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Psychology 344 – Implicit Cognition
Spring 2007
Mondays & Wednesdays 1:30 – 3:20
Classroom: SSC 28
Professor:
Phone:
E-mail:
Office:
Patricia Costello, Ph.D.
(507) 933-7518
pcostell@gac.edu (best way to reach me)
SSC 24
Office hours:
Thursdays 11:30 – 1:30pm and by appointment
Required Texts:
Gladwell, M. (2005). Blink: The power of thinking without thinking.
New York: Little, Brown, and Company.
Course Website:
Moodle.gac.edu (discussion papers available here)
Course Description:
This course will explore implicit cognition, or information processing below the level of
awareness. We will investigate the research methods used to study implicit cognition.
These methods include priming, masking, and the binocular suppression paradigm. Students
will read papers describing various facets of unconscious or implicit cognition such as
blindsight, automaticity, attention, learning, emotion and subliminal advertising. In pairs,
students will be responsible for leading the paper discussion each class period. The class
will read the bestseller "Blink" which in eloquent prose reveals the fascinating powers of
the unconscious. The class as a whole will help design and run an experiment that is aimed
at uncovering the unconscious processing of various well known consumer product logos.
Students will also write a review paper on a topic that covers some aspect of unconscious
or implicit information processing.
Course Goals:
 Gain knowledge of implicit cognition concepts, principles, and theories
 Appreciate and understand implicit cognition experimental design
 Understand the importance of implicit cognition in our everyday lives
Course Objectives:
 Students should understand implicit cognition terms and concepts
 Learn how to think critically about implicit cognition and experimental design
Attendance:
Class is held two days a week. Your attendance is required for the all sessions. Two
unexcused absences are allowed. Each absence after that will result in a decrease in your
participation grade. Attendance will be taken daily. Please notify me should you anticipate
having to miss class. Your attendance and participation will count towards 10% of your
final grade in this course.
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Accommodating Disabilities
Students with documented disabilities are invited to see me as soon as possible to discuss
your needed accommodations. Students without documented disabilities who feel they
may have difficulty with this course also are invited to see me to discuss what we can do
together to help you succeed.
Course Methods:
Discussion - Students are strongly encouraged to be "active learners" in this course. This
means asking questions and contributing your own experiences and views to the class while
respecting those of your classmates. Discussion sessions will be held each class period. This
will include small group discussion and discussion among the class as a whole.
Lecture: no formal lectures are planned.
Course Assignments:
Exams: No exams!
Paper: There will be a major paper assignment. More details to follow in class. All papers
will be ~10 – 12 pages (double-spaced, 12 point Arial or Times font, 1-inch margins all
around). The paper assignment totals 40% of your final grade (Rough draft is worth 10%,
and the final paper is worth 30%).
Discussion leadership: Students will lead discussion and formulate discussion questions
twice during the semester. The first time students will each bring two discussion questions
to deliberate in class. The second presentation will be more formal. Students will lead a
review of the paper and formulate discussion questions for 10 of our class sessions (one
paper each for two papers total each time). More details to follow in class. Discussion
question leadership (first time) will be worth 15% of the grade. Paper review and
discussion (second time) will be worth 35% of the grade for a total of 50% of your grade.
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Grading:
Your grade will be based on the following: Paper (rough draft, 10% and final 30%), Paper
discussion (50% total; 1st =15%; 2nd = 35%), and participation/attendance (10%).
GRADING SUMMARY
Paper:
Discussion lead:
Participation/attendance
40% total (Rough Draft 10%; Final 30%)
50% total (1st 15%; 2nd 35%)
10% total
Grand Total
100%
BASIC GRADING SCALE (%)
Cutoffs: A 94 - 100%, A- 90 - 93%, B+ 87.5 - 89%, B 83 - 87%, B- 80 - 82%, C+ 77.5 - 79%, C 73 - 77%, C- 70 72%, D 60 - 69%, F <60
All scores are converted to the percentages discussed above.
Student Academic Conduct:
Every student is expected to act responsibly and honestly. Misconduct is considered
sufficient grounds for the designation of a failing grade in the course. Examples of
misconduct include but are not strictly limited to the following:
 Copying answers from another student’s exam paper during an examination.
 Permitting another student to copy your answers.
 Consulting notes of any sort during a closed book examination.
 Copying another student’s paper assignment, or allowing another student to copy your
assignment
 Plagiarizing – if you are unsure as to what constitutes plagiarism, please consult:
http://people.brandeis.edu/~teuber/usemplagiarism.html - you are responsible for
following the rules
 You will receive a “0” on the paper or exam if you are caught cheating / plagiarizing
 You should be familiar with and abide by the Gustavus Adolphus College Honor Code
(see http://www.gustavus.edu/+kaiser/prev-courses/2004F/honorcode.html)
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Course Schedule
Date
Topic
Mon Feb 5th
Introduction
Wed Feb 7th
What is implicit cognition?
Mon Feb 12th
Thin slicing
Wed Feb 14th
Snap decisions
Mon Feb 19th
Implicit associations
Wed Feb 21st
Implicit war & medicine
Mon Feb 26th
What people want
Wed Feb 28th
Mind reading?
Readings / Presenters
Mon Mar 5th
Blindsight
Introduction to Blink;
Perception without awareness
Chapter 1 Blink; “Predicting
divorce among newly weds”
Chapter 2 Blink;
“Automaticity of social
behavior”
Chapter 3 Blink; IAT test;
“Measuring individual
differences in implicit
cognition”
Chapter 4 Blink; “Language
overshadowing”
Chapter 5 Blink; “Thinking too
much: Introspection”
Chapter 6 & conclusion Blink;
“Lie detection in aphasics”
Students 1 -2
Wed Mar 7th
Priming
Students 3 - 4
Mon Mar 12th
Implicit motor learning
Students 5 - 6
Wed Mar 14th
Readings
Wed Mar 21st
Binocular rivalry; Hidden
Motives DVD
Binocular suppression
paradigm
Class experiment
Mon Mar 26th
Class experiment
Wed Mar 28th
Class experiment
Mon Mar 19th
Mon Apr 2nd
Spring Break
Wed Apr 4th
Spring Break
Mon Apr 9th
Spring Break
A gender and sexual
orientation-dependent…
Wed Apr 11th
Implicit emotion I
Students 7 - 8
Mon Apr 16th
Implicit emotion II
Students 9 – 10
Wed Apr 18th
Decision making
Students 11 - 12
Mon Apr 23rd
Subliminal advertising
Students 13 -14
5
Wed Apr 25th
Implicit attention
Students 15 - 16
Mon Apr 30th
Automaticity
Wed May 2nd
Implicit social cognition
Rough drafts due; Students
17 – 18
Students 19 – 20
Mon May 7th
Problem solving (insight, etc)
Everyone bring discussion Qs
Wed May 9th
Course wrap up
Final papers due
Mon May 14th
No class; out of town for
conference
No class; out of town for
conference
Wed May 16th