Lectures: Monday, Wednesday 12:40 – 2:00, 103 Erickson Hall
Instructor
Susan Ravizza
Michelle Stepan
Phone E mail Office
432-3366 ravizzas@msu.edu
285 C Psych Bldg stepanmi@msu.edu 213 Psych Bldg
Office Hours
M 2-3, & by appt.
Overview :
This course will be a survey of the methods, contents, and applications of cognitive psychology. Topics include perception, memory, language, problem solving, and decisionmaking. The main thesis of the course is that our mental lives are shaped largely by cognitive
(mental) processes. These processes determine what we perceive and remember, and how we think. The perspective taken is interdisciplinary and includes physiology, anatomy, philosophy, linguistics, computer science, etc., with cognitive psychology as the core discipline.
Grades:
Grades will be based on total points earned on various activities as shown below:
Tests (3@25% each)
Short Reports (Top 3 reports)
75%
15%
Attendance/Clicker
Subject Pool participation
5%
5%
The letter grade will be determined by total points earned divided by the highest overall score in the class. Letter grades will be based on this percentage approximately as follows:
4 90.0% & above 2.5 75.0% to 79.9% 1 60.0% to 64.9%
3.5 85.0% to 89.9% 2 70.0% to 74.9% 0 Below 60%
3 80.0% to 84.9% 1.5 65.0% to 69.9%
Texts:
 Cognition (5th edition) – Daniel Reisberg (Workbooks are optional).
 Zaps – The Norton Psychology Labs
 iClicker
If you have purchased a used copy of the text, you can go to http://www.wwnorton.com/college/psych/zaps/ and order a stand-alone license for $28.

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Tests:
Each of the three tests will have equal weight. They will all be multiple-choice. The material covered by the tests will not be cumulative, but will include only the material covered in the preceding part of the course. The material will be from the text and lectures. The third exam will be given on the final exam date of Thursday, May 7, 12:45 – 2:45 pm.
Emergencies and Schedule Conflicts:
You may take a makeup exam in case of: 1) a documented medical emergency, or 2) a schedule conflict that you know about in advance such as a religious holiday or sports travel. In either case, please send email to the teaching assistants identifying the emergency ASAP . In case of a schedule conflict, you must send this email at least a week in advance of exam day.
Do not assume that we have received your email, unless I respond back to you.
In either case, you may take the exam either at a different time on the exam day or the day after. If you cannot take the exam on one of those two days, then that exam will be omitted from your final score and its points distributed over the other exams. If you miss an exam for any other reason, or don’t notify us about your emergency or conflict, your score will be 0.
Short Reports:
Reports should be turned in by midnight on the day they are due on Wednesday (see
Schedule). Reports should be uploaded to D2L. A Short Report can be written for any week except as indicated in the syllabus. They should be 1- 1 ½ pages (double-spaced, 1” margins).
Each short report is worth a maximum of 10 points, and your score will be determined by your top 3 reports (i.e., a maximum 30 points). You must write this report in your own words. Do not just quote or paraphrase the ZAPS Manual. Students can discuss the experiments with their classmates, but must write the report by themselves. Do not write the reports together or paraphrase each other’s reports.
We do not accept late ZAPS reports! Do as many reports as you wish, we will only count the top 3 scores.
In your report, briefly describe the following:
(1) What is the hypothesis that is being tested in the experiment? (A hypothesis is not a prediction!)
(2) What was the task that you, the subject, engaged in? What were the stimuli and what was the task (be concrete)?
(3) What was/were the independent variable(s)?
(4) What was the dependent variable?
(5) What were your results? Give the exact numbers. What were the predicted results?
(6) Were your results the same as predicted? If not, why not and how were they different?
(7) How would you change the experiment to improve it?
Attendance/Clicker questions
It is assumed that you will attend and actively participate during all class sessions. If you must miss class you are responsible for what transpires during class sessions whether you are there or not.

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This class will employ active learning strategies via the use of in-class clicker questions. These questions may be used to assess your understanding of material presented on that day of class or your memory for information presented in previous classes.
You will not be graded on your accuracy for these questions. If you participate in 70% of the iclicker sessions, you will receive full credit for this portion of your grade. Grades will be scaled such that for each 5% less than 70%, there will be a 10% grade reduction (i.e. 65% of questions
= grade 90, 60% = 80, 55% = 70, 50% = 60, etc.).
You must REGISTER your clicker online at: www.iclicker.com
. It is essential that you register your clicker within the first two weeks of class. If you do not register your clicker, your responses will not be associated with you and you will not receive credit for them. On the registration page, you will need to report your first and last name and student id. Important : in the section for student id , you should write your msu netid including @msu.edu. For example, a person with the email account smithj@msu.edu would enter this entire address under student id. Do NOT list your A-PID.
If you cannot read the bar code on the back of your clicker, you can email the iclicker company and they can provide it for you. If you have never registered the clicker before (or purchased it used) then you will need to see the instructor after class and she can get the number for you.
Lastly, it is expected that you will attend class each day and that you will bring your clicker. If you forget your clicker or if your batteries are dead, you cannot obtain credit for that day of class. I recommend that you keep a spare set of batteries with you so that if your batteries should die, you will have a spare. Please understand that in a large class, there will be at least one person who forgets their clicker each day and the instructor simply cannot give credit in these circumstances.
Subject Pool Participation
The Psychology Department requires 5-hours participation (10 credits) in the subject pool for students in 'decade' classes (classes ending in 0). Details on how to sign up for experiments will be posted on D2L. For all questions about research participation, please contact the Research Participation Coordinator, Ms. Leslie Baldwin ( lbaldwin@msu.edu
). Participants interested in extra credit can volunteer for an additional 2 hours of experimental participation for an additional 2% to their grade. The last day for participating in HPR is April 26 th at 5 pm.
If you are unwilling or unable to participate in HPR, please contact the instructor about alternative assignments.
Academic Honesty
Article 2.3.3 of the Academic Freedom Report states that "The student shares with the faculty the responsibility for maintaining the integrity of scholarship, grades, and professional standards." In addition, the Psychology Department adheres to the policies on academic honesty as specified in
General Student Regulations 1.0, Protection of Scholarship and Grades; the all-University
Policy on Integrity of Scholarship and Grades ; and Ordinance 17.00, Examinations. (See
Spartan Life: Student Handbook and Resource Guide and/or the MSU Web site: www.msu.edu.)
Therefore, unless authorized by your instructor, you are expected to complete all course assignments, including homework, lab work, quizzes, tests and exams, without assistance from any source. You are expected to develop original work for this course; therefore, you may not

4 submit course work you completed for another course to satisfy the requirements for this course.
Also, you are not authorized to use the www.allmsu.com Web site to complete any course work in Psychology 200. Students who violate MSU academic integrity rules may receive a penalty grade, including a failing grade on the assignment or in the course. Contact your instructor if you are unsure about the appropriateness of your course work. (See also http://www.msu.edu/unit/ombud/dishonestyFAQ.html )
Limits to Confidentiality
Essays, journals, blogs and other materials submitted for this class are generally considered confidential pursuant to the University’s student record policies. However, students should be aware that University employees, including instructors, may not be able to maintain confidentiality when it conflicts with their responsibility to report certain issues based on external legal obligations or that relate to the health and safety of MSU community members and others. As the instructor, I must report the following information to other University offices if you share it with me:
• Suspected child abuse/neglect, even if this maltreatment happened when you were a child,
• Allegations of sexual assault or sexual harassment when they involve MSU students, faculty, or staff, and
• Credible threats of harm to oneself or to others.
These reports may trigger contact from a campus official who will want to talk with you about the incident that you have shared. In almost all cases, it will be your decision whether you wish to speak with that individual. If you would like to talk about these events in a more confidential setting you are encouraged to make an appointment with the MSU Counseling
Center.

Week
Week 1
Jan. 12
Week 2
Jan. 14
Week 3
Jan. 19
Jan. 21
Jan. 26
Jan. 28
Week 4
Feb. 2
Feb. 4
Week 5
Feb. 9
Feb. 11
Week 6
Feb. 16
Feb. 18
Week 7
Feb. 23
Week 8
Feb. 25
Mar. 2
Mar. 4
Lecture
Schedule
Unit 1 - Perception and Attention
Introduction
History
Reading
Ch. 1
Methods
Neural basis of cognition
Visual Perception
Object Recognition
Selective Attention
Divided Attention
Review/Wrap-up
Exam 1
Unit 2 - Memory
Ch. 2 (30-55)
ZAPS: Visual search
Ch. 2 (56-70) Ch. 3
ZAPS: Spatial Cueing
Ch. 4
ZAPS: Attentional blink
ZAPS: Iconic Memory
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Sensory/Working memory
Long Term Memory
Amnesia
Complex Memories
Complex memories
Conceptual knowledge
Ch. 5
ZAPS: Serial Position task
Ch. 6
ZAPS: Implicit Learning
Ch. 7 & 8
ZAPS: False Memory

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Week 9
Mar. 9
Mar. 11
Week 10
Mar. 16
Mar. 18
Week 11
Mar. 23
Mar. 25
Spring Break
Spring Break
Categorical knowledge
Concepts and categories
Review
Exam 2
Unit 3 - Language and Thought
Week 12
Mar. 30
Apr. 1
Week 13
Apr. 6
Apr. 8
Week 14
Apr. 13
Apr. 15
Week 15
Apr. 20
Apr. 22
Week 16
Apr. 27
Apr. 29
CLASS CANCELLED
Speech & Language
Language
Tip-of-the-tongue
Review
Consciousness
Visual Imagery
Action & Cognition
Problem solving
Decision making
Final Exam: Thursday, May 7 – 12:45 pm – 2:45 pm
Ch. 8
ZAPS: Sentence verification
ZAPS: Stroop task
Ch. 9
ZAPS: Lexical decision
Ch. 10
ZAPS:
Mental Rotation 2-D
Ch. 13
ZAPS: Simon effect
Ch. 12
ZAPS: Stereotypes
Ch. 11

Do not purchase used ZAPS registration codes!
If the registration code has already been used, it will not work for you. Each valid registration code can be used only once.
1. Open your Web browser and go to http://wwnorton.com/ZAPS
2. If it is your first time, click on Register on the lower, left-hand side of the screen. Fill out all the fields (registration code, email, password, school) and click submit. Then Enter the Site.
Visit the About Me page to update your name, Class ID ( 7Q6YKZB8 ), and Student ID.
3. If you have already registered, choose login from the lower, left-hand side of the screen.
Click on the assigned experiment for that week. A screen will pop-up asking for your Class ID and you should enter 7Q6YKZB8 . Make sure you enter the class ID or your performance will not be recorded.
4. There are 4 sections to choose from. To begin the experiment, click on the word Experiment on the left side of the screen and follow the instructions. When the experiment is over, your results will be shown on the screen. To print your data, use the Print button on the Data page that pops up after you completed the experiment. The print button is located below the data and beside the help button – it looks like a printer with a circle around it.
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TECHNICAL PROBLEMS : The ZAPS are entirely Web based and require a high-speed
Internet connection. The computer must have the latest version of Flash to run the ZAPS. You can download this for free from the Flash Macromedia website, or go to the ZAPS homepage and click on the Flash link in the left side bar.
ZAPS experiments rely on popup windows, cookies, and Javascript. Some students will encounter problems at the start. The main culprit is the presence of multiple popup blockers within Web browsers. The FAQ page provides instructions on how to turn off popup blocking: http://www.wwnorton.com/zaps/faq.html
The Instructor does not maintain the ZAPS website. If you have a ZAPS Technical problems, please fill out the Help Desk form. It will be answered within 24 hours. http://www.wwnorton.com/techsupport/helpdesk/