Psychology 100A Section 1: Psychological Statistics
Spring 2014
Lectures:
Class: MW 3:30-4:45, Kinsey Pavilion 1220B
Discussion: (recommended) F 3:00-3:50, Kinsey Pavilion 1220B
Instructor:
Adi Jaffe
Office hours: By Appointment
Email: adi@ucla.edu
Teaching Assistants:
TBD
Ebook and Homework Website:
www.statstext.com is the required online text we will be using ($35 for a 3 month
subscription).
Friday discussion sections:
There will be no new material introduced in the Friday discussion sections but you will get
a chance to integrate and improve your understanding of the topics. Many students find section
helpful!
Exam preparation support:
There will be a review for each midterm from 5-6:30 on the day before the midterm. In
addition, there will be online support from 8pm to 9:30 pm on the day before the exam. There
will either be immediate email response, or there may be an online chat to answer questions.
Overview:
In this course, we will cover the basic data-analysis concepts and procedures used by
research psychologists. The course will briefly review ways of describing data (descriptive
statistics) and methods of evaluating hypotheses and testing psychological theories (inferential
statistics). Examples will be drawn almost exclusively from the psychological literature.
Specific topics include correlation, t-tests, and ANOVA.
Course Requirements and Grading:
It is very important that you attend all classes in order to keep up with the material.
Your grade will depend on your performance on the midterms and final exams. If you miss
some lectures and get lost, you will be in serious trouble because concepts build on other
concepts. Statistics is cumulative but the exams emphasize recent materials. All exam material
will come from lectures.
Grading basis:
Exam
Exam 1
Exam 2
Exam 3
Final
Homework
When
Wed Apr 16
(in class)
Wed May 7
(in class)
Wed May 28
(in class)
Thu Jun 12
(3:00-6:00)
See Schedule
Total Points
25
Format
(Not Cumulative) Multiple Choice
25
(Not Cumulative) Multiple Choice
25
(Not Cumulative) Multiple Choice
55
(Cumulative) Multiple Choice
10
6 Homework assignments (drop lowest)
Each worth 2 points
Course Schedule:
http://www.classtools.info/users/adija/Psych%20100a%20Sec%201.Spring%202014.html
Overhead lectures can be accessed at this page.
Grading:
As you will learn in the course, the distribution of scores can be described in a standardized
way. A Z-score is a standardized score which indicates how far a particular score is away from
the mean (or average) score in terms of standard deviations (a measure of how wide a
distribution is). Exam scores that are above the mean will have a positive Z-score, exam scores
below the mean will have a negative Z-score. Your total points in the course will be
transformed to a z score and that will be used as the basis for your grade. Here is the
breakdown for the course.
Overall Z-score Grade
Approximate % of class receiving score
>1.30
A
10
>0.85
A10
>0.55
B+
10
>0.25
B
10
>0.00
B10
>-0.25
C+
10
>-0.85
C
20
>-1.30
C10
>-1.70
D
5
<-1.70
F
5
If the grade for your absolute score is higher than the grade determined by the curve, you
will receive the grade corresponding to the absolute score. For example, if you received
90.5%, but that was a z-score of .82, then you would receive an A- (90.5) instead of a B+
(Z=0.82). This prevents any student from being hurt by the curve. The curve can only help you.
Your grade is up to you. While the course is going on, I will do as much as I can to make sure
you learn as much as you can about this material. If you want to learn more or you are confused,
COME TO OFFICE HOURS. I may be ugly, but I am not that scary in my office.
At the end of every quarter after the final, there are inevitably a handful of students who beg me
for a way to increase their grade because they didn’t seek help when they had the chance. My
answer to these requests to change grades is always the same – No. No. No. No. No. It would be
grossly unfair to all students if I ever allowed anything but the scores determine the grade.
Fairness is very important and fairness is the reason why a student will NEVER be able to
increase their grade after the course is done.
Missing-Exam:
Under certain EXTREME conditions (severe medical illness with complete medical
documentation or death of an IMMEDIATE family member), ONE missing midterm exam can
be substituted with the lowest Z-score of the remaining exams. In this way, students who are
consistent good performers need not be hurt by a missing exam.
You must inform of your excuse BEFORE any exam you will miss. The only exception to
this is if you can prove you were completely unable to let me know (e.g. unconscious). No
matter how sick you are, you can always send me an email.
For example:
Exam 1 Z=1.0
Exam 2 Missing due to EXTREME case of Ebola
Exam 3 Z=1.6
Final Exam Z = 1.2
In this case, the missing exam would be scored as z=1.0 because 1.0 was the lowest z-score of
the remaining exams.
The z-score of the missing exam will be converted to a raw score and that score will be
used as your grade for the missing exam.
Missing the FINAL exam will result in an F.
Only ONE of the 3 midterm exams can be missed.
No incompletes, extra credit, etc. are given in 100A.
Exam Difficulty:
The exams are DIFFICULT. The scores are curved so this is really not a problem. In
fact, hard exams are good because they allow the students who know more to distinguish
themselves from those who don’t know very much. An exam that is too easy does not allow for
a wide enough spread in the distribution. Some of the exam questions will be similar to
questions in the book or examples done in class. Some of the questions will require you to
understand the concepts well enough to relate them to each other in a potentially novel way.
Exam Format:
Each exam is multiple choice.
Extra credit:
Extra credit can be earned by participating in research experiments. In order to get credit, you
must use the SONA system (sign up for experiments at http://ucla.sona-systems.com). Here is
the value of the extra credits hours earned on SONA
1 SONA credit (1 hour of experiment time) = 0.5 out of 140 points.
2 SONA credits (2 hours of experiment time) = 1 out of 140 points.
Maximum credit is 1 point out of 140 (2 hours participation in SONA experiments).
Homework:
Homework assignments will be available online at www.statstext.com. Click on the pink
tab labeled ‘Homework Assignments’ to print the homework. Submit your answers online for
grading/credit at www.statstext.com. Click on the pink tab labeled ‘Homework Assignments’ to
submit your homework solution.
Homework must be submitted by 1:00 PM on the date the homework is due. No
exceptions will be made. The online system will not allow you to submit after 1:00 PM. Be
aware that it may take a couple of minutes to fill out the answers online, so you do not want to
wait till exactly 1:00 PM to start the submission process or you won’t make the deadline.
Each homework will consist of 20 multiple choice questions.
Homework grades will be posted shortly after 1:00 PM on the due date.
Be smart. Get your Homework done ahead of time, so that if something happens (e.g.
illness) then you won't miss your homework.
You can alter your answers after they have been submitted, up until the deadline, so
don't wait until the near the deadline to submit them. If you have a problem with your
computer/internet connection, etc., then you will miss the points for the homework.
Cheating:
We hate cheaters and will do everything possible to get you kicked out of school if we
catch you. No kidding here – cheating is serious business and if we catch you, then you are
history. Note – we have had a lot of experience at catching cheaters, so just don’t do it. Despite
what you may have heard, UCLA will kick you out of school for a couple of semesters (or
more) if you caught cheating.
Calculator Type:
Fairness is very important in this class. The only way to be fair is to require that
everyone has EXACTLY the same calculator. Go to the UCLA bookstore (on the B-level
where the computers are), and buy the following calculator for about $4:
Sharp EL-233SB
Many students will be annoyed that they have to buy a new calculator when they already
have one, but there is no way of making sure that different calculators have the same
functionality (we can’t check 250 calculators during the exam). Remember, you are not required
to buy a textbook, which costs far more than a calculator.
Any other calculators will not be allowed – NO EXCEPTIONS. In fact, you will lose
3 points on exam if you do not have the official calculator – your unofficial calculator will be
taken during the exam period and you will be given an official calculator for the exam. 3 points
is a lot of points.
If you have NO calculator, then you will have a very difficult time completing the
exam.
Formula Sheets:
No formula sheet will be given out for use during the exams. Students often complain that
memorizing a bunch of formulas is stupid because it is not conceptual. Unfortunately, this
thinking is wrong. As you will learn in this course – the formula cannot be separated from the
concept and in some cases the formula IS the concept.
Summary of things you need to buy:
Subscribe to www.statstext.com (follow link
from home page for $35 subscription)
Buy calculator Sharp EL-233SB from bookstore
Deadline
Need to subscribe by Apr 8 to turn in
first homework at 1:00 PM.
NO OTHER CALCULATORS ARE
ALLOWED ON EXAMS. No
Exceptions.
Must have calculator by Exam 1. Good
idea to get this well ahead and use it to
solve homework and practice problems