Instructor: Jennifer Wiley
Office: 1054B BSB Phone: (312) 355-2501 Email: jwiley@uic.edu
Office Hours: Monday 12-1 or by appointment
TA: Matthew Rac
Office: 2068 BSB email: matthewrac@gmail.com
Office Hours: 3-4 MW or by appointment
Purpose of Course
The purpose of this course is to give students first-hand experience
with experimentation in cognition.
For the first part of the course, students will gain experience in running experiments in attention, memory, text comprehension and problem solving. For each experiment, students will act as participants and then take the role of researchers responsible for entering and interpreting data, and reporting experimental results in APA format. Students will learn the background for each experiment by reading original research articles, discussing the articles in terms of the ideas that they use to predict results, and examining how those predictions relate to our own results. Students will have hands-on experience with data collection, data entry in Excel, data analysis in SPSS and guided instruction on writing each section of the APA style report. At the end of the semester, students (either alone or in pairs) will be responsible for researching a topic of their choice, designing their own cognitive experiment, collecting data, analyzing data, writing a final APA style manuscript, and presenting results in the form of a poster at the end-of-semester poster fair.
This class is designed to be of interest to students who may be considering graduate school in psychology, but it will be useful to any student who enjoys the topics of human learning, memory and problem solving, and wants to better understand the nature of cognitive research. More generally, a background in cognitive experimentation is good experience for students who are considering a wide range of careers including cognitive science, education, law, business, medicine, and neuroscience.
Readings
Journal Articles:
Assigned readings will be original journal articles that will be assigned
once students have participated in each experiment. They will available
through UICCAT online journal subscriptions.
Strongly Recommended Text:
American Psychological Association. (2000). Publication Manual of the
American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author.
All of your assignments MUST conform to APA style. This publication manual is recommended but not required for purchase. If you are considering pursuing a graduate degree in psychology, you might as well buy it now. For others, this book is on reserve at the library. If you do decide to buy it, online merchants (e.g., Amazon.com, Borders.com) are usually cheaper than the UIC bookstore.
Grading
Grades will be determined by the following breakdown
20% Participation
in Experiments (4 classic experiments and 3 data collection days)
20% Quizzes on Readings
(4 quizzes)
5% Written
Assignment 1
10% Written Assignment
2
10% Written Assignment
3
5% Reference
Presentation
10% Written Assignment
4
20% Project Proposal
and Final Report, Poster Presentation
No make-up quizzes will be given.
No late papers will be accepted.
In case of emergencies, contact the instructor as soon as possible.
Students with Disabilities: Reasonable accommodations will be made, but requests must be made during the first week of class. Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Office of Disability Services (ODS). Please contact ODS at 312/413-2103 or 312/413-0123.
Campus Policy on Observance of Religious Holidays
The faculty of the University of Illinois at Chicago shall make every
effort to avoid scheduling examinations or requiring that student projects
be turned in or completed on religious holidays. Students who wish to observe
their religious holidays shall notify the faculty member by the tenth
day of the semester of the date when they will be absent unless the
religious holiday is observed on or before the tenth day of the semester.
In such cases, the student shall notify the faculty member at least five
days in advance of the date when he/she will be absent. The faculty member
shall make every reasonable effort to honor the request, not penalize the
student for missing the class, and if an examination or project is due
during the absence, give the student an exam or assignment equivalent to
the one completed by those students in attendance. If the student feels
aggrieved, he/she may request remedy through the campus grievance procedure.
Plagiarism/Cheating:
Plagiarism is defined as the use (or submission) of another’s ideas,
thoughts, or writing, without proper acknowledgment (quotation marks and
citations). If you are ever unsure about what constitutes plagiarism, attend
office hours and ask for guidance. When you are composing a new research
paper and reading and discussing other research papers in it, be sure to
use your own words to describe the gist of other studies or other author's
explanations. Make sure that you discuss other papers in a way that
supports the point you are making in your own paper. This is one good way
to avoid reiterating someone else's words. If you must use a direct
quote or wording from a paper you are reading, then use quotation marks.
It is rare that you should have to do this in writing research papers,
except for when you are describing exact instructions that were given in
previous experiments. For the most part, you should be paraphrasing or
summarizing other articles. Under these circumstances, do not use quotation
marks, but when describing what was found in a previous study or suggested
by a previous author, you must cite the source.
You may also discuss our readings, experiments and findings with other students in the course. But, be sure to write your own assignments. Do not share your writing assignments with other students or copy other student's assignments or tests.
Any form of plagiarism or cheating will not be tolerated. Students who are found to have plagiarized work or cheat on any assignment may be subject to various disciplinary actions including a failing grade on the particular assignment, failure of the entire course, and possible expulsion from the University. For more information about the violation of Academic Integrity and its consequences please see the UIC Department of Student Judicial Affairs (http://www.uic.edu/depts /sja/integrit.htm).
Course Schedule
Jan 14
Introductory remarks, Review of Syllabus, Overview of Class
Discussion of Four Key Questions for each experiment we discuss (note:
these are the questions for each quiz):
1. What is the main question?
2. How did they test it? What manipulation(IV) was done to what task(DV)?
3. What happened to the DV?
4. What does this mean? (Or what did the authors say it meant?)
Jan 16
Participate in Experiment 1
Reading Assignment 1: Yaxley
& Zwaan
Jan 21 Holiday
Jan 23
Quiz on Reading Assignment 1 (see 4 key questions above)
How to read a journal article
Walk through article, background, and predictions for Experiment 1
Overview of APA Style, Manuscript
Order,
Example Title Page/Abstract
Short Lecture on APA
Style for Title Page & Abstract
Jan 28
Intro to SPSS, Descriptive & Inferential Statistics, Worksheet
Analyze Data
Writing Assignment 1: Title Page and Abstract for Study 1
Grading
Checklist for Writing Assignment 1
Jan 30
Writing Assignment 1 Due (Through Email directly
to Matt matthewrac@gmail.com)
Please send as WORD document before class.
Participate in Experiment 2 Instructions
Stimuli: List
1 List
2
Lecture on APA
Style for Method & Reference section
Example Method
and References
Take notes on method from Experiment 2
Reading Assignment 2: Carmichael,
Hogan & Walter, 1932
Carmichael, L., Hogan, H.P., & Walter, A.A (1932). An experimental study of the effect of language on the reproduction of visually perceived form. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 15, 73-86.
Feb 4
Quiz on reading (see 4 key questions above)
Walk through article, background, and predictions for study
Data from
Experiment 2
Reliability
Analysis Worksheet
Start data coding
Get Reliability to > .90 before leaving class
Feb 6 Enter/Analyze data from Study 2 with Worksheet
Feb 11 Participate
in Experiment 3
How to run
an experiment
Experiment Assignment: Run three other people in this study
Writing Assignment 2 -- Abstract, Title, Method, References and Figure/Appendix
Grading
Checklist for Writing Assignment 2
Reading Assignment: Bialystock.
Also optional backgroundreading
Feb 13 No class meeting -- run three other people in Experiment 3
Feb 18 Writing
Assignment 2 Due (Through Blackboard)
Quiz on reading (see 4 key questions above)
Walk through article, background, predictions
Code Data
Enter Data/Analyze as a group
Feb 20 Lecture
on APA
Style Results section, Tables and Figures
How
to make Graphs in Excel
Data from Exp 3 Excel
Writing Assignment 3 -- Title, Abstract, Results,
References, Table or Figure
Grading
Checklist for Writing Assignment 3
Participate in Experiment 4
Reading Assignment 4: Harp
& Mayer 1997
Feb 25 Writing
Assignment 3 Due (Through Blackboard)
Quiz on Reading (see 4 key questions above)
Walk through article, background, predictions
Code/Analyze data Excel
PDFS
How to write
an Introduction and Discussion
Example Appendix
Feb 27 How
to find papers on PSYCINFO/ERIC/Google Scholar/Web of Science (with worksheet)
Find a related article for Experiment 4 to summarize for the class.
Mar 3
Reference Presentations: Summarize an article for the class
(5 minutes or less per student)
Writing Assignment 4: title, abstract, intro, discussion & reference
section.
(Your paper must cite 3 journal articles in the introductory section)
Grading
checklist for Writing Assignment 4
Mar 5
Finish Reference Presentations, if needed
How to pick a project - Project
worksheet
How to write a proposal
Sample
Proposal
Assignment: Decide on a project (you can either work alone or with a partner)
Complete one worksheet per project
When worksheet complete email to instructor and if acceptable, she will
schedule meeting.
Mar 10,12 Writing Assignment 4 Due (Through
Blackboard)
Meetings with Instructor on Proposed Projects
Mar 17,19 Meetings with TA to proof and finalize Experiment Materials and Running Procedure
Mar 21 Full
written proposal due (Through Blackboard)
Proposal including FINAL and EXACT COPIES of running materials must be
submitted.
Proposal
AND FINAL PAPER Grading Sheet
Mar 31 (No Class)
Apr 2 Participate in Data Collection
Apr 7 Participate in Data Collection
Apr 9 Discussion
how to revise into Final
Reports (Full APA Style Papers)
Data distributed
Begin to enter/code data with worksheets
Graded Proposals Returned
Apr 14 How
to make a poster
How to present
your poster (GRADING SHEET FOR POSTER AND ORAL PRESENTATION)
Proposal
AND FINAL PAPER Grading Sheet
2057 available for Statistical Analysis
Apr 16 2057 available for Stats/poster -- be sure to check your analysis with Dr. Wiley
Apr 21 Applying
to Grad School and Letters of Recommendation; Sample
Vita
Poster Boards available.
2057 is available for Poster prep.
If you get approval of your poster, you do not need to attend class on
Wednesday.
Be sure to make an appointment with Dr. Wiley if you have questions about
your proposal. (if your questions are about APA style, please ask
Matt)
Apr 23 2057
available for Poster Prep.
Get approval of draft of poster if you didn't get it on Monday.
Apr 28 Poster
Fair -- Final presentations in 1076 BSB.
Final Papers due (through blackboard) BUT BE SURE TO HAND IN HARD COPY
OF GRADED PROPOSAL
to recapture any lost points.
Final Report grading sheet
last updated 4.16.08
