Instructor: Victor A. Shamas, Ph.D.
Office Hours: By Appointment
Telephone:
E-mail:
Homepage:
621-7447 (message phone only) vas@email.arizona.edu http://vas.web.arizona.edu
Required Materials: All required readings will be available on the course website
(http://d2l.arizona.edu). The Publication Manual of the American
Psychological Association (6 th Ed) is recommended.
This is the laboratory course that accompanies the Psychology Department’s Research Methods course (PSYC290a). If you are in this course, you must be enrolled concurrently in the web-based
Research Methods course taught this semester by Dr. Shamas.
Our lab will reinforce the concepts introduced in PSYC290a, giving you a chance to apply these concepts in hands-on exercises designed to familiarize you with virtually every aspect of the research process. Through the assignments and online demonstrations, you will gain the ability to analyze different types of research designs; read and critique research articles; generate testable hypotheses; design effective research; and write a research paper.
Although this is a Web-based course, it resembles a traditional research lab course in virtually every regard. Here are the features of the course:
 Laboratory. This course has a virtual laboratory that you can access through the D2L site
(http://d2l.arizona.edu) for PSYC290a. By clicking on the Discussions link from the course home page, you will be able to access a forum entitled “Laboratory.” In the
Laboratory forum, you will find links to online demonstrations and readings; postings about the week’s topics; detailed descriptions of the lab assignments; a discussion of practical issues related to research design; and answers to your questions concerning any of the material covered in the lab course. There is also an Announcements forum that will be shared with the PSYC 290a course. The instructor will use the Announcements to update you on the day-to-day business of the class.
 Handouts. You will be able to download the materials you need from the course website.
These materials include the syllabus and all the required readings for this course.
 Assignments. The main requirement in this course is that you complete the 12 lab assignments described in the “Grading Policy” section below. You will be turning in these assignments, four at a time, on the dates indicated below.
 Grade Posting. You will be able to look at your scores on the lab assignments by clicking on the Grades link from the course home page.
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 Office Hours. You can post your questions on the course website or send private questions to the instructor by e-mail: vas@email.arizona.edu. The instructor will answer virtually all questions in less than 24 hours. In most cases, he will post his answers to one of the two forums so that other members of the class can benefit from the information.
The course will proceed as follows: There will be written assignments for each week of the session.
You will be expected to visit the course D2L site at least 2-3 times a week. When you enter the
Laboratory, you will find a detailed description of each week’s assignment, as well as pertinent readings, discussion and critiques, answers to students’ questions, and extra-credit options. You will also be expected to check the Announcements forum, which will have regular updates related to both the lecture course and the lab. Although you are not required to post to either forum, you are strongly encouraged to take advantage of the learning opportunities that the online format affords you. You will be taking three exams in the course (see “Grading Policy” for more information).
Your grade will be based on 12 written lab assignments, which must be turned in no later than 6pm on the following dates:
Assignments 1-4: Friday, February 19
Assignments 4-8: Friday, March 26
Assignments 9-12: Friday, April 30
If you miss a deadline, you will receive an automatic score of zero. There are no exceptions, even for legitimate emergencies. It is always better to err on the side of caution and to submit an assignment earlier than the deadline. Your work will always be accepted early but never late.
A paper copy of the assignments must be submitted. The deadlines shown coincide with the
PSYC290a exams. You can either turn in your assignments in the main Psychology Department office (PSYC 312) prior to the deadlines shown above, or you can hand them in to the instructor when you arrive in the testing room (TBD; the location will be posted in the Announcements forum).
Each assignment is worth 10 points and there are a total of 120 points for this course, which are distributed as follows:
Assignments 1-4:
Assignments 5-8:
Assignments 7-12:
TOTAL
Your grade will be based on the grade cutoffs shown below:
Grade
A
B
Score___
100-120
80-99
C
D
60-79
40-59
40 points
40 points
40 points
120 points
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F below 40
Please note: There is no grade of “incomplete” in this course. Any extra-credit options will be made available through the course website. The only way to know what these options will be is to check the website regularly.
You are strongly encouraged to post drafts of your written work in the Laboratory forum and to solicit critiques of this work from your classmates as well as the instructor. This way, you can maximize the quality of your assignments before submitting them to the instructor for grading. You can post as many drafts as you want on the course website, and given that you generally have 1-4 weeks from the time a lab assignment is given until the submission deadline, you have the opportunity to really refine your work before turning in the completed assignments.
All readings for this course will be made available on the course website: http://d2l.arizona.edu.
Every week we will focus on a new lab assignment, and our discussion in the Laboratory forum will focus primarily on that assignment. However, you can post any question pertaining to any of
the assignments on any day of the semester, and your questions and thoughts are always welcome.
The following is the schedule we will be following in this course:
WEEK 1 (1/13 - 1/15)
WEEK 2 (1/18 - 1/22)
Lab Overview
Assignment 1: Critique of a Scientific Paper
MLK DAY HOLIDAY: JANUARY 18
WEEK 3 (1/25 - 1/29)
WEEK 4 (2/1 - 2/5)
WEEK 5 (2/8 - 2/12)
WEEK 6 (2/15 - 2/19)
WEEK 7 (2/22 - 2/26)
WEEK 8 (3/1 - 3/5)
WEEK 9 (3/8 - 3/12)
WEEK 10 (3/15 - 3/19)
WEEK 11 (3/22 - 3/26)
WEEK 12 (3/29 - 4/2)
Assignment 2: Social Science Citation
Assignment 3: Correlation
Assignment 4: Stroop Test
Assignment 5: Introduction Section
ASSIGNMENTS 1-4 DUE: FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 19, 6pm
Assignment 6: Method Section
Assignment 7: Factorial Design
Assignment 8: Counterbalancing
SPRING BREAK
Assignment 9: Quasi-Experimental Designs
ASSIGNMENTS 5-8 DUE: FRIDAY, MARCH 26, 6pm
Assignment 10: Results Section
WEEK 13 (4/5 - 4/9)
WEEK 14 (4/12 - 4/16)
Assignment 11: Discussion Section
Assignment 12: Survey Construction
WEEK 15 (4/19 – 4/23) Research Ethics
WEEK 16 (4/26 – 4/30) ASSIGNMENTS 9-12 DUE: FRIDAY, APRIL 30, 6pm
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