Cognitive Psychology Course Outline - Summer 2004

360s04 Thursday evening 19:00-22:00 classroom 6111
Instructor: Bruce Landon, Ph.D. Office: 3419 and DLC B3113
Phone: 604-777-6161
Office hours: Thursday
18:00 +
email: Bruce_Landon@douglas.bc.ca
Homepage: Bruce-Landon.Douglas.bc.ca

 Required
Reading:

Sternberg, R. (2003) Cognitive Psychology, 3rd Edition & CogLab Manual
Anderson, J.R., Bothell, D., Byrne, M. D., & Libiere, C. (2002). An Integrated Theory of the Mind from http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/publications/?subtopic=39
Kahneman, D. (2002). A Perspective on Judgment and Choice: Mapping Bounded Rationality. American Psychologist. 58 (9) pp. 697-720.
Optional
Reading: Wegner, D. (2002) The Illusion of Conscious Will, MIT Press, Boston.

Course Description: PSYC 360 Cognitive Psychology (3 credits) This course provides an introduction to the psychology of cognition and is concerned with the methods and theories relevant to thinking and related processes. Concept formation, problem solving, reasoning, decision making and the relation of language to thought will be covered. The influence of individual differences, social factors, artificial intelligence and biology will be included as well as the practical applications of research in cognition.

Course objective knowledge and skills
               cognitive psychology vocabulary
                               identify key concepts and terms
                               identify key concepts in concept hierarchy
               cognitive psychology methods vocabulary
                               identify common research methods and designs
               cognitive psychology current theories
                               identification of key concepts of major theories
               cognitive psychology important researchers
                               researcher identification with concepts/studies
               cognitive psychology historical stories
                               Nobel prize winner stories
                                              Herbert Simon
                                              Daniel Khanneman
                               Important Canadian Researcher stories
                                              John Anderson
                                              Endel Tulving
               cognitive psychology research involvement
                               participate in coglabs as a participant
                               as a research designer prepare research study proposal
                               as a research teacher prepare sharable research summaries
prerequisite skills:
               web browser skills
                               searching in page
                               saving pages
                               saving links
               word processing skills
                               spell checking
                               grammar checking
                               autosummarize checking for adequate redundancy 
               PsychInfo and PsychArticles search skills
               APA formatted article reading skills
               library skills 
               paragraph skills
               APA format skills
               critical thinking skills (does it make sense?)
                               detecting simple mathematical error
                               detecting inconsistency
                               detecting illogical sequence
                               detecting statistical inference error
                               describing line of reasoning/inference
               making notes from PowerPoint presentation
               making notes from in class videos
 
computer related skills developed in the course
               logon skills
                               computer lab machine
                               course management system
               grade calculation skills
               draft editing skills
               paraphrasing skills
               referencing and citation skills
               email with attachment skills
               check online marks skill
               check calendar skills
               online multiple choice quiz skills
               making notes from online information




Cognitive psychology temporal course outline with email submission subject lines in bold
Date Readings, CogLab, and Term Project assignments

 
05-06       c00 orientation to course and WebCT
               c01 history and methods review and c02 brain research methods review
               demonstration CogLab 01: Stroop Effect
 
05-13       Q&A13 c13 cognitive development and social cognition (introduction to ProtoThinker)
               CogLab 02: False Memory
 
05-20       Q&A910 c09 language acquisition and c10 language context
               CogLab 03: Lexical Decision and ProtoThinker 03: demonstration of parsing
               Research teachers submit ordered list of 5 potential articles to summarize
 
05-27       Q&A14 c14 intelligence (AI and bots)
               CogLab 04: Memory Span and ProtoThinker 04: folk psychology tour review
               Researcher designers submit Project Document with Title Page completed
 
06-03       Q&A11 c11 problem solving, creativity and expertise (ACT-R)
               CogLab 05: Monty Hall
 
06-10       Q&A12 c12 decision making and reasoning (ACT-R)
               CogLab 06: Risky Decisions and Protothinker 06: Logic games exploration
               Research designers submit Project document with References section
               Research teacher & reviewer pairs submit sharable research summary1
 
06-17       Midterm Examination (open book and open notes)
               Multiple choice Section plus personalized essay section
               (Personalized essays are selected from submitted weekly Q&A assignments)
 
06-24       Q&A34 c03 attention and c04 perception
               CogLab 07: Attention Blink and CogLab 08: Signal Detection
               Researcher designers submit Project document with introduction outline
               Research  teacher & reviewer pairs assigned second summary source article 
 
07-01       College Closed Canada Day
               
07-08       Q&A56 c05 memory models and c06 memory processes
               CogLab 09: Remember/Know
               Researcher designers submit Project document with Method section outline
 
07-15       Q&A7 c07 knowledge representation (1) (ACT-R)
               CogLab 10: Mental Rotation
               Research teacher/reviewer pairs of submit their second sharable research summary2
 
07-22       Q&A8 c08 knowledge representation (2) (ACT-R)
               CogLab 11: Prototype
               Researcher designers submit Project final version
 
07-29       Review for Final Exam and Assigned Presentations of selected Research Summaries
 
08-05       Estimated Date of Comprehensive Final Examination
               Multiple choice Section plus personalized essay section
               (Personalized essays are selected from submitted weekly Q&A assignments)



Research Designer Term Project Paper - The term project paper will develop one of the approved topics in Cognition from the list below that have been studied in relation to the ACT-R theory. The form of the term paper is a research proposal that provides a review of the relevant current literature (10+ sources since
January 1, 1994 cited in the introduction). This is similar in form to the introduction and method sections of an experimental research paper with an emphasis on clarity of thought and logical development of ideas. The method section is to include the design of an experiment or series of experiments that are proposed to clarify theoretical issues developed in the introductory section.  Papers that are plagiarized or do not integrate ACT-R theory of the mind will not be marked for credit and will be awarded a zero mark.


Limited list of potentially Approved Project topics

(for more information please see http://act-r.psy.cmu.edu/publications/ )

 

10. Perception & Attention       
 11. Psychophysical Judgments       
 12. Visual Search       
 13. Eye Movements       
 14. Psychological Refractory Period       
 15. Task Switching              
 16. Stroop       
 17. Driving Behavior       
 18. Situational Awareness       
 19. Graphical User Interfaces       
20. Learning & Memory       
 21. List Memory       
 22. Fan Effect       
 23. Implicit Learning       
 24. Skill Acquisition       
 25. Cognitive Arithmetic       
 26. Category Learning       
 27. Learning by Exploration and Demonstration      
 28. Updating Memory &Prospective Memory      
 29. Causal Learning       
30. Problem Solving & Decision Making       
 31. Tower of Hanoi       
 32. Choice & Strategy Selection       
 33. Mathematical Problem Solving       
 34. Spatial Reasoning       
 35. Dynamic Systems       
 36. Use and Design of Artifacts       
 37. Game Playing       
 38. Insight and Scientific Discovery       
40. Language Processing       
 41. Parsing       
 42. Analogy & Metaphor       
 43. Learning       
 44. Sentence Memory       
50. Other areas       
 51. Cognitive Development       
 52. Individual Differences       
 53. Emotion as a dual-task
 54. Cognitive Workload       
 55. Computer Generated Forces       
 56. fMRI       
 57. Communication        
 58. Negotiation        
 59. Group Decision Making       



Essentially, this is a small version of a research proposal that would be submitted as part of a grant proposal or advanced degree requirement (title page, abstract, introduction, method, and references sections only omitting the results and discussion sections in this term project paper). In order to minimize the APA style problems all projects will use the formatted Term Project Document and just make appropriate changes and build the project inside the document where all of the margins and headings are appropriate APA style.

Researcher Term Project Deliverables inside the basic APA style model document:
Submitted by sending 5 emails with the attachment and specific subject line

Title Page
References Section
Outline of the introduction including hypothesis statement
Outline of the Method Section including subsections
Final proofread version

Alternate Research Teacher Term Project is to collaboratively author and review/edit 2 sharable research summaries of articles related to cognitive psychology that have been published in 2003 or 2004 and are available in the PsycArticles Database.  The summaries are to be highly structured learning objects with language targeted at new students of psychology in Grade 12. The support site for the alternate project is at url: http://psyc100.edutools.ca/srs/)


Research Teacher Term Project Deliverables:

Ordered list of 5 nominated articles with copies of abstracts available in PsycArticles published in 2003 or 2004 only

Two collaboratively authored sharable research summaries structured as learning objects with spoken presentations suitable for students with impaired vision (The spoken part may also include a live class presentation of the prepared summary)

Evidence of collaborating in the role of an author and the role of and the role of a reviewer/editor in producing the sharable research summaries structured as learning objects

No more than one assigned presentation to the class of a sharable research summary (a reading style slide show presentation of the learning object with a short class discussion )


Grading System Policy

Plagiarism Policy - Academic Dishonesty will result in Zero credit for assignment, quiz, or exam. Plagiarism can be avoided by not using other's work as one's own. Be careful in citing all of your sources and people appropriately.

Make-up Policy - Missed quizzes are made up on the final exam and assignments must be made up within 3 days (by Sunday night) for credit.

10% Online Contributions to discussions
19% Quizzes and Q&A emails on Assigned Readings
13% Computer based assignments (CogLabs & Protothinker)
19% Term Project (minus 20% for each day of missed deadline)
09% Open Book and open notes Midterm Examination
30% Closed Book Comprehensive Final Exam both in-class and personal Q&A parts (5%)

General weekly structure (10 tasks)

               Check course site and course calendar for upcoming events
               Review of materials in preparation for in-class final exam (25%)
                               Q&A for personalized in-class final exam (5%)
                                              Possible Questions for personalized essay exam
                                                             email Complete essay Questions and Answers (5%)
               CogLab and ProtoThinker Assignments
                               Online report (1% each for a total of 13%)
               Study Reading Assignments
                               recommended Online vocabulary quiz
                               recommended Online researcher quiz
                               recommended Online SelfTest of Reading Comprehension
               Preview class presentation online
               In-class Quiz (for a total of 19%)
               In-class presentation/video/discussion participation and notes
               After class discussion assignment (1% per for a total of 10%)
               Work on Term Project (Final version 15% for paper or 7.5 for each of two summaries)
                               Online Project Progress Reports (4%)
                               (send email attachment of Project document to specified subject lines)


Optional weekly activities (5 tasks)
Remediate skill deficits
Checkout unassigned coglabs
Collaborate with other students
Ask questions in online discussion forums
Answer questions in online discussion forums
Update personal concept map for cognitive psychology