Prof. B. Smith
Office: Winter Hall, WH334
Phone: 565-6113
Email: bsmith@westmont.edu
Cognitive Psychology Spring, 2011
Class Meets: MWF, 11:30 a.m. - 12:35 p.m.
, WH331
Lab Meets: T, 3:15 p.m. - 6:00 p.m., WH218
URL: http://homepage.westmont.edu/bsmith ( then click on PSY 120 link)
Office hours: Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9:00 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., or by appt.
--Check office hours for a given week and make an appointment at http://www.westmont.edu/_academics/pages/advising/
Goals of the Course:
Overlapping with the particular goals of cognitive psychology, the College has identified several standards of excellence and their corresponding learning outcomes as important to the education of all students. These standards are Christian orientation, diversity, critical-interdisciplinary thinking, written & oral communication, active societal & intellectual engagement, and research & technology. The particular goals of this course, along with the institutional standards are listed below.
At the completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. understand the metatheoretical assumptions and major theoretical perspectives in cognitive psychology (criticalinterdisciplinary thinking),
2. identify the various subareas of this discipline,
3. evaluate theoretical conclusions analytically (critical-interdisciplinary thinking),
4. apply cognitive principles in his or her everyday life (active societal & intellectual engagement),
5. select a data analysis procedure based on the experimental design used (research & technology),
6. run and interpret a number of data analyses (t-test, ANOVA) using Excel and SPSS (research & technology),
7. find and select appropriate articles, using electronic data bases, that will serve as the foundation for a lab report introduction (research & technology),
8. use the text, class discussion, and reflection to continue in his or her integration of psychological, scientific, and scriptural truths (Christian orientation; active societal & intellectual engagement),
9. demonstrate improvement in writing scientific reports using APA formatting and editorial styles, without plagiarizing
(written & oral communication; research & technology; Christian orientation), and
10. design and complete a cognitive research project applying cognitive concepts and using appropriate methods (research & technology)
GE Requirements Satisfied: This course meets the requirements for: Writing Intensively within the Major.
Required Texts:
Galotti, K. M. (2008). Cognitive psychology: In and out of the laboratory (4th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth/Thomson
Learning.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (6th ed.).
Washington, DC: Author.
Recommended Resources:
Your statistics, SPPS, and experimental psychology textbooks
At http://homepage.westmont.edu/bsmith, under Resources for Students>Writing an Introduction, the following articles are available for downloading:
Bem, D. J. (1995). Writing a review article for Psychological Bulletin . Psychological Bulletin , 118 , 172-177.
Benson, M. J., Sporakowski, M. J., & Stremmel, A. J. (1992). Writing reviews of family literature: Guiding students using Bloom's taxonomy of cognitive objectives. Family Relations , 41 , 65-69.
Granello, D. H. (2001). Promoting cognitive complexity in graduate written work: Using Bloom's Taxonomy as a pedagogical tool to improve literature reviews. Counselor Education & Supervision , 40 , 292-307.
Also at http://homepage.westmont.edu/bsmith, under Cognitive Psychology, the Your Research Study link has a document to help you get started on your research project, and two documents to help you prepare a presentation of

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Course Requirements:
Readings. Read the appropriate sections of your chapters before you come to class, so that you are prepared to write and think about the material. Read the information for what you don't know; write down questions about information you don't understand and ask those questions in class.
Lab Work.
Participation & Attendance is required for two reasons. First, the lab serves as a way to illustrate classic, and often counterintuitive, studies in cognitive psychology as well as a means to acquaint you with the methodologies of cognitive psychology. It also provides additional practice in thinking cognitively. Second, we have a relatively small number of people in the class. Ideally, I want to use your data from each lab to illustrate results. If you miss, less data are available, so your participation is important for your classmates' learning as well as your own.
Lab begins promptly at 3:15 p.m. In order to participate in the day's lab exercise and earn attendance points, you must be present by that time--no later.
Excel Workshop Assignment. This assignment is designed to review and extend your knowledge of data entry, calculation, and graphing in Excel. A print-out of your line graph and table must be turned in for credit.
SPSS Assignment. This assignment is designed to review and extend your knowledge of data entry, analysis, and interpretation in SPSS. A print-out of your work showing the data spreadsheet and variable information that you created, the data analyses that you performed, and an interpretation of those analyses must be turned in for credit.
APA Style Article List. This assignment is designed to provide a deadline for your article search for the lab report introductions, another opportunity to practice APA style formatting in reference lists, and a way for Brittany and me to review the articles you've selected and offer feedback on how well they might fit together. This list should include
10-15 articles, formatted APA style, and emailed to Brittany (bschultz@westmont.edu) as a MSWord attachment.
Laboratory "Reports" will be written in APA style with a title page, one or two complete sections of a lab report as noted in the assignment schedule, a graph or table of the results (as assigned in lab), a list of references cited, an author note, and a comprehensible outline of the remaining sections of the lab report. Your grasp of the material and ability to communicate your understanding clearly and concisely, with the appropriate voice, will comprise about
50% of the grade, and your knowledge of APA format will make up the remainder of the grade. All graphs and tables must be computer-generated and formatted in APA style. These assignments must be submitted electronically in MSWord or rtf format to bschultz@westmont.edu. Use the naming convention of LASTNAME_LABNAME.doc or LASTNAME_LABNAME.rtf. A print copy of each lab report must be turned in as well along with the previous, graded lab reports.
Your Own Study. Throughout the semester, you will design and run your own study. You will give an oral presentation of the project and its results with the support of PowerPoint slides during the final exam period at the end of the semester. You may work together with a partner. Your grade for the project will be based on all aspects of your behavior as it indicates creativity and originality; planning, organizing, and decision-making; problem-solving, persistence, and reliability; and ability to complete the tasks well. Your oral presentation will be graded separately.
You will need to find, read, and cite sources for the introductions that are assigned. Seven or more empirical, research articles are required for these introductions. Search the last 5-50 years of the Psychological Abstracts to find these sources, and make copies, download, or order them through interlibrary loan. You may not be able to find appropriate research reports in our library, so do your research early and order your articles through interlibrary loan immediately.
Most cognitive studies are reported in one of the following journals:
Bulletin of the Psychonomic Society
Cognition
Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive Science

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Discourse Processes
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Learning, & Memory (now L, M, & C , see next journal)
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, & Cognition
Journal of Experimental Psychology: Human Performance and Perception
Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal Behavior (now Journal of Memory & Language ; see 2 journals down)
Memory and Cognition
Journal of Memory and Language
Psychological Review
Tests. There will be 3 multiple choice/short answer tests. There will be no make-ups. Each test is composed of 30 multiple choice questions and 6 short answer/essay questions. Each multiple choice question is worth 2 points; each essay is worth 10 points. You will answer 4 of the 6 essay questions presented on the test.
Point Breakdown and Grading Scale:
Grades will be based on the following distribution of points:
Lab Work
Attendance
Task
SPSS Assignment
Excel Assignment
APA Style Lists of Articles
Lab Reports
Your Own Study
Presentation of Your Own Study
Tests over 3 sections
Points
Per Item
5
10
10
10
Total Points
Possible
~80
10
10
10
25
50
10
100
125
50
10
300
Total: ~595
For now, the following grading scale will be used to calculate grades. This may change later in the semester, however.
Grade
A
A-
B+
B
B-
Percent
95+
90-94
87-89
83-86
80-82
Grade
C+
C
C-
D+
D
D-
Percent
77-79
73-76
70-72
67-69
63-66
60-62
Note Bene : All computer and written assignments must be done independently--no collaborating; that is, no "working together." You may discuss what should be included in a particular section of a lab report before any writing, data entry or analysis is done, but the final product must obviously and clearly be the work of one person. Each person must enter the data, and create his or her own charts (graphs) and tables, word processing files, and print out and turn in his or her own creations.
Students who are involved in "working together," who receive "help" from other sources when it is not appropriate, or who plagiarize, will earn penalties that range from an F on the assignment to an F in the course, at the instructor's discretion.
Additional penalties may include suspension or expulsion from the college.
Plagiarism: To plagiarize is to present someone else's work—his or her words, line of thought, or organizational structure— as your own. This occurs when sources are not cited properly, or when permission is not obtained from the original author to use his or her work. Another person's "work" can take many forms: printed or electronic copies of computer programs, musical compositions, drawings, paintings, oral presentations, papers, essays, articles or chapters, statistical data, tables or figures, etc. In short, if any information that can be considered the intellectual property of another is used without acknowledging the original source properly, this is plagiarism.

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Please review the entire Westmont College Plagiarism Policy which is available at: http://www.westmont.edu/_offices/provost/plagiarism/plagiarism_policy.html
This document defines different levels of plagiarism and the penalties for each. It also contains very helpful information on strategies for avoiding plagiarism. It cannot be overemphasized that plagiarism is an insidious and disruptive form of academic dishonesty. It violates relationships with known classmates and professors, and it violates the legal rights of people you may never meet.
First and second instances of minimal plagiarism in a student's career at Westmont, if they occur in this course, will result in
Fs on the assignments until they are redone satisfactorily. The maximum grade on the first rewritten assignment is one letter grade lower (e.g., B

C) than it otherwise would have earned. The maximum grade on the second rewritten assignment is two letter grades lower (e.g., B

D) than it otherwise would have been.
The third instance of minimal plagiarism, if it occurs in this course, will be considered substantial plagiarism and the consequences for substantial plagiarism, as described in the Westmont College Plagiarism Policy, will be applied.
In all cases of plagiarism, a report will be submitted to the Provost's Office documenting the incident.

Date Readings/Lecture Topic/Lab Activity
Jan 10 M Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
11 T Excel Review
12 W Chapter 1--Cognitive Psychology: History, Methods, &
Paradigms
14 F Chapter 2--The Brain; An Overview of Structure & Function
17 M Martin Luther King Holiday
18 T Monday Classes: Laboratory Study #1: Scrambled Words
SPSS Review; Analyzing Scrambled Word Data
19 W Analyzing & Interpreting Scrambled Word Data
21 F Chapter 2--con't
24 M Chapter 3--Perceiving Objects & Recognizing Patterns
25 T Laboratory Study #2: Stroop by Color & Number
Discussion of Stroop Effect
26 W Chapter 3, con't.
28 F Chapter 4--Paying Attention
31 M Chapter 5--Forming & Using New Memory Traces
Feb 1 T Analyzing & Interpreting Stroop Effect Results
Assignments
APA style Figure (Chart) based on
Excel Review
Scrambled Word SPSS print out with rationale for analysis and interpretation of results; LR #1:
Method & Results; submit electronically in MSWord or rtf format as well as a printed version
APA Style List of Articles for Stroop in
MSWord
2 W Chapter 5, con't.
4 F Chapter 5, con't.
7 M Chapter 6--Retrieving Memories from Long-Term Storage
8 T Test #1; Chapters 1 - 5
9 W Chapter 6, con't.
11 F Chapter 6, con't.
14 M Chapter 7--Memory for General Knowledge
15 T Laboratory Study #3: Levels of Processing
Discussion of Levels of Processing
16 W Chapter 7, con't.
18 F Analyzing & Interpreting Levels of Processing Results
21 M President's Holiday
22 T President's Holiday
23 W Chapter 8--Concepts & Categorization
25 F Chapter 8, con't.
LR #2, Stroop Effects: Introduction &
Discussion; submit electronically in
MSWord or rtf format as well as a printed version; also submit previous lab report
LR #3, Levels of Processing: Results &
Discussion; submit electronically in
MSWord or rtf format as well as a printed version; also submit previous lab reports
28 M Chapter 9--Visual Imagery & Spatial Cognition
Mar 1 T Laboratory Study #4: Bransford and Franks
Discussion of Bransford and Franks
2 W Analyzing & Interpreting Bransford and Franks Results
4 F Chapter 9, con't.
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Date Readings/Lecture Topic/Lab Activity
Mar 7 M Design Your Own (Laboratory Study #6): Questions to Ask?
Assignments
8 T Test #2; Chapters 6 -9
9 W Chapter 10--Language
11 F Chapter 10, con't.
14 - 18 Spring Break
Mar 21 M Chapter 10, con't
Design Your Own (Laboratory Study #6): Questions to Ask?
22 T Laboratory Study #5: Memory & Concepts
Discussion of Memory & Concepts
LR #4, Bransford and Franks:
Introduction & Method; submit electronically in MSWord or rtf format as well as a printed version; also submit previous lab reports
23 W Chapter 11--Thinking & Problem Solving
25 F Chapter 11, con't.
28 M Chapter 12--Reasoning
29 T Analyzing & Interpreting Memory & Concepts Results
30 W Chapter 12, con't.
April 1 F Design Your Own (Laboratory Study #6): How to Answer the
Q?
4 M Chapter 13--Making Decisions
5 T Design Your Own (Laboratory Study #6): What Stimuli &
Tasks?
6 W Chapter 13, con't.
8 F Design Your Own (Laboratory Study #6): What Stimuli &
Tasks?
11 M Create Stimuli & Tasks
12 T Test #3; Chapters 10 13
13 W Create Stimuli & Tasks
15 F Prepare Study
18 M Prepare Study
19 T Run Your own Study in class LR #5, Memory & Concepts: Method
& Results; submit electronically in
MSWord or rtf format as well as a printed version; also submit previous lab reports
20 W Run Your own Study in class
22 F EASTER RECESS
25 M EASTER RECESS
26 T Analyze & Interpret Results; Prepare PowerPoint
Presentation
27 W Last day of class
Analyze & Interpret Results; Prepare PowerPoint
Presentation
29 F Study Day
May 3 T 3:00 - 6:00 p.m. (with 15 min break); Discussion of Results
(PowerPoint presentations)
LR #6, Your Own Study: PowerPoint presentations
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