Person  at UCC-59 after January 31st. Prior to that will be over zoom https://westernuniversity.zoom.us/j/99691606470 //

 

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.

 

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

In lieu of a textbook we shall read recent papers from the cognitive psychology literature, listed below. 

 

4.0  COURSE OBJECTIVES & LEARNING OUTCOMES

 

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. 

 

 

 

Learning Outcome

Learning Activity

Assessment

Depth and Breadth of Knowledge.

  • Foster critical thinking
  • crystalize knowledge about human cognition  

 

 

Weekly readings and discussions

 

 

 

Weekly assignment

Knowledge of Methodologies.

  • Foster experience designing research
  • Extensive exposure to human cognition research paradigms. 

Research Paper workshop

Research Paper to submit

 

Application of Knowledge.

  • Knowledge translation related to research in cognitive

 

Oral Presentation workshop

Oral presentation given by students

 

 

5.0  EVALUATION

 

Brief weekly assignments will be worth 50% of the final course grade. A final Research Paper will be worth 25% and an oral presentation will be worth the remaining 25%.  An optional research paper can be submitted to replace the grade of the initial paper, provided the initial paper was submitted and received at least a 50%

 

Each week, students will read the assigned paper and either be assessed in class via a discussion where they will expected to ask and answer questions about the material, or via a 500 word written critique of the article which they must submit before the Wednesday class. The students are free to choose if they would like to be assessed in class or via written critique.  

The written research paper will be a 5 page review on a topic relevant to cognitive psychology. The students may select a topic of their choosing and then must review the topic by finding relevant research papers on this topic and summarizing the information 

The students will then present their research topic orally with an accompanying power point presentation. Presentations will be 8-10 minutes and will cover background and the main content of their research paper.

 

PLEASE NOTE: Because this is an essay course, as per Senate Regulations, you must pass the essay component to pass the course. That is, the average mark for your written assignments must be at least 50%. 

 

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. 

 

 

 

5.1 POLICY ON MISSING COURSEWORK

 

Missing assignments will receive a grade of 0

 

PLEASE NOTE: Because this is an essay course, as per Senate Regulations, you must pass the essay component to pass the course. That is, the average mark for your written assignments must be at least 50%.

 

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 for course grades within the Psychology Department is that they will be distributed around the following averages:

 

70%      1000-level to 2099-level courses

72%      2100-2999-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

 

Note that in the event that 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 and every assessment within the course.

 

6.0  ASSESSMENT/EVALUATION SCHEDULE

 

 

There is no final exam for this course. Rather, you will be assessed using weekly assignments (see class schedule below), an oral presentation (Slides for Oral Presentation March 21st  (presentations between March 21st  and March 30th  ), and a research paper (due March 9h). You will also have the opportunity to submit another research paper, which can replace the grade of the original paper for your final grade calculation (submissions allowed up till end of term). This paper can only be submitted if an original research paper, achieving a grade over 50%, was submitted on March 9th

For weekly assignment dates, see class schedule below) 

 

7.0  CLASS SCHEDULE

 

January 10rd ……… Introduction 

January12th ……… How to read a paper

January 17th…….. Zeki, S., Aglioti, S., McKeefry, D, Berlucchi, G. (1999) The neurological basis of conscious color perception in a blind patient. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the USA 96:14124–14129. [PDF] 

January 19nd……..Assignment 1 due  

January 24th……… Grossenbacher and Lovelace (2001). Mechanisms of synesthesia: cognitive and physiological constrains. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 5:36-41. [PDF] 

January 26th……….Assignment 2 due 

January 31st………….. Amedi, A., Malach, R., Hendler, T., Peled, S, Zohary, E. (2001). Visuo-haptic object related activation in the ventral visual pathway. Nature Neuroscience. [PDF] 

February 2nd………….. Assignment 3 due 

February 7th…………. Wikman, P., Sahari, E., Salmela, V., Leminen, A., Leminen, M., Laine, M., &  Alho, K. (2021). Breaking down the cocktail party: Attentional modulation of cerebral audiovisual  speech processing. NeuroImage, 224, 117365. [PDF] 

February 9th…………. Assignment 4 due 

February 14th………….. Sadato, N., Pascual-Leone, A., Grafman, J., Ibanez, V., Deiber, M-P, Dold, G., & Hallett, M. (1996). Activation of the primary visual cortex by by Braille reading in blind suibjects. Nature, 380, 526-528. [PDF] 

February 16th…………Assignment 5 due 

February 21th…………. No Class for Reading Week. Have fun J  

February 23rd…………. No Class for Reading Week. Have fun J  

February 28th ………… Research paper workshop

March 2nd …………. Research paper workshop

March 7th………….. Lin, W., Tong, T., Gao, Q., Guo, D., Du, X., Yang, Y., ... & Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative. (2018). Convolutional neural networks-based MRI image analysis for the Alzheimer’s disease prediction from mild cognitive impairment. Frontiers in neuroscience, 12, 777. [PDF] 

March 9th…………Assignment 6 due (optional)// Research Paper due 

March 14th………… Kersten, D., Yuille, A. (2003) Bayesian models of object perception. Current Opinion in Neurobiology 13:150 – 158. [PDF] 

March 16th…………Assignment 7 due 

March 21st………… King, D. L., & Delfabbro, P. H. (2014). The cognitive psychology of Internet gaming disorder. Clinical psychology review, 34(4), 298-308.[PDF] 

March 23rd  ………… Assignment 8 due 

March 28th………… Oral Presentations 

March 30th ………… Oral Presentations 

April 4th ………… Oral Presentations 

April 8th ………… Oral Presentations 

 

 

 

8.0  Land Acknowledgement

 

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: 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 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 (http://www.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 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

 

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:

  1. Submitting a Self-Reported Absence form (for circumstances that are expected to resolve within 48 hours);
  2. 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 hoursafter the end of the period covered by either the self-reported absence or SMC, or immediately upon their return following a documented absence

 

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.

 

12.0 Contingency Plan for Return to Lockdown: IN-Person & Blended classes

 

In the event of a COVID-19 resurgence or any other event 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      STATEMENTS CONCERNING ONLINE ETIQUETTE

 

In courses involving online interactions, the Psychology Department expects students to honour the following rules of etiquette:

  • please “arrive” to class on time
  • please use your computer and/or laptop if possible (as opposed to a cell phone or tablet)
  • please ensure that you are in a private location to protect the confidentiality of discussions in the event that a class discussion deals with sensitive or personal material
  • to minimize background noise, kindly mute your microphone for the entire class until you are invited to speak, unless directed otherwise
  • In classes larger than 30 participants please turn off your video camera for the entire class unless you are invited to speak
  • In classes of 30 students or fewer, where video chat procedures are being used, please be prepared to turn your video camera off at the instructor’s request if the internet connection becomes unstable
  • Unless invited by your instructor, do not share your screen in the meeting

 

The course instructor will act as moderator for the class and will deal with any questions from participants. To participate please consider the following:

  • If you wish to speak, use the “raise hand” function and wait for the instructor to acknowledge you before beginning your comment or question.
  • Please remember to unmute your microphone and turn on your video camera before speaking.
  • Self-identify when speaking.
  • Please remember to mute your mic and turn off your video camera after speaking (unless directed otherwise).

 

General considerations of “netiquette”:

  • Keep in mind the different cultural and linguistic backgrounds of the students in the course.
  • Be courteous toward the instructor, your colleagues, and authors whose work you are discussing.
  • Be respectful of the diversity of viewpoints that you will encounter in the class and in your readings. The exchange of diverse ideas and opinions is part of the scholarly environment. “Flaming” is never appropriate.
  • Be professional and scholarly in all online postings. Use proper grammar and spelling. Cite the ideas of others appropriately.

 

Note that disruptive behaviour of any type during online classes, including inappropriate use of the chat function, is unacceptable. Students found guilty of Zoom-bombing a class or of other serious online offenses may be subject to disciplinary measures under the Code of Student Conduct.

 

14.0 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:

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

- 2021-2022 Calendar References

 

If you wish to appeal a grade, please read the policy documentation at: https://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/appealsundergrad.pdf

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

 

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.