Course Syllabus
Psychology 200: Cognitive Psychology
Summer 2014
CLASS DETAILS
Meeting Time: Mon/Wed 9:10 am – 12:00 pm
Location: 120 Psychology Building
INSTRUCTOR:
Tim Moran, M.A.
Office: Psychology 69E/G
Office Hours: Monday at 1:00 pm or by appointment
Email: morantim@msu.edu
Email is the best way to contact me. I will always try to respond within 24 hours. If you don’t
hear from me in a reasonable amount of time, it may mean your message was left lost among
spam. Try sending it again or talking to me after class. This also means you should try to give me
a reasonable amount of time to respond (e.g. asking a question before a test).
COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course is an introduction to the field of Cognitive
Psychology and will provide an overview of the major theories, findings and methods of the
cognitive approach. Cognitive psychology views the mind as an information processing system
(sort of like a complex, biological computer) and attempts to discover and explain the mental
processes underlying perception, attention, memory, language, thinking, and decision making.
The course will also introduce a number of different methods that are used to investigate brain
processes and their functions.
REQUIRED TEXT: The required text is Cognitive Psychology: Connecting
Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience, 3rd Edition by E. Bruce Goldstein.
COGLAB 2.0: You also need to have access to the Coglab 2.0 Online Laboratory
& Manual. If you bought your text from the bookstore, your access code and online
manual should have been bundled with the text. If you did not get the disk bundled with
your text, you have 2 options.
1. Go to the following link: http://coglab.wadsworth.comThe ISBN is 0-49550296-0 (a credit card is required).
2. The bookstore may order some standalone copies of CogLab Online 2.0
Once you have an access code (from a bundled copy or bought as a standalone)
you will need to create your online account (follow the link above if your copy
does not have instructions).
ASSIGNMENTS & GRADES
EXAMS: There will be three multiple choice exams: two non-cumulative
midterms and a cumulative final exam. They will test your knowledge of the material
presented in lecture, the readings, CogLabs, and any videos we watch.
MAKE UP EXAMS: You may take a makeup exam in case of (1) a documented
medical emergency, or (2) a legitimate schedule conflict, such as a religious holiday or
sports travel, that you inform the instructor about at least 1 week in advance. In either
case, please send email to me identifying the emergency or conflict. You may take the
exam either at another time on the normal exam day, or sometime prior to the next course
meeting. If you cannot take the exam on one of those 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.
COGLAB PARTICIPATION: On the schedule, I have assigned 5 coglab
experiments that are applicable to different course topics. Your participation in these
experiments will help expose you to an array of behavioral methods that are used to
investigate human cognition, and will help you better understand the lecture material. For
any CogLab, you may see several topics listed (e.g. Perception & Attention). You only
have to choose one of these topics per week; you do not have to do all of them. Similarly,
under any particular topic you will see several CogLab experiments; you are only
required to complete one of them per week (each week, choose the topic and experiment
that interest you the most). To get credit for doing the assignment, you should turn in a
short write-up for each CogLab. The write-up should include your topic (e.g. Attention),
your experiment (e.g. The Stroop), a short description of your results (be specific) and
what you think they mean. Send this write-up to me via email before class on
Wednesdays.
ARTICLE PRESENTATION: Each of you has been assigned a research article
to present in class. Your article and presentation date are posted on the article handout.
Each article must be presented on the day listed in the schedule (the topics of the articles
roughly follow the course material); however, you may switch articles with a classmate.
Just confirm the switch with me ahead of time.
In your presentation, you should describe the rationale for the research (including
relevant background work), describe the methods (including the sample, materials and
procedure as is necessary), present the major results (using figures and tables, if
necessary) and identify conceptual and/or methodological limitations or unresolved
issues. Good ways to evaluate an article include, but aren’t limited to, identifying
confounds, identifying threats to validity, offering alternative explanations of the data and
suggesting ways to improve the validity of the study. Note that criticisms should be
specific rather than general; for example if you believe that a study’s methodology has
poor validity, you should identify why this is the case and how the results might change if
these issues were resolved.
In class, everyone should read the articles for that day and should be able to ask
questions and raise discussion points. The goal of this exercise is to understand the
findings of each study as well as to understand its limitations and avenues for future
work.
Presentations should be done using powerpoint and should last roughly 15 minutes
(with 5-10 minutes for questions and discussion). Prior to your presentation, I
recommend that you meet with me to discuss your article (this is not required but I think
it will be very beneficial). If you want to set up a meeting with me, email me ahead of
time to make an appointment.
EXTRA CREDIT: You may receive up to 5% on your final grade by
participanting in HPR experiments. You will receive 1 point for each half-hour credit of
research participation (up to 5 credits/5 points). For all questions about research
participation, please contact the Research Participation Coordinator, Ms. Leslie Baldwin
(lbaldwin@msu.edu). If you plan to complete extra credit, please do so early as the
sessions tend to fill up. If you are under 18, you may be ineligible to participate in
research; please contact Leslie to discuss alternative assignments.
VALUE OF ASSIGNMENTS:
Assignment
Value
Midterm 1
24%
Midterm 2
24%
Final Exam
27%
CogLabs
10%
Presentations
15%
Extra Credit
5%
Total
105%
Scale:
Grade
4.0
3.5
3.0
2.5
2.0
1.5
1.0
0.0
Percent
> 90%
85-90%
80-84%
75-79%
70-74%
65-69%
60-64%
< 60%
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. Therefore, you are
expected to complete all course assignments, including coglab assignments, 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 this course. Students who
violate MSU academic integrity rules may receive a penalty grade, including a failing
grade on the assignment or in the course. Contact me if you are unsure about the
appropriateness of your course work. (See also https://www.msu.edu/~ombud/academicintegrity/student-faq.html).
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.
ATTENDANCE: You are expected to attend each class. I will present some of
the material in a different way than the text and I will present some information that is
not covered by the text.
DISRUPTIVE BEHAVIOR: Article 2.3.4 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.
CELL PHONES: Please insure that your cell phone is turned off or on silent
mode before class begins.
SCHEDULE
Date
6/30
Reading
Ch. 1
7/7
7/9
Topic
Introduction,
Syllabus, History &
Methods
Cognitive
Neuroscience
Perception
Attention
7/14
Midterm 1
Ch. 10
7/16
Imagery
Memory
Ch. 5 & 6
7/2
Ch. 2
Ch. 3
Ch. 4
7/21
7/23
Memory Cont.
Knowledge &
Representations
Ch. 6 & 7
Ch. 8
7/28
7/30
Language
Midterm 2
Ch. 11
Ch. 12
Problem Solving
8/6
Reasoning &
Decision Making
Expertise/Creativity
8/11
Emotion
8/13
Final Exam
8/4
CogLab
Perception or
Attention
Sensory
Memory or
Imagery
Short-Term
Memory or
Working
Memory
Memory
Processes or
Speech &
Language
Ch. 13
See Presentation
Schedule for
Articles
See Presentation
Schedule for
Articles
Judgment