NHPA's Psych Cup
New Hampshire colleges and universities are invited to enter teams in the first New Hampshire
Psychological Association’s Psych Cup. Psych Cup is held as part of the NHPA Annual Student
Convention.
WHAT IS PSYCH Cup?
Psych Cup is a quiz competition for teams of undergraduate students in Psychology. New Hampshire
colleges and universities will compete as teams to determine who can answer the most psych trivia
questions.
ELIGIBILITY
Teams of undergraduate students from any New Hampshire college or university. Team members must
not have completed the baccalaureate degree nor have taken graduate level courses in Psychology
(except 500 level courses open to undergraduates). Students must be enrolled full-time during the
current semester at the school represented. Team membership is open to students from all disciplines;
however, individual institutions may be more restrictive, at their discretion.
TEAMS
A team consists of four members, one alternate, and a coach. Coaches may be faculty members or
currently enrolled graduate students. NHPA will endeavor to assist schools in developing teams upon
request.
QUESTIONS FOR THE COMPETITION
Questions are obtained from a GRE-Psychology exam preparation resource. Item difficulty is like that of
items on the actual Psychology GRE, ranging from introductory to advanced. Efforts have been made to
write all questions this year as open-ended items, requiring one, two, or a few words to answer. Items
are selected, in approximately equal numbers, from an item pool covering the following areas:
Measurement [psychometrics, design, statistics], Behavioral neuroscience, Learning, Cognition,
Sensation/Perception, Social, Developmental, Personality, Abnormal, and General [history, the discipline
and practice of psychology, APA style, and other questions not readily classified into other categories
(e.g., I/0 psychology)]. In any of these categories questions may concern basic or applied knowledge,
and may concern either human or non-human sources of knowledge. Judges and moderators check the
items for accuracy and ambiguity prior to the competition.
MODERATORS AND JUDGES
Moderator and judge will be chosen from all New Hampshire institutions of higher education, including
participating schools, from the ranks of practicing professionals in the state, and NHPA membership; at
NHPA’s discretion. At least one judge will be assigned to rule on the appropriateness of the responses
when doubt arises. The ruling of the judge is final.
AWARDS
The winning team takes home the state trophy for display in their psychology department, until the
following year's competition. The winner of the Psych Cup will have first pick of hosting next year’s
student convention.
RULES OF THE COMPETITION
Questions will be presented to all teams. The moderator will read the question. Team members
wishing to answer the question will immediately buzz in. The moderator will identify the first team to
buzz in who will immediately answer the question for their team. The moderator will announce the
answer "correct" or "incorrect". If a team fails to buzz in within five seconds, fails to answer the
question immediately after buzzing in, gives an incorrect answer, or answers before being called upon,
the opportunity to correctly answer the question is lost for that team and the moderator shall address
the same question to the remaining teams. The next team will answer the question following the same
procedure. The preceding procedure will continue until the question is answered correctly or all teams
have had the opportunity to answer the question or pass. Teams will only be given one opportunity to
answer each question.
Questions will be repeated ONLY if deemed necessary by the moderator or a judge, so be sure to listen
to all questions carefully even if they are initially directed at another team. Questions will not be
routinely repeated at the request of a team member.
Team members may not confer on questions at any time, write questions down, or write answers
down. A response by any member of a team constitutes the team's response for that item. If a member
of the audience responds, the question will be thrown out and the next question read to the same team.
Team Coaches are not permitted to answer any questions.
At least one judge will rule on disputed or unclear responses. The moderator, judges, team members, or
team coaches may request a ruling. Judges and moderators will not be from the schools involved in the
game being judged or moderated. In all cases, the judges' rulings are final. One of the judges will keep
track of time for the halves.
A scorekeeper (who may be an audience volunteer agreeable to all teams) will keep score by tallying
points in a prominent place.
The competition will last for approximately 45 minutes. At the end of the competition time, the team
with the most points will be dubbed the Psych Cup winner. In the event of a tie, there will be a 5 minute
break and 10 item overtime. If the teams remain tied, there will be a 5 minute break followed by twoitem overtimes with no break until a winner emerges.