Psychology 5370, Learning, Motivation, and Cognition Fall, 2015
Course Syllabus
Instructor: Dr. Theron Stimmel-emailDS03@txstate.edu, Phone 5122453163
Email is best way to reach me
Office hours :8:30-9:30 Wed. other times by appointment. I will be here all but
twice on Tuesday AM 9:30- 11:30
Text: Learning Theories. 6th Edition by Schunk. This text combines the 3 topics
of this course. The text is for general background information.
Additional materials such as articles and instructor handouts will not always be
listed in the syllabus but will either be given via email or in class.
Course Goals:
1. Understanding basic associative and cognitive factors in learning and
motivation.
2. To learn how psychologists establish methods to study the above areas.
3. To use classic articles as well as current research to see how major trends in
Learning and motivation may project into the future of psychology.
A fourth overall goal is to look at some applications of research in solving
such human problems of addiction, industriousness, depression, and
helping to self regulate more effectively. We will use self- regulation issues
as a group project in the last 3 weeks of the course.
The course is divided into 6 modules. Module 1 is the longest and we will
spend about 3 weeks on it. We will spend about 4 weeks on Modules 2-3.
The rest of the course will be covered in the remaining weeks. 4-6 are
closely related. I will give you thought sheets-2 for Module 1 and one each
for the other 5 modules. You will learn a lot in this class. You will learn from
articles, my lectures, from each other and class presentations by the
students. The text will help fill in details in a few area but most of the 2
quizzes will cover articles, content and materials presented in class. In this
course we are a community of scholars dedicated to knowledge, critical
thinking and having intellectual fun! Students have for the most part said
they got a lot of good things from this course. One thing I was pleased
about is how many students said this course was useful to them
professionally and how much the learned that they could apply both to
their personal life as well as to their jobs.
Attendance in this course is a must! Learning interactively is essential in
graduate school .
Graduate level understanding comes from critically reading research and
from inputs from other students as well as from the instructor.
In the course schedule below S refers to the chapter in Schunk you should
have read and thought about prior to class. We cannot have a good
discussion without preparing ahead of time. After the first week we will
have material both from students and the instructor. More about that
under expectations and grading.
Course Schedule
Date
Topic
Aug.26 Psychology goes scientific . Organizing the course
Chapter
1,2
Sept.2
Pavlovian and Operant conditioning . Not what you may think
they are !
Articles by Crombag, Navarrette, Eisenberger et al
S2, 3
Sept.9 Going beyond Skinner and Pavlov . Student talk(s)
3, 4
Vicarious extinction- relation to PTSD?
Discuss above articles .Get new articles
Sept.16 Social learning Imitation to self-efficacy Bandura article, Golkar, S3
Mueller. Student presentation.
Sept.23 . Applications and implications of social learning approach. S3,S4
Aggression. Cognitive behavioral therapy- student presentation . Articles
from Stimmel. Get Gagne handout.
Sept.30 A brief tour of memory in about 40 minutes! Mueller article and
encoding specificity. Student presentation on encoding specificity. S5
Oct. 7 Midterm 90 minutes 11;15-12 Stimmel goes over constructivism
and introduces the problem of false memories. Get articles .
Oct 14 Cognitive and emotional factors in memory. Stimmel leads
S5.6discussion on anxiety and working memory. Important that everyone
has read Ashcraft et al article . Creating false memories. Student
presentation. Memory and learning problems in autism. Student
presentation. Recovered memories? Student presentation.
Oct 21 The problems and issues in eye-witness testimony S5,6
. Big student
presentation from forensic Psychology students . Expertise and overcoming
learning and memory obstacles. Stimmel. Sociocultural theory versus
constructivism. Articles-2 given by eye witness team ahead of time. S6,7
Oct. 28 Motivation. Modern versions of achievement motivation . Bring in
Weiner’s article and questions- student presentation .Consistency theory
and motivation- Stimmel. Perceived control theory. Rotter, Seligman S8
Nov.4. Learned helplessness up to date-Student presentation.
S8
Dweck’s synthesis of perceived control, achievement motivation, and
attribution . 2 articles. Stimmel. Student presentation?
Nov. 11,18, and Dec.2. S9 A Grand Finale. We tackle a major issue of our
time, self-regulation not just self-control. We will all do presentations. You
can fill up your 40 point presentation requirement here ! The topics
include problems and limits of self-control, how implicit beliefs effect the
limits of self- control, brain functions and self control failures, as well as self
– control limits in general. How might Skinner have dealt with this. He did
deal with it! Self regulation in writing and mathematics. Self-regulation and
aggression. We will come up, as a class, with a master plan to improve self
-regulation based on good research. I will assign students to enough
presentation time to make sure the can achieve all points possible.
Final exam Friday, Dec.4 at 9:30 AM until 12PM The other time we could
do it is 8AM Sat.,Dec.5 I presume you would prefer Friday! The Final exam
covers only the materials we covered since exam 1. This is because the
course is cumulative. You need the first part to understand the second part.
No materials covered on either exam test anything not covered in this
course. Most questions will be based on articles and presentations. If you
do not understand something in this course ask about it and share with
others. Often if you have trouble with an issue others had a similar
problem!
Grading 2 exams each counting 25%-50% total . 40 points for class
presentations. Total 90% 10% of grade for class participation. Starting
week 3. 1 point for every class in which you actively participate by asking a
question or making a comment that shows you have come to class
prepared to participate. If you work regularly in this course you will have no
problems. You cannot miss class and “cram” for exams at the last minute.
Since we meet only once a week , please do not fail to remember to
prepare each week. Of course if you are presenting you will a point for that
class!
How do I grade the class presentations. I will meet briefly with each
participant either in class or in my office to express what I think you should
cover and maybe share with some of my thoughts on making it clear to the
class. You need to prepare you talks but also be flexible in order to take
questions! This is usually not a big problem. Unless you just phone it in!
This is a course in which we will all learn a lot and have some intellectual
fun . Welcome to a great semester!