Psychology
Unit Outine
Social and Cognitive Psychology
PSYC2206
Semester: 2
Campus: Crawley
Unit Coordinator: Donna Bayliss
This outline is the currently available version for this unit. Detailed information on unit
content and assessment may undergo modification before the time of delivery of the
unit. For the most up to date information students must consult material supplied to
enrolled students by the unit co-ordinator.
All material reproduced herein has been copied in accordance with and pursuant to a statutory licence administered
by Copyright Agency Limited (CAL), granted to the University of Western Australia pursuant to Part VB of the
Copyright Act 1968 (Cth).
Copying of this material by students, except for fair dealing purposes under the Copyright Act, is prohibited. For the
purposes of this fair dealing exception, students should be aware that the rule allowing copying, for fair dealing
purposes, of 10% of the work, or one chapter/article, applies to the original work from which the excerpt in this course
material was taken, and not to the course material itself
© The University of Western Australia 2001
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Introduction
The purpose of PSYC2206 is to introduce you to a number of key areas in cognitive
and social psychology, and to help you develop the skills that will enable you to
identify and pose a research question in psychology, and to design an experiment to
answer that question. Our aim is provide you with a broad coverage of these central
aspects of human behaviour, and to engage you in the current research being
conducted in these areas.
The unit is taught by lectures and tutorials. The purpose of the tutorials is to give you
the opportunity to apply the basic principles from the lectures and the textbooks, to
evaluate the research literature, and to gain practical experience in experimental
design and the preparation of a research report. The tutorials are therefore central in
teaching and learning in this unit. It is your responsibility to prepare for tutorial
classes and participate actively in them.
Broad learning outcomes
Outcomes
Assessment
Activity
Students will be able to:

explain the key ideas in cognitive and social psychology
covered in lectures and assigned readings;
Final Exam

appreciate the diversity of research methods in Final Exam
psychology and understand the information they provide; Lab Reports

distinguish data from interpretation, and understand the Final Exam
interdependence of experiment and theory;
Lab Reports

demonstrate an understanding of experimental design and Lab Reports
research methodology

appraise published psychological research papers;

summarise a body of psychological research and draw Lab Reports
conclusions from it;

present written summaries of scientific research;
Lab Reports

work productively with others in a small group;
Tutorial
Lab Reports
Participation
Advisable prior study
- PSYC1101, PSYC1102
Technical Requirements
- NA
2
Software Requirements
- NA
Contact details
Unit web site (may include Web CT URL): http://Webct.uwa.edu.au/
Name of Unit coordinator: Donna Bayliss
e-mail: donna@psy.uwa.edu.au
Phone: (08) 6488 3850
Fax: (08) 6488 1006
Consultation hours: By appointment
Unit structure summary
Lectures
Two weekly lectures will be given in the Social Science Lecture Theatre (G.139) in
the Social Sciences Building on Mondays from 9 to 9.45 am and Thursdays from 10
to 10:45 am. The lectures will be recorded with the University’s iLecture system and
can be accessed on WebCT.
The lectures will cover two major areas of psychology, (i) cognition and (ii) social
psychology. The lectures will cover contemporary research and findings in these
areas and the theories that help us to integrate and to understand these findings. The
lectures will begin with a broad coverage of the mechanisms that underlie human
cognition and then examine a number of areas of social behaviour for which these
mechanisms are important. The lectures will be given by Donna Bayliss (cognition),
Nicolas Fay (human language and communication), and Vance Locke (stereotypes
and group behaviour).
Tutorials
The tutorials in PSYC2206 are designed to give you a practical demonstration of
some of the key findings covered in the lectures. This will be done by conducting a
number of experiments relevant to the topics covered in lectures. You will then
analyse the results of these experiments and write them up as formal lab reports. The
aim of this is to develop your ability to access the research literature in psychology
and to integrate that information to identify a research question. The tutorials will
place a special focus on experimental design and the research methodology relevant to
each experiment. This is to enable you to obtain a deeper understanding of the
important aspects of experimental design, the dependence of research findings on the
methods used, and the relationship between behavioural measures and psychological
processes. The tutorials will engage you in active learning and give you the
opportunity to acquire (both working alone and as a member of a small group)
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specific and generic skills that will help you succeed in this unit and in others in your
course of study.
The success of the tutorials depends on active participation by all group members.
Tutorial attendance is required. If you are unable to attend a session, you should let
your tutor know, preferably before the scheduled session.
More specifically, the tutorials will help you to:





develop your skills of identifying and presenting a research question and
finding current literature relevant to the question;
develop your ability to critically evaluate psychological research;
develop your skills of designing an experiment to answer the research
question;
understand the importance of and gain practical experience in aspects of
experimental design such as stimulus construction, counterbalancing, and
randomisation;
develop generic skills of oral and written scientific communication and team
work;
You are required to enrol in a tutorial group through the Online Class Registration
System at the following URL: http://www.olcr.uwa.edu.au/
All tutorials will begin in the second week of semester (beginning July 30th). For
further information regarding enrolment please consult the student guide book
“Succeeding in Psychology” available from the front office.
Topics : For details of times and venues of all teaching sessions please consult the
university timetable at http://www.timetable.uwa.edu.au/
Lecture Topics
1
Introduction to the unit (DB)
2
The structure of memory (DB)
3
Characteristics of memory (DB)
4
Verbal STM (DB)
5
Visuo-spatial STM (DB)
6
Executive functioning (DB)
7
Problem solving (DB)
8
Reading (DB)
9
Speech perception (DB)
10 Attention 1 (DB)
11 Attention 2 (DB)
12 Inhibitory processing (DB)
13 Introduction to language (NF)
14 Language acquisition (NF)
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15 Language and the brain (NF)
16 Written communication (NF)
17 Interpersonal communication 1 (NF)
18 Interpersonal communication 2 (NF)
19 Listening (NF)
20 Non-verbal communication (NF)
21 Stereotypes (VL)
22
Implicit and explicit prejudice (VL)
23
Groups I: Social identity (VL)
24
Groups II: Deindividuation (VL)
25
Groups III: Intergroup relations (VL)
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Overview (DB)
Key:
DB = Dr. Donna Bayliss
NF = Dr. Nicolas Fay
VL = Dr. Vance Locke
References, resources and reading materials
There will be two textbooks for this unit, one that covers cognition, and one that
covers the aspects of social behaviour covered in the lectures and tutorials. The
purpose of the lectures is not to repeat the material in the texts but to help you to
understand the material. These textbooks will also be valuable for further study in
psychology. Copies of all books will be in the Reserve Collection of the Library.
The texts are:
Eysenck, M.W., & Keane, M.T. (2005). Cognitive Psychology: A Students Handbook
(5th ed.). East Sussex, UK: Psychology Press.
A text covering the relevant areas of social psychology will be produced. Please refer
to course materials provided at the commencement of the unit.
Unit web site
All enrolled students have access to the unit WebCT site (http://webct.uwa.edu.au).
This site will be used for notices, posting of supplementary course materials, email
and discussion. It is strongly recommended that you log onto this site on a regular
basis. The website should be used for all remote communication to the unit coordinator. Students are encouraged to pose questions about course content on the
discussion forum of the site so that all class members can view and contribute to the
discussion.
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Assessment Details
There are two pieces of written assessment required in the unit; one 1200 word
laboratory report based on the experiment conducted as part of the cognition tutorials,
and one 2000 word laboratory report based on the experiment conducted as part of the
social psychology tutorials. A mark will also be given for participation in the tutorials
which may include an oral presentation to the tutorial group.
All written work is to be handed in at the General Office with a completed cover
sheet, which includes a signed declaration that the work submitted for assessment is
your own, that the contributions of others have been properly acknowledged, and that
you have a copy of the assignment in your possession. Cover sheets can be picked up
from the General Office one week before the assignment is due.
Written assignments must be submitted by 9 am on the due date. A penalty for late
submission will be applied to all assignments received after the deadline without an
extension. Late submissions will be penalized by 5% of the available marks for each
day the assignment is late (this penalty will include weekends). Work submitted on
the due day but after the specified submission time will be recorded as one day late.
Requests for an extension of the deadline must be made to the second-year
coordinator, and must be accompanied by a medical certificate or other suitable
documentation. Extensions will be granted only when unexpected circumstances
prevent timely submission. Planned holidays or sporting trips, or clashing assignment
deadlines, are not grounds for granting an extension. When an extension is granted
both the student and the year coordinator must sign the form. The new deadline will
be 9 am on the specified date.
Your written assignments should include a word count of the body of the assignment,
excluding the Abstract (if applicable) and the Reference List. All written work must
use the American Psychological Association (APA) formatting style for reference
citation in the text and the list of references. The UWA Library has a guide to APA
style at the following URL:
http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/guides/citingsources/apa.html
Marked assignments will normally be available for collection from the General Office
three weeks after the submission deadline. A notice will be placed on the WebCT
Discussion Group when the marked assignments are available for collection.
Assessed Work
%
Timing
mark
Laboratory Report 1 (1200 words)
10%
Due Monday, 27th August at 9am
Laboratory Report 1 (2000 words)
25%
Due Monday, 1st October at 9am
Participation Mark
5%
Based on contribution to tutorials
Final Examination (2 hours)
60%
In final examination period: Date TBA
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Plagiarism
The University of Western Australia takes very seriously the matter of academic
misconduct by students and has policies in place that define misconduct (including
plagiarism) and the penalties that apply. The consequences for misconduct can be
severe, including exclusion from the university.
All students are expected to make themselves aware of the definitions and policies
relating to academic misconduct, found at the websites below, and with any additional
requirements or stipulations that may be provided by individual unit co-ordinators.
http://www.secretariat.uwa.edu.au/__data/page/20839/StuMiscondInfo.rtf
http://www.teachingandlearning.uwa.edu.au/tl/academic_conduct
When you obtain authority to log in to the unit website, you will se an online module
on academic conduct which you are strongly advised to complete in your own time.
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