Cognitive Psychology
PY255
Spring 2016 Syllabus
Tu/Th, Time: 9.30-10.45am, Room: RL244
Andreas Wilke, Ph.D. / Science Center 171 / 315 268 7023 / awilke@clarkson.edu
Office hours: Tu/Th 11.30am-2pm
Course description:
Students will gain an introduction to the field of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is
the study of how the mind perceives, attends to, remembers, and interacts with the world. The
mental processes that will be examined include perception, attention, memory, language,
decision-making, and problem solving. During this course, each topic will be explored by
investigating theories and results from different laboratory experiments and computer
simulations. By the end of the course, students should have an appreciation for the complexity of
the mind and how it contributes to our knowledge of the world.
Course materials:
Sternberg, R. J. (2011). Cognitive Psychology (Sixth Edition). Wadsworth Publishing. ISBN 9781133-28739-1 (includes required access code to CogLab 5.0).
A course webpage will be located on Moodle (http://moodle.clarkson.edu). Class slides will be
made available after each session.
Course objectives:
By the end of this class, students will have become familiar with the key concepts involved in
human cognition and understand how the scientific method works within the context of cognitive
psychology. Students will get an insight into how well established cognitive theories (e.g., on
attention, memory or decision-making) relate to real-world problems.
Course Grading:
Your final grading will be based on two exams, a set of twelve online demonstrations of classic
and current experiments from cognitive psychology, seven quizzes, a writing assignment, and
your class participation. Percentage break-down is as follows:
Exam 1
Final exam
CogLab exercises
Quizzes
Writing assignment
Class participation
20%
30%
20%
15%
10%
5%
Exams may consist of multiple choice, true-false, and short essay questions. The first exam will
cover the readings and lectures of the indicated chapters (see class schedule below), however, the
final exam will be in part cumulative (taking material that was covered throughout the semester).
CogLab is an Internet-based program (https://coglab.cengage.com) that allows exploring aspects
of cognitive psychology by participating in various experiments. Out of the twelve online
exercises, the completion of ten exercises will count towards your final grade. Exercise dates are
not listed on the syllabus, but will be announced in class. Details on setting up a CogLab student
account will be demonstrated in class. Because your two lowest CogLab grades (this includes
missed labs) will be dropped, makeup labs will not be allowed under any circumstances
whatsoever.
Quizzes will be administered via Moodle. Out of the seven quizzes, five quizzes (the ones with
your highest scores) will count towards your final grade. Each quiz will be short and consist of
about half a dozen questions that test your understanding for a particular textbook chapter. The
quizzes are a way to practice information for the exams and they will be reasonably easy if you
have done the reading. Quiz dates are not listed on the syllabus, but will be announced at least
one class prior to the posting. Quizzes will be given only once. If you do not complete a quiz in
the allotted time window, you will receive zero points for that quiz. An additional, non-graded
sample quiz will be posted in the first or second week of class so students can assure that their
software/hardware setup is running flawlessly when taking the Moodle quizzes. If technical
problems occur, please contact the OIT helpdesk (helpdesk@clarkson.edu, x4357). Because your
two lowest quiz grades (this includes missed quizzes) will be dropped, makeup quizzes will not
be allowed under any circumstances whatsoever.
Details about the writing assignment will be announced in class. Deadline for submitting your
writing assignment is Thursday, April 21, 2016 (4pm). Please submit the paper directly by
uploading it to the Turnitin writing assignment forum. Submitting your paper after this deadline
will lower your grade for the writing assignment.
Your final grade in this course will be based on the weighted percentage of the exams, your
CogLab exercises, quizzes, writing assignment, and your in-class participation. The grading
scale is as follows:
97 – 100% = A+
87 – 89.99% = B+
77 – 79.99% = C+
93 – 96.99% = A
83 – 86.99% = B
73 – 76.99% = C
60 – 69.99% = D
0 – 59.99% = F
90 – 92.99% = A80 – 82.99% = B70 – 72.99% = C-
I do not offer any form of extra credit. Please do not ask.
Course policies:
Make-up exams: Students are expected to be present for all exams, including the final exam. The
only acceptable excuse for a missed exam is serious personal illness, family emergency, or a
varsity athletics responsibility. In the instance that one of these events occurs, the instructor must
be notified as soon as is possible and formal written verification (e.g., from the Student Health
Center) must be provided. A make-up exam will not be given unless a student has an acceptable
written excuse. If a student misses an exam and fails to provide an adequate written excuse, a
grade of zero will be recorded. It is your responsibility to contact the instructor if you missed an
exam.
Varsity Athletes: If you are a varsity athlete who must miss class due to traveling for official
university business, you must notify me in writing. If you must miss an exam, you must make
alternative arrangements with me prior to the exam. I strongly suggest that at the start of the
semester each varsity athlete provide me with a list of dates he or she must be out of town for a
game.
Academic Integrity: Students caught cheating will be dealt with severely, according to
University regulations. Plagiarism is representing the words or ideas of another as your own. If
you plagiarize or engage in any other type of cheating, the minimum penalty will be a zero on
your writing assignment or exam and the Academic Integrity Committee will be consulted for
further action. If you are in doubt about plagiarism, ask.
Attendance: I do not take attendance, but strongly suggest regular class attendance. Students are
responsible for all materials presented and discussed in class (including films, demonstrations
and announcements) even if they do not attend. Although there will be some overlap between the
class lecture and the textbook, some material covered in the textbook will not be discussed in
class and some material will be presented in class that does not appear in the textbook. All of this
material, from the textbook and course lectures, can be material that is used for the exams as well
as the quizzes.
Schedule of classes:
Week
1
2
2
3
3
4
4
5
5
6
6
7
7
8
8
9
9
10
Day
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Thursday
Tuesday
Date
Jan 7
Jan 12
Jan 14
Jan 19
Jan 21
Jan 26
Jan 28
Feb 2
Feb 4
Feb 9
Feb 11
Feb 16
Feb 18
Feb 23
Feb 25
Mar 1
Mar 3
Mar 8
Topic
Reading
Class overview
Syllabus
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Chapter 1
Introduction to Cognitive Psychology
Chapter 1
Cognitive Neuroscience
Chapter 2
Instructor away – No class
--Cognitive Neuroscience
Chapter 2
Visual Perception
Chapter 3
Visual Perception
Chapter 3
Attention and Consciousness
Chapter 4
Instructor away – No class
--February break – No class
--Attention and Consciousness
Chapter 4
Memory: Models and Research Methods
Chapter 5
Memory: Models and Research Methods
Chapter 5
Memory Processes
Chapter 6
Memory Processes
Chapter 6
Exam 1
Chapters 1-6
The Landscape of Memory: Mental
Chapter 7
Images, Maps, and Propositions
10
Thursday
Mar 10 The Landscape of Memory: Mental
Chapter 7
Images, Maps, and Propositions
11
Tuesday
Mar 15 Spring Recess – No class
--11
Thursday
Mar 17 Spring Recess – No class
--12
Tuesday
Mar 22 The Organization of Knowledge in the
Chapter 8
Mind
12
Thursday
Mar 24 The Organization of Knowledge in the
Chapter 8
Mind
13
Tuesday
Mar 29 Language
Chapter 9
13
Thursday
Mar 31 Language in Context
Chapter 10
14
Tuesday
Apr 5
Problem Solving and Creativity
Chapter 11
14
Thursday
Apr 7
Problem Solving and Creativity
Chapter 11
15
Tuesday
Apr 12 Decision Making and Reasoning
Chapter 12
15
Thursday
Apr 14 Decision Making and Reasoning
Chapter 12
16
Tuesday
Apr 19 Human and Artificial Intelligence
TBA
16
Thursday
Apr 21 Human and Artificial Intelligence
TBA
Exam
TBA
TBA
Final Exam
Chapters 7-12
week
(Chapters 7-12 and Cumulative Portion)
Note: The specifics of this syllabus can be changed by the instructor at any time. Any such
changes will be announced in class and you will be responsible for abiding by them.