Psy 395: Measurement and Research Design
Spring 2012
3 credits
Tuesdays and Thursdays 9:10 am to 10:00 am
103 Erickson
Labs Meet Once per Week for 1 hour 50 minutes
Olds Hall 012
Instructor:
Dr. Timothy J. Pleskac
Office 282A Psychology
Phone: 517.353.8918
email: pleskact@msu.edu
Office Hours: 10:30 to 12 pm Tuesdays and Thursdays and by appointment
Course Website: Angel. All class materials, including this syllabus, will be posted there. Please use ANGEL to
upload your lab reports and final projects.
Required Audience Response System:
Two options (see below for more details):
•i>Clicker Remote, Macmillan (MPS, formerly VHPS). Available in student bookstores
•web>Clicker, Macmillan (MPS). Available via website: https://webclicker.iclicker.com/
Required Textbook:
Goodwin, C. J., (2009). Research in psychology: Methods and design (6th ed.), Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley &
Sons.
Recommended:
Publication manual of the American Psychological Association - 6th edition (2010). Washington, D.C.:
American Psychological Association.
Other good textbooks:
Stanovich, K. E. (2010). How to think straight about psychology (9th edition). Boston, MA: Pearson
Course Goal.
The goal of this course is to improve your critical thinking skills about psychological research. For those
of you who hope to directly work in the psychological and brain sciences or a related social and/or cognitive
science this course will serve as a foundation for the content areas of these sciences (e.g., cognitive,
organizational, social, neuro, ecological, etc.). For others, this course will make you better consumers of this
research.
At the end of this course you should be able to:
• Learn how to develop one’s ideas into sets of testable hypotheses about behavior.
• Know the proper type(s) of design(s) that are appropriate, and apply them to investigate the questions at
hand.
• Know how to evaluate the data, both in favor of and against your hypotheses.
• Be able to draw meaningful conclusions based on your analyses and other sources.
• Be able to thoughtfully evaluate academic research and other information sources.
•
Finally, students will develop their technical writing skills.
LABORATORY SECTIONS:
Labs begin meeting the week of January 23rd. You must attend the lab section for which you are officially
registered. Attendance will be taken. Here is the list of laboratory sections and TAs:
Section
Day of the Week
Time
TA
Email
1
Monday
8:00 - 9:50
Ms. Elizabeth Polk
polkeliz@msu.edu
2
Monday
4:10 - 6:00
Mr. Blake Whitt
whittbla@msu.edu
3
Tuesday
10:20 - 12:10
4
Tuesday
4:10 - 6:00
Mr. Alan Wedd
weddalan@msu.edu
5
Wednesday
8:00 - 9:50
Mr. Alan Wedd
weddalan@msu.edu
6
Wednesday
12:40 – 2:30
Ms. Elizabeth Polk
7
Thursday
10:20 - 12:10
Kathryn McAlindon mcalindo@msu.edu
8
Thursday
4:10 - 6:00
Kathryn McAlindon mcalindo@msu.edu
9
Friday
10:20 - 12:10
10
Friday
12:40-2:30
Ms. Jessica Wortman jwortman@gmail.com
polkeliz@msu.edu
Ms. Jessica Wortman jwortman@gmail.com
Mr. Blake Whitt
whittbla@msu.edu
Final Grade =
.05 * Lab Participation
+ .20 * Short Lab Reports
+ .25 * Final Term Project
+ .05 * Lecture Participation
+ .20 * Low Exam
+ .25 * High Exam
Real Limits
Letter Grade
Numerical
Grade
89.5
84.5
79.5
74.5
A
B+
B
C+
69.5 64.5 59.5 C
D+
D
F
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.0
The grading rules are precise and generous and therefore there will be no exceptions to them.
Lab Participation
Regular attendance and participation in lab activities and discussion will determine 5% of your final grade.
Attendance will be taken at labs. Your lab participation grade will be assigned as follows:
# Labs Attended
12 or more
11
10
9
8
7 or fewer
Points
100
80
60
40
20
0
Short Lab Reports. Complete reports must be uploaded before the start of your lab the week they are due. No
late reports will be accepted. There are 3 reports each worth 100 points.
Final Term Project. You will complete a term project, which involves the design and implementation of an
original research project. Group projects involving 2 to 4 students are highly encouraged; however written work
must be completed independently. The research project will be worth 25% of your final grade. All research
project topics MUST be approved by your TA.
Research Proposal: You will be required to submit a research proposal prior to conducting the study.
The research proposal will include a review of the relevant literature, descriptions of the methods you
plan to use, expected results, and complete reference section. The proposal should use at least three peerreviewed journals in APA format. The research proposal is due no later than lab beginning on the
week of 4/4. The proposal will be worth 25% of your final term project grade. The TAs will provide
feedback on your research proposal that you should incorporate into your final paper.
Final Paper: The final paper must be written in APA style with Introduction, Methods, Results,
Discussion, and References sections. More information on the research proposal and term project will be
provided in a separate handout. The paper is due Friday, April 29, 2011 at 5 pm. The topic is of your
choosing. More instructions will be given during your laboratory sections. No late papers will be
accepted.
Lecture Participation.
I expect that students will attend and actively participate during all class sessions. If a student must miss class
he or she is responsible for what transpires during class sessions whether he or she is there or not.
This class will employ active learning strategies via the use of in-class questions. These questions may be used
to assess the student’s understanding of material presented on that day of class or memory for information
presented in previous classes. In addition, these questions may be used to generate discussion during class.
Students will only be graded whether they respond to the question or not. The lecture participation grade will be
based on what percentage of the questions the student responds to.
Real Limits
Points
89.5 84.5 79.5 74.5 69.5 64.5 59.5 54.5 49.5 44.5
100
90
80
70
60
50
40
30
20
10
0
So if the student participates in 90% or more of the questions he or she receives all 100 points for lecture
participation. If he or she participates in 85% of the questions he or she receives 90 points for lecture.
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 can not obtain credit for that day of class. Please understand that in
a class of 500 students, there will be at least one person who forgets their clicker each day and the instructor
simply cannot give credit in these circumstances.
Exams. Exams are the most effective way to individually assess your understanding of the most
important and fundamental concepts. The exams will consist of multiple-choice/true false, and short answer
questions. Exam 1 is scheduled for Thursday, March 3, 2011, and Exam 2 is scheduled for Friday May 6, 2011,
from 7:45 - 9:45. The exams emphasize material covered since the previous exam; however, the material in this
class is more or less cumulative given that basic concepts from the first portions of the class are always relevant.
Make-up exams require a certified medical excuse or a documented personal emergency.
Extra credit. You have the opportunity to earn up to an extra 15 percentage points in the lab report category by
participating in psychology experiments being conducted here at MSU. So yes if you get 100% on all the lab
reports and complete all the extra participation points then you will get 115% in the lab report category.
Instructions for volunteering are given at the end of the syllabus. Participating in these experiments is
completely voluntary. Consequently, if you conscientiously object to participating in these experiments there are
several alternative methods for you to earn an equivalent set of extra credit points. Please talk to me for a list of
these possibilities.
To earn 10 percentage points:
•Earn 1 point for every credit you complete. I will be informed at the end of the semester via the experimental
sign-up computer system how many credits you earned.
To earn 5 additional percentage points:
•Earn and additional percentage point (up to 5) for writing a short paragraph about a study that you participated
in. You should addresses the following questions:
1.What was the scientific question the study sought to answer?
2.How were the “things” of interest operationalized in the study?
3.What were the independent and dependent variables?
4.Was the study observational or experimental?
5.What was the experimental design of the study? Was it between-participants or within-participants?
6.What are the planned statistics for the study? Regression analyses? Analysis of variance?
*Earn 1 percentage point for each write up you complete.
You should be able to use the DEBRIEF form to answer most of the questions. Please upload your paragraphs
to ANGEL by 5 pm Friday April 29, 2011.
iClicker & webClicker Information
You are required to purchase an i>clicker remote or a web>clicker account for in-class participation. i>clicker
is a response system that allows you to respond to questions I pose during class, and you will be graded on that
feedback and/or your in-class participation. In order to receive this credit, you will need to register your
i>clicker remote online or purchase and set up your web>clicker before the start of lecture on 1/18/2011.
iClicker Remote Registration
You must have come to class at least once and voted on at least one question in order to complete this
registration properly. Once you have voted on a question in my class, go to http://www.iclicker.com/
registration. Complete the fields with your first name, last name, student ID, and remote ID. Your student ID
should be your msu email. The remote ID is the series of numbers and sometimes letters found on the bottom
of the back of your i>clicker remote. i>clicker will be used every day in class, and you are responsible for
bringing your remote daily.
Important: in the section for student id, you should write your msu netid including @msu.edu. For example,
the instructor’s email address is pleskact@msu.edu so he would enter this entire address under student id. Do
NOT list you’re 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.
WebClicker Registration
If you choose to use webClicker then do the following. Open a web browser and go to: https://
webclicker.iclicker.com. First, purchase a webClicker account by choosing the option Get access to web>clicker
-> Students. Once the Create a web>clicker account page opens enter your first name, last name, and student
ID. Your student ID should be your msu email address. After you type the zip code in the School or University
Zip code box click Look up then select your school from the drop-down list. Then after you type the security
code, click Register. At this point, a Registration summary will appear and you can return to the log in screen.
Now log in. Then select the instructor (Pleskac, Timothy J) and choose your course page Measurement and
Research Design-Psy 395. You should be ready to use the system.
The following syllabus is a tentative schedule for the class. I reserve the right to change it to best meet the needs
of the class.
Class Type
Date
Topic
Reading
Lab Week
1/9/12
Labs cancelled all week
Lecture
1/10/12
Intro / Overview of Psychological
Review
Chapter 1
Lecture
1/12/12
Ethics
Chapter 2
Lab Week
1/16/12
Labs cancelled all week
Lecture
1/17/12
Ethics
Lecture
1/19/12
Basic Stats Review
Lab Week
1/23/12
Lab 1 Observational Study
Lecture
1/24/12
Basic Ingredients of a Study
Lecture
1/26/12
Finding out what we know
Lab Week
1/30/12
Lab 2 Analysis of Observational
Study
Lecture
1/31/12
Writing up what you find out
Appendix A
(up to poster
presentation)
Lecture
2/2/12
Writing up what you find out
Appendix A
(up to poster
presentation)
Lab Week
2/6/12
Lab 3 Data Collection Lab (GoNo-Go & Individusl differences
lab)
Lecture
2/7/12
Scientific Inquiry
Chapter 3
Lecture
2/9/12
Scientific Inquiry
Chapter 3
Lab Week
2/13/12
Lab 4 Go-No-Go Analysis
Lecture
2/14/12
Scientific Inquiry
Chapter 3
Lecture
2/16/12
Measurement
Chapter 4
Lab Week
2/20/12
Lab 5 Analyses of Individual
Differences
Lecture
2/21/12
Measurement
Chapter 4
Lecture
2/23/12
Measurement
Chapter 4
Assignment
Chapter 2
Observation Study Assignment
(Due beginning labs week of 2/6)
Chapter 3
1.) Go-No-Go Assignment (Due
beginning of labs week of 2/20)
Individual Diff Analysis (Due
beginning of labs week of 3/12)
Class Type
Date
Topic
Lab Week
2/27/12
No Lab
Lecture
2/28/12
Review
Lecture
3/1/12
Midterm Exam
3/5
Spring Break
Reading
Assignment
Assignment of Final Project; Part
I Proposal Due beginning of lab
3/26)
3/6
3/8
Lab Week
3/12/12
Lab 6 Work on Final Project
Lecture
3/13/12
Measurement
Chapter 4
Lecture
3/15/12
Measurement
Chapter 4
Lab Week
3/19/12
Lab 7 Work on Final Project
Lecture
3/20/12
Measurement
Chapter 4
Lecture
3/22/12
Experimental Research
Chapter 5, 6
Lab Week
3/26/12
Lab 8 Work on Final Project
Lecture
3/27/12
Experimental Research
Chapter 5, 6
3/29/12
Experimental Research
Chapter 5, 6
Lab Week
4/2/12
Lab 9 Work on Final Project
Lecture
4/3/12
Relational Research
Chapter 9
Lecture
4/5/12
Relational Research
Chapter 9
Lab Week
4/9/12
Lab 10 Work on Final Project
Lecture
4/10/12
Relational Research
Chapter 9
Lecture
4/12/12
Complex Experimental Design
Chapter 7,8
Lab Week
4/16/12
Lab 11 Work on Final Project
Lecture
4/17/12
Complex Experimental Design
Lecture
4/19/12
Interactions in Anova
Lab Week
4/23/12
Lab 12 Work on Final Project
Lecture
4/24/12
Analysis & Interpreting ANOVA
Lecture
4/26/12
Review
Lecture
Part I Proposal Due
Chapter 7,8
Chapter 8
Class Type
Final
Date
Topic
Reading
4/27
Final Project Due (5 pm)
5/2
Final; Wednesday, May 2, 2011, 7:45 am 101 N. Kedzie
Assignment
Course Rules
1.) 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 Department of Psychology 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 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 (PSY-295). 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 )
2.) Accommodations for Students with Disabilities: Students with disabilities should contact the Resource
Center for Persons with Disabilities to establish reasonable accommodations. For an appointment with a
disability specialist, call 353-9642 (voice), 355-1293 (TTY), or visit MyProfile.rcpd.msu.edu.
3.) Drops and Adds: The last day to add this course is the end of the first week of classes. The last day to drop
this course with a 100 percent refund and no grade reported is (9/28/2009). The last day to drop this course
with no refund and no grade reported is 10/21/2009). You should immediately make a copy of your
amended schedule to verify you have added or dropped this course.
4.) Commercialized Lecture Notes: Commercialization of lecture notes and university-provided course
materials is permitted in this course.
5.) Class Attendance: students are expected to attend every class session. Examinations are based on materials
covered in class and in the book. However, not every element covered in class is also covered in the book.
Some elements covered in the book are covered in different form in class. Students whose names do not
appear on the official class list for this course may not attend this class. Students who fail to attend the first
four class sessions or class by the fifth day of the semester, whichever occurs first, may be dropped from the
course.
6.) Disruptive Behavior: Article 2.3.5 of the Academic Freedom Report (AFR) for students at Michigan State
University states: "The student's behavior in the classroom shall be conducive to the teaching and learning
process for all concerned." Article 2.3.10 of the AFR states that, "The student has a right to scholarly
relationships with faculty based on mutual trust and civility." General Student Regulation 5.02 states: "No
student shall . . . interfere with the functions and services of the University (for example, but not limited to,
classes . . .) such that the function or service is obstructed or disrupted. Students whose conduct adversely
affects the learning environment in this classroom may be subject to disciplinary action through the Student
Faculty Judiciary process.
MICHIGAN STATE
UNIVERSITY--DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY
Participation in Psychological Research: Information for Students
As part of your psychology course, you are encouraged to participate in research projects conducted or supervised by the
faculty of the department. The purpose of such participation is to give you some direct experience with real experiments and
to give you a better idea of how the work of psychology is actually carried out. Participation is a course requirement for all
sections of PSY 101.
SPECIAL NOTE: Students under 18 years of age may not participate in experiments without parental consent.
Special options have been created for students under 18 to meet the participation requirement. Contact Leslie
Baldwin, the Human Participation in Research (HPR) Secretary in Room 262, Psychology Building if you are under
18 and want to learn more about these options.
Steps in Research Participation: Registering as a Participating Student.
The purpose of this handout is to go over some of the things you will need to know before participating in psychological
research. The first step is registering. This, like nearly all your scheduling activities is handled through a site on the Internet/
World Wide Web. Its address is: http://psychology.msu.edu/HPRSystem/
***If you have participated in the HPR in previous semesters you will need to create a new account. ***
You can access it using standard Web browsers (such as Netscape or Microsoft Explorer) from any campus microcomputer
lab facility. (If you don't know how to do this, ask the attendants at the facility to get you to the site.) This will bring you to
the Participant login page. The first time you visit this page you must create your account. Click on the button that says
Create an account - you will be directed to the page that says Enter the Account Creation ID. This semester your
Account Creation ID is psych2010– in the box used to enter the access code, type it just like this (in lower case), then click
on Enter. You will now see the registration page - provide all the requested information. Once your account is created, you
will be able to log directly into the system with your user ID and e-mail address.
Among other things you will be asked to select the course and section number to which you wish to have your participation
credits credited. It is CRITICAL that you select the correct course and section number. If you select an incorrect course or
section, the credits that you earn through participation will NOT be relayed to the proper instructor and will not be counted in
calculating your course grade
During some semesters, experimenters may want to get some background information on those participating in their
experiments. They do this by having students answer Global Questionnaires. The more of these that you fill out, the more
experiments you will be eligible to participate in. So, after registering, you should click on the Answer Global
Questionnaires button and see if any are posted.
Signing-up for research you can sign up for experiments 24-hours a day on the Web site. To do so, get to the Student
Menu (following the procedure described above). Then, to see a list of all experiments that are currently recruiting
participants, click on the Sign up for an Experiment button and follow the indicated directions. Please make sure you read
the participant task and restrictions for the experiment you are signing up for.
Canceling appointments: Experimenters have usually invested a great deal of time and money in preparing an experiment.
This goes to waste if you fail to keep your appointment. In such cases, you can cancel your appointment by clicking on the
button marked View/Modify My Schedule at the Student Menu on the Web site and following the instructions for
canceling an appointment. Please note that you cannot cancel an appointment on or after the day of your appointment. This
means that any cancellation must be done no later than 24 hours before your appointment. Exceptions will be made in the
case of an emergency, contact the HPR secretary (lbaldwin@msu.edu ) for more information. (You need to know the
name of the experiment and the date/time you signed up for.)
If you lost the appointment time and place: Sometimes, people mislay the date-time-location information for an
experiment they've signed up for. If this happens to you and you ever need to check on your appointments (where you're
supposed to be and when), you can always click on the button marked View/Modify my Schedule at the Web site to get this
information. You can save yourself a lot of trouble by writing down all the information and keeping it in a safe place.
Reporting for a research appointment: Be sure to give yourself enough time to get to the experiment on time, (Arriving
10 minutes before the experiment is to begin is suggested) If you are late, you could find the experiment in progress and
the door locked. On rare occasions, an experimenter may not make his/her appointment with you because of unusual
circumstances (e.g., a car breakdown, a personal emergency). If this happens contact Leslie Baldwin, the HPR Secretary in
Room 262, Psychology Building or email her at: lbaldwin@msu.edu to report it (email is preferred).
Rights of Students Participating in Psychology Research
Participation must be voluntary/optional activities. First, it is Department, University, and Federal policy that no student
be compelled in any way to participate in research. If you participate in research, it must be done voluntarily. Therefore,
even in classes where research participation is required, students must be offered one or more alternative activities to meet
their requirement. If you want to avail yourself of such an alternative activity, you may get information from your professor.
Note that on rare occasions there are more people interested in participating in experiments than there are openings in the
experiments. If this occurs this semester, additional alternative activities will be provided later in the semester.
Participation should be educational. Second, participating in research should be a learning experience for you. You have
a right to obtain information about the experiments in which you serve as a participant. You are entitled to have your
questions about the experiment answered. Also, at least five minutes of every experimental session must be devoted to
teaching you something about the experiment. You are entitled to receive a written summary of the experiment, including the
name and phone number of the person in charge of the experiment, whom you may contact if you have additional questions.
The right to discontinue participation: Third, the Department of Psychology is highly concerned that no study be
conducted that would in any way be harmful to you. Even so, it is possible that in rare cases you will feel uncomfortable
about participating in a study for which you have volunteered. Just remember, you always have the right to leave any
experiment. You don't have to explain or justify why you want to leave, and you can never be penalized for leaving.
The right to receive earned credits: Finally, if you do what you're supposed to do (sign up properly, show up at the right
place at the right time, etc.), you have a right to receive the credit you've earned. So, for example, even if an experimenter
has an equipment breakdown, you're still entitled to receive credit for the time you've spent in the study. However, do not
sign up for the same study twice. Please remember that credit values are based on the time it takes to complete a study,
(1 credit equal to 30 minutes) and not the study itself.
Reporting problems: If you ever encounter some problem or feel that your rights have been violated, we want to know
about it. Problems you have will be handled by Leslie Baldwin, the HPR Secretary, email address lbaldwin@msu.edu or
come to Room 262 Psychology Building. They will be investigated and appropriate action will be taken. If the issue
concerns an experiment you need to know the name of the experiment and the date/time you signed up for.
Conclusions: We want to emphasize that negative experiences are very rare; most students who serve as participants in
research at Michigan State find their participation interesting and enjoyable. When you serve as a participant in
psychological research you're benefiting personally by learning more about what the science of psychology is really about,
but you're also benefiting many others. Others like the psychologists who are working to get a better understanding of
interesting and important behavioral questions. Others like people who will benefit when that knowledge is ultimately
applied to everyday human problems like loneliness, depression, divorce, and self development. And others like future
generations of students. Who knows? Perhaps the research you participate in this semester will be featured in future
psychology textbooks, just as some of the experiments you'll study this semester had their data supplied by previous
generations of MSU students. We hope and expect that you'll put as much in and get as much out of research participation as
they did.