Spring 2015 Psychology 971bb
Sophomore Tutorial
Instructor
Moira (Molly) Dillon
WJH 1132
mdillon@fas.harvard.edu*
Course Meeting
Course Website
Tuesdays 2PM-4PM, WJH 950
Psychology 971bb
*The best way to reach me is by email. I should respond within 24 hours, though likely I will
respond much more quickly than that. If you don’t hear from me in 24 hours, just wait longer.
I will be the instructor for this course. Nevertheless, you are welcome to share any questions or
concerns during the term with Head Tutor Mahzarin Banaji (mahzarin_banaji@harvard.edu) or
Undergraduate Program administrator Laura Chivers (lchivers@wjh.harvard.edu).
______________________________________________________________________________
Course Description
Sophomore Tutorial is designed to help you think, write, and communicate like a psychologist.
By the end of this course, you should have the intellectual foundations to: understand the
questions, methods, and results in primary research articles in psychology; communicate this
understanding both orally and in writing; reflect on psychological findings to offer possible
alternative explanations; make predictions based on these explanations.
Each week, we will read ~3 primary research articles and/or reviews from a variety of
psychological domains. These will serve as the topic of our writing and discussion. You work
will culminate in a thoroughly researched and creative Sophomore Essay. This course promises
to offer you intellectual vigor, stimulating discussion, and a safe haven for the development of
your knowledge and skillset in psychology.
Think BIG
A complete account of any psychological phenomenon draws on events and explanations at three
levels of analysis: Brain; Individual; and Group. Events at these different levels are aspects of
the same entity, and as such these events affect one another. Explanations at different levels, on
the other hand, may not interact: it may be beneficial to adopt an explanation at one level of
analysis depending on the goal of the explanation. Engaging a BIG approach will not only
prepare you for later courses and research in the department, but also allow you to see how
different areas of psychology may or may not cohere. Readings for each week will focus on at
least two of these levels:
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Brain: The “level of the brain” addresses the physical mechanisms that underlie mental
processes and behavior (ranging from genetic to biochemical to neural to
information processing).
Individual: The “level of the individual” addresses the content of mental processes and
behavior (ranging from beliefs to goals to motivations and attitudes).
Group: The “level of the group” addresses the effects of the social surround (ranging
from dyads to small groups to communities to culture in the broadest sense of the
term).
Policies
Attendance is mandatory. Any unexcused absence will result in a 0 for your participation grade
on that day. You will incur no penalty for an excused absence (i.e., a medical or family
emergency), so long as it is accompanied by the appropriate documentation (e.g., a note from
your physician or resident tutor). More than one excused absence, however, will require making
up missed work with an assignment of my choice. Please keep in mind that it is hard for this
course to function if students miss class. As such, lateness is equally as problematic. You are
allowed one late arrival (i.e., arriving after the 7-minute transfer period), after which all further
late arrivals will count as unexcused absences.
Late Assignments will be penalized. All assignments are due no later than 11:59PM on the day
before class. One grade level (“levels” are dependent on the particular assignment – see below)
will be deducted for each day late (e.g., a ✓will drop to a ✓-; a B+ will drop to a B). Assignments
will not be accepted more than three days after the due date (thus resulting in a 0). The final
Sophomore Essay may not be turned in late.
Plagiarism is not allowed. Two important goals of this course are to develop your critical
thinking skills and to practice your academic writing in the domain of psychology. To measure
your achievement of these goals, I must see both your original ideas and your ability to properly
cite the ideas of others. Any portion of your writing which draws on an outside source must
follow APA citation guidelines (6th edition). Failure to document your sources or acknowledge
collaboration is an ethical lapse that can have serious consequences. Please note that poor
citation does not have to be intentional to be considered plagiarism.
For a complete description of what constitutes plagiarism, please see the Harvard Guide to Using
Sources.
In addition, the Harvard College Handbook offers a chapter on academic dishonesty.
That being said, collaboration is encouraged. You may consult with your classmates while
completing assignments for this course, including sharing ideas and getting suggestions and
feedback. However, you should ensure that anything you submit for evaluation is the result of
your own research and writing.
Accessibility is available. If you need academic adjustments or accommodations, please provide
me with a letter from the Accessible Education Office (AEO) by the second week of class. All
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discussions will remain confidential, although AEO may be consulted to discuss appropriate
implementation.
You may eat and drink during class as long as it is not disruptive. If I feel that it is disruptive, I
will ask you to put your food or drink away. Laptops/tablets/phones are not allowed. Please
print out the assigned readings and bring them with you.
Grading
20% Participation is comprised of one grade per class (each worth 1.67% x 12 classes). Your
participation grade will be determined by the following criteria:
 Are you on time and prepared for class, having completed your reading and
having prepared your discussion starters (see below)?
 Are you engaged and did you make an intellectual contribution to class?
 Are you acting respectfully towards others?
40% Response Worksheets/Narratives is comprised of 4 written responses (each worth 10%; see
below). Your grades will adhere to the following rubric:
 ✓+: Demonstrated an exemplary understanding of the paper’s main arguments and
empirical findings.
 ✓: Demonstrated a clear understanding of the paper’s main arguments and
empirical findings.
 ✓-: Missed key aspects of the paper’s main arguments and empirical findings.
40% Sophomore Essay is comprised of five separate assignments: two one-page proposals (5%);
a 5-minute presentation (5%); an annotated bibliography (5%); a full draft (5%); the final paper
(20%). See below for further details.
Library Resources
Throughout the semester, I will expect your research skills to improve. The Psychology
Undergraduate Office will email you about a required library session in Lamont Library, in
which you will receive information about how to use Psych Info (a specialized psychology
search engine) and other helpful research tools. This 1-hour session will be scheduled outside of
class.
Assignments Details
All written assignments must use 12-pt. Times New Roman Font. Please double-space all text
and use one-inch margins. Submit only Word documents, not PDFs: I will be using Word track
changes to provide you with feedback.
Discussion Starters must be prepared, written out on the course website (under “Weekly
Discussion”), and brought to each class. They must include a 2-to-3 sentence reaction to each
reading, which might elucidate an interesting connection among them, possible extensions or
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applications of their findings, comments about a particularly clever experimental design, reasons
why the authors’ conclusions do not follow from their results, alternative explanations for certain
findings, methodological flaws or other criticisms, or a proposal for a study that could be
conducted to clarify the nature of a finding. At the beginning of each class, I will call on as few
as one or as many as all of you to read your discussion starters for any reading. If you do not
have your discussion starters prepared and with you to read in class when you are called on, then
you will receive a participation grade of 0 for that day.
Response Worksheets/Narratives will take the form of an adapted QALMRI, which is a method
we will use to extract key information contained in primary research articles. For these
assignments, you will select one of the assigned readings (options are marked by an * in the
reading list below) and answer a series of questions about it, including the Question the
researchers were investigating, the hypothesis and other possible Alternative answers to the
question, the Logic linking the question to the Method they used, the Results they obtained, and
the Inferences that can be drawn from their findings. A template worksheet is available for
download on the course website. For the first two QALMRI assignments (Worksheets), you
should respond in full sentences to each question in the worksheet, directly under it. In QALMRI
assignments 3 & 4 (Narratives), you should generate one complete narrative, which incorporates
the answer to each question. This transition from short answers to full narratives will train you to
incorporate the necessary scientific information in a narrative format, which is required in your
Sophomore Essay.
Sophomore Essay is a 15-page paper (not counting the title page, abstract, or references) that
serves as the capstone of this course. The essay should make an original contribution to
psychology. Three kinds of contributions are possible:
 Research proposal: Describe a phenomenon that has not previously been studied or that
would benefit from additional research. Review relevant literature, design an experiment
or experiments to test your ideas, predict results, and discuss the implications of the
proposed research. If your proposal has great merit, it could provide the groundwork for a
senior thesis.
 Literature integration: Identify two distinct literatures that you feel could be fruitfully
integrated. Review each area, describe how they could be combined, and discuss the
insights afforded by such crosstalk.
 Evaluation of two or more existing theories for a phenomenon: Review the theories and
the data supporting each. State which theory or combination of theories is most
convincing and why.
This assignment will be down into 5 smaller pieces:
 Two One-Page Proposals: These proposals will be the first bit of writing you produce en
route to your final paper. They should each state a main argument and the literature you
would use to support the argument. You must provide citations (APA format) to at least 5
primary research articles. I will provide feedback on these 2 topics and you must come
see me before deciding on what topic to write about. Some ideas might sound exciting,
but might not be tractable topics for this assignment.
 Five-minute Presentation: After receiving feedback on your proposals and choosing your
topic, you will prepare a 5-minute presentation of your topic and argument to deliver to
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the class. You may use slides during this presentation, though these are not required. If
you decide to use slides, they must be sent to me by 11:59PM the day before class. I will
confirm with you that they work on my computer. If you do not send me slides by the
designated time, you will not be allowed to use them during your presentation. This
assignment will allow you to receive further feedback on your ideas and the structure of
your argument not only from me, but also from your peers.
Annotated Bibliography: After receiving feedback on your presentation, you will prepare
an annotated bibliography including at least 15 primary research articles (those references
that you intend to use in your final paper). Instead of using traditional APA format
(where references are listed in alphabetical order), I would like you to list the references
in the order they will appear in the text. In addition, they should indicate under what
section of the paper they will appear (e.g., “Introduction” or “Conclusion”). For each
reference, use one paragraph to indicate the information you will extract (in your own
words) and what this research adds to your argument. If references appear in more than
one section of your paper, then include an entry for each time they appear.
Full Draft: After receiving feedback on both your proposal and your presentation, you
will prepare a full 15-page draft of your paper. The draft should use in-text citations and a
reference list (consisting of at least 15 primary research articles), all in APA format.
Final Paper: After receiving feedback on your draft, you will prepare a polished 15-page
final paper. The final paper should use in-text citations and a reference list (consisting of
at least 15 primary research articles) in APA format. Two hard copies, along with your
tutorial evaluation must be handed in on Monday, May 4, 2015. Please also email a copy
of your paper to me. Note that the Undergraduate Office handles the submission of the
Sophomore Essay, so I have no power to grant extensions or exceptions. The Office
rarely grants extensions and only in extreme circumstances; they require advanced
documentation of a serious issue from a Resident Dean.
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Course Schedule
Week 1
Date
Topic
Turn-in Assignment
2/3
Introduction
N/A
Unit I: The origins of knowledge
Week 2
2/10
Friends or foes?
QALMRI #1 - Worksheet
Week 3
2/17
What or where?
QALMRI #2 - Worksheet
Week 4
2/24
Say what?!
Proposal
Week 5
3/3
How many?
QUALMRI #3 - Narrative
3/10
Interlude
Presentations/
Stylish psychology I
Presentations
Week 6
SPRING BREAK
Week 7
3/24
Stylish psychology II
QUALMRI #4 – Narrative:
any paper with a * that you
haven’t already written on
Unit II: What you (think you) want
Week 8
3/31
Je t’aime, moi non plus
Annotated bibliography
Week 9
4/7
Expect the unexpected
N/A
Unit III: Ancient brain in a modern world
Week 10
4/14
Myths of multitasking
Full Draft
Week 11
4/21
Fat chance
Meetings
4/28
Cro-Magnon shared a link on
your timeline
Final Paper due 5/4 !!!
Week 12
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Reading List (by week and in the suggested order)
American Psychological Association. (2009). Publication manual of the American Psychological
Association (6th ed.), Washington, DC: American Psychological Association Press.
The Supplemental APA Style Guide for e-Resources
Carson, S. H, Fama, J. M., & Clancy, K. (2008). Writing for psychology at Harvard: A guide for
psychology concentrators. Cambridge: The President and Fellows of Harvard University
Week 1 Introduction
Harvard University (2011, October 13). The Cognitive Revolution [Video file]. Video posted to
the course website or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AeoyzqmyWug
Kosslyn, S.M. & Rosenberg, R.S. (2001). How to read, critically evaluate, and write research
papers (Appendix B, pp. 605-610). Psychology: The brain, the person, the world.
Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.
QALMRI handout. (Adapted from: Kosslyn, S.M. & Rosenberg, R.S. (2001). Psychology: The
brain, the person, the world. Needham Heights, MA: Allyn & Bacon.)
Kinzler, K.D., Dupoux, E., & Spelke, E.S. (2007). The native language of social cognition. The
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 104,
12577-12580.
Week 2 Friends or foes?
Hamlin, J., Wynn, K., & Bloom, P. (2007). Social evaluation by preverbal infants, Nature, 450,
557-560.
*Kinzler, K.D., Dupoux, E., & Spelke, E.S. (2007). The native language of social
cognition. The Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of
America, 104, 12577-12580.
Christakis, N. A., & Fowler, J. H. (2007). The spread of obesity in a large social network over 32
years. New England journal of medicine, 357(4), 370-379.
Week 3 What or where?
*Maguire, E. A., Gadian, D. G., Johnsrude, I. S., Good, C. D., Ashburner, J., Frackowiak, R. S.,
& Frith, C. D. (2000). Navigation-related structural change in the hippocampi of taxi
drivers. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 97(8), 4398-4403.
*Dillon, M. R., Huang, Y., & Spelke, E. S. (2013). Core foundations of abstract geometry.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 110(35), 14191-14195.
*Izard, V., Pica, P., Spelke, E. S., & Dehaene, S. (2011). Flexible intuitions of Euclidean
geometry in an Amazonian indigene group. Proceedings of the National Academy of
Sciences, 108(24), 9782-9787.
Week 4 Say what?!
Vargha-Khadem, F., Gadian, D. G., Copp, A., & Mishkin, M. (2005). FOXP2 and the
neuroanatomy of speech and language. Nature Reviews Neuroscience, 6(2), 131-138.
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Kuhl, P. K., Tsao, F. M., & Liu, H. M. (2003). Foreign-language experience in infancy: Effects
of short-term exposure and social interaction on phonetic learning. Proceedings of the
National Academy of Sciences, 100(15), 9096-9101.
Pullum, G. K. (1989). The great Eskimo vocabulary hoax. Natural Language & Linguistic
Theory, 275-281.
Week 5 How many?
*Halberda, J., Mazzocco, M. M., & Feigenson, L. (2008). Individual differences in non-verbal
number acuity correlate with maths achievement. Nature, 455(7213), 665-668.
Hyde, J. S., Lindberg, S. M., Linn, M. C., Ellis, A. B., & Williams, C. C. (2008). Gender
similarities characterize math performance. Science, 321(5888), 494-495.
Butterworth, B. (2010). Foundational numerical capacities and the origins of dyscalculia. Trends
in cognitive sciences, 14(12), 534-541.
Week 6 Presentations/Stylish psychology II
Pinker, S. (2014). The Curse of Knowledge. The Sense of Style: The Thinking Person’s Guide to
Writing in the 21st Century
Week 7 Stylish psychology
Bem, D. J. (1995). Writing a review article for Psychological Bulletin. Psychological Bulletin,
118, 172-177.
Two Sample Sophomore Essays
Week 8 Je t’aime, moi non plus
*Gangestad, S. W., Simpson, J. A., Cousins, A. J., Garver-Apgar, C. E., & Cristensen, P. N.
(2004). Women’s preferences for male behavioral displays change across the menstrual
cycle. Psychological Science, 15, 203-207.
Insel, T. R., & Young, L. J. (2001). The neurobiology of attachment. Nature Reviews
Neuroscience, 2(2), 129-136.
*Whitchurch, E.R., Wilson, T.D., & Gilbert, D.T. (2011). He loves me, he loves me not: The
effects of uncertainty on romantic attraction. Psychological Science, 22, 172-175.
Week 9 Expect the unexpected
Nosek, B. A., Greenwald, A. G., & Banaji, M. R. (2007). The Implicit Association Test at age 7:
A methodological and conceptual review. Social psychology and the unconscious: The
automaticity of higher mental processes, 265-292.
Quoidbach, J., Gilbert, D. T., & Wilson, T. D. (2013). The end of history illusion. Science,
339(6115), 96-98.
Week 10 Myth of multitasking
Hembrooke, H., & Gay, G. (2003). The laptop and the lecture: The effects of multitasking in
learning environments. Journal of Computing in Higher Education, 15(1), 46-64.
Ophir, E., Nass, C., & Wagner, A. D. (2009). Cognitive control in media multitaskers.
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106(37), 15583-15587.
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Sanbonmatsu, D. M., Strayer, D. L., Medeiros-Ward, N., & Watson, J. M. (2013). Who multitasks and why? Multi-tasking ability, perceived multi-tasking ability, impulsivity, and
sensation seeking. PloS one, 8(1), e54402.
Week 11 Fat chance
It’s Okay To Be Smart (2013, December 23). Why Do We Cook? [Video file]. Video posted to
the course website or https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wpfwu__PF7Y
Wells, J. C. (2006). The evolution of human fatness and susceptibility to obesity: an ethological
approach. Biological Reviews, 81(2), 183-205.
Wrangham, R., & Conklin-Brittain, N. (2003). Cooking as a biological trait. Comparative
Biochemistry and Physiology Part A: Molecular & Integrative Physiology, 136(1), 35-46.
Week 12 Cro-Magnon shared a link on your timeline
Brains on Trial (2013, July 22). The limits of fMRI Brain Scanning with Alan Alda and Dr.
Nancy Kanwisher, MIT [Video file]. Video posted to the course website or
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=stHBPxtVaCI
Dunbar, R. I., & Shultz, S. (2007). Evolution in the social brain. Science, 317(5843), 1344-1347.
Saxe, R., & Kanwisher, N. (2003). People thinking about thinking people: the role of the
temporo-parietal junction in “theory of mind”. Neuroimage, 19(4), 1835-1842.
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