Syllabus

Text:

Sternberg, R. J. (1999). Cognitive Psychology. (2nd Ed). Orlando, FL: Harcourt Brace
Textbook website http://www.wadsworth.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20&product_isbn_issn=0155085352&discipline_number=24
St. James, J., Schneider, W., & Rodgers, K. A. (1994). MEL Lab: Experiments in Perception, Cognition, Social Psychology and Human Factors. Pittsburgh: Psychology Software Tools.

The following book is also recommended

SPSS for Windows Handbook. SUNY Oswego Department of Psychology

These books are available at the college bookstore and Kraftees.

Additional readings will be on reserve in the library

An outline of the course lectures and copies of the lecture overheads are available off the World Wide Web (http://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky/cognition/lectures.htm) The outline will also be put on reserve at Penfield Library.

Course Overview:

This course is designed to explore how the mind works. What we will discover is that, unlike other parts
of our body, the mind is still a mystery. As much as we know about the mind, there is considerably more that we do not know. The study of cognitive psychology is therefore like investigating a mystery. We develop tools to help our investigatlon, collect evidence and speculate on the solution. As this discipline is still in its infancy, there are still many questions about how the mind works that are still unanswered. We will conduct in-class laboratories to illustrate the concepts discussed in class and provide experience in writing APA style lab reports. The culminating activity of the class will be an independent research project that students will conduct. This project will involve designing individual experiments, collecting data, writing an APA lab report and presenting the project to the class. The goals I have for this class are:

1. To gain a fundamental understanding of cognitive psychology
2. To gain insight into the relationship between cognitive psychology and other disciplines within and
   outside psychology.
3. To understand how knowledge of invisible cognitive processes can be obtained.
4. To demonstrate knowledge of cognitive psychology through performance on three exams and a paper
5. To synthesize all that is learned in this course by designing and conducting an original research project.

Assignments and Grades

Your grade will be determined by your scores on: three exams, four lab reports, the original research project which includes an oral presentation of your proposed project, an oral presentation of a journal article, homework assignments, and participation in class. Students must complete all the assignments to receive a passing grade in the course.

Exams:

The three exams will cover all material from the lectures, assigned readings, laboratories, and student
presentations. The exams will be cumulative as the material in the class does build on itself. Your performance at the end of the semester is dependent on how well you understand the material from the beginning of the semester. The exact format of the exams will be some combination of multiple choice, short answer, and essay questions.

The textbook website has practice exams organized by chapter http://www.wadsworth.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20&product_isbn_issn=0155085352&discipline_number=24
Make up exams: Make up exams will not be given except for documented emergency situations

Independent Research Project

The culminating assignment of the class will be the designing and conducting of a research project in the field of cognitive psychology. Although independent projects are encouraged, teams of two students may work together. However, each student will be required to submit an independent paper. The instructor must approve your proposed research project. You will also be required to present your proposed project to the class (after the instructor has approved it).

Prior to starting your project you must have a proposal approved by the instructor. The due date for the proposal is specified in the schedule. The proposal must include:

1. Your hypothesis
2. Operational definitiorfs of your independent and dependent variables
3. Your experimental design
4. Expected results
5. Major references

The instructor must approve any changes from the proposed project.

It cannot be emphasized how important it is to generate your proposal and have it approved by the instructor as early in the semester as possible. Availability of subjects will decline as the semester progresses. In addition the instructor will gladly review drafts of the research project submitted prior to the early submission date.

Although the students are responsible for generating the research ideas, the instructor will help direct the students and finalize the project after students have selected a general area of interest. The textbook and lectures are sources of research topics. In addition, the journal articles identified for review and presentation may help identify research ideas. The list of these articles will be distributed in class and is also available at the following WWW location: PSY 405 Supplementary Readings (http://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky/405rdg.htm)

You are required to include a minimum of five (5) references for your project

Article Presentation

You will have to select and review a research article from the psychology literature. The material to cover in the review will be discussed in class. The output of this assignment will be a presentation to the class. The list of articles that relate to the course lectures will be distributed in class and is also available at the following WWW location: Supplementary Readings (http://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky/405rdg.htm)

You may select an article that is not on the list with the instructors approval. Since the articles relate to the course lectures, material in the presentations may be included in the exams. The presentations must coincide with the lecture topics the articles relate to. I have copies of articles that are not in Penfield Library

Homework

Throughout the semester, in conjunction with laboratories and lecture topics there will be homework assigned. These assignments will primarily be essay type questions where, for example, you would be asked to explain the results of a demonstration on the basis of one of the theories we discussed in class

Participation:

The grade for participation will be based on participation in class and lecture discussions, responses to questions as well as questions asked.

Attendance Policy

Attendance for this class is mandatory. Page 35 of the SUNY Oswego Undergraduate Catalog states Regular attendance is obligatory. An instructor may recommend that a student be dropped from a course for poor achievement due to excessive absence. A student dropped alter the deadline for dropping may be assigned a grade of E." In addition to being a university requirement, a great deal of material presented in class is not in the textbook. Therefore, if you miss class you will miss some very important information that will undoubtedly be included in the exams. Unexcused tardiness or early departures will be counted as an absence. If you must leave class early notify the instructor before class. Attendance will be taken for all classes and labs

Attendance is mandatory for all class presentations. Failure to attend the presentations of your classmates will result in a mandatory downgrade of your class presentation grade.

Attendance for labs is also mandatory. Unless you have a doctor's excuse or some very good, well-documented explanation, you will lose half the points for any lab assignment if you did not attend the lab. Please make it a point to attend.

Students with Disabilities

Accommodations will be made for students with disabilities. Please inform me as soon as possible so necessary arrangements can be made

Lecture Overheads

The web site for this course (httg://www.oswego.edu/~klatsky/cognition/lectures.htm) copies of the PowerPoint slides that are presented in class. As there is a large amount of material covered in class, you will find it very helpful to have copies of these materials in class. When I discuss a particular topic, I use the overheads as a starting point. Many students who focus on copying the overheads will often miss important points that are made. If you have copies of the overheads, you can listen to what is being said and annotate your copies.

PSY 405 Cognition
Tentative Schedule

Date	Topic	Textbook Assignment S = Stemberg Mel = Mel Lab
Jan 22	Introduction, formalities
Jan 23	No Lab
Jan 24-29	Introduction to Cognitive Psychology	S Chapter 1
Jan 30 Lab	Lab Orientation Bring Mel disk and formatted blank disk to lab	Mel pgs 1-18
Jan 31-Feb 5	Intro to Neurocognition	S Chapter 2
Feb 6 Lab	Lab 1
Feb 7-12	Attention	S Chapter 3
Feb 13 Lab	Discussion of Lab 1 and lab report assignment (Method and Results)	Mel assigned in class
Feb 14-26	Perception & Pattern Recognition	S Chapter 4
Feb 20 Lab	Lab 1 Due Lab 2
Feb 28	Review
Mar 3	Exam 1
March 5-14	Theories and Models of Memory	S Chapter 5
Mar 6 Lab	Lab 3
Mar 10	Lab 2 Due
Mar 13 Lab	Discussion of Lab 3 and lab report assignment (Complete Lab)	Mel assigned in class
Mar 17-12	Memory Stuctures and Processes	S Chapter 6
Mar 20 Lab	Lab 3 Due Project Discussion
Mar 21	Project Proposals Due
Mar 24-28	Spring Break
Mar 31-Apr 2	Semantic Long Term Memory	S Chapter 8
Apr 3 Lab	Lab 4
Apr 4-7	Imagery	S Chapter 7
Apr 9	Review
Apr 10 Lab	Discussion of Lab 4 and lab report assignement (complete lab)	Mel assigned in class
April 11	Exam 2
April 14-18	Language	S Chapters 9 & 10
Apr 17 Lab	Lab 4 Due
April 21-28	Decision Making	S Chapter 12
April 23	Quest
Apr 24 Lab	Project discussions
Apr 30- May 2	Problem Solving	S Chapter 11
May 1 Lab	Project discussions/work
May 2	First submission of Independent prjects Must be complete paper (Projects handed in after this date cannot be rewritten)
May 5	Projects returned for rewrite
May 5-7	Applied Cognition
May 8 Lab	Project Presentations
May 9	Independent projects due Exam Review
May 14 12:30	Exam 3 Due

last update 1/6/2003