Lecture: T, Th 11:10 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.; 106 Mahar
Lab: W 9:20 - 11:20 p.m.; 302 Mahar

Instructor: Kristen Link, Ph.D.
Contact info: 461 Mahar/312-3465/klink@oswego.edu
Office hours: T/Th 1:30 - 2:30, W 11:30-12:30, or by appt.

Teaching Assistant: Matt Lundgren
Contact info: lundgren@oswego.edu
Office hours: M 1:00-2:30, 319 Mahar

Course Objectives
The purpose of this course is to provide students a familiarity with and understanding of various research methods in the behavioral sciences so that they can: plan good research, understand the strengths and limitations of research methods, critically evaluate information about human behavior presented in both professional journals and the popular media, and develop proficiency in professional scientific writing.

Course Format
This course consists of lecture and labs. Concepts and examples of psychological research will be covered in lectures, with questions and discussions during class encouraged. In lab, you will participate in and conduct psychological research.

Required Text
Heiman, G. W. (2002). Research methods in psychology (3rd ed.). Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

Recommended Texts
Izzett, R. SPSS Windows instructions & examples for PSY 280, PSY 290, & PSY 40X. Oswego, NY: SUNY Oswego Department of Psychology.

One of the following guides to APA style:
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.). Washington, DC: Author. (if you plan on going on to graduate school)
Perrin, R. (2004). Pocket guide to APA style. Boston: Houghton Mifflin.

One of the following guides for writing:
Mitchell, M. L., Jolley, J. M., & O'Shea, R. P. (2004). Writing for psychology. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
Rosnow, R. L., & Rosnow, M. (2003). Writing papers in psychology (6th ed.). Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.

Grading
Your final grade in this course will be based on your performance on three examinations (200 pts), a research paper (100 pts.), a presentation (15 pts.), and assignments (140 pts.). The first two exams will each be worth 50 points, while the comprehensive final will be worth 100 pts. Each exam will consist of multiple choice and short answer questions. The exams will make you think; the best study strategy is not memorization, but to grasp an understanding of the concepts in a way that you can apply them to novel examples.

You, or you and a partner, will work on a research project throughout the semester in which you will design, implement, and write up a study on the topic of your choice. If you work with a partner, the design and implementation of the study (deciding what to do and how to do it, and then collecting and analyzing the data) will be done together. However, all written assignments related to your project will be done individually. As this is an ongoing project that will encompass the entire semester, assignments related to it will be turned in at different points throughout the semester. The first assignment is a project proposal, a brief overview of what you plan to do (10 pts.). Three sections of the write-up (1. Introduction and References, 2. Method and Results and, 3. Title page, Discussion, and Abstract) will be turned in at different points thereafter. You will receive feedback on each of these sections from the instructor and your peers and will have an opportunity to revise them based on any comments before turning in the final draft. At the end of the semester, you will turn in a final draft of the paper, including all three sections, worth 100 points.

At the end of the semester, each student or pair of students will do a presentation of their research project in a mini-conference in class. You may choose to do a spoken presentation (10-15 min.) or a poster presentation. The presentation, regardless of format, is worth 15 points.

There will be several lab/homework assignments throughout the semester. The points associated with most of these assignments are indicated in the course schedule (below). In addition, you are responsible for reading the text prior to our discussing a topic in class. As part of each reading assignment, you will be required to email me one potential exam question taken from the reading. The question should not ask simply the definition of some new term, but should have the reader apply or generalize their new knowledge. For example, a poor question about classical conditioning might be "What type of stimulus becomes paired with what type of response in classical conditioning?" This question merely has the reader retrieve two terms from memory. Alternatively, a good question might be "Marjorie noticed that her dog becomes excited whenever she puts on her shoes, as this normally comes before her daily morning walk. Explain the dog's behavior from a classical conditioning perspective." This question is better because it has the reader not only retrieve his/her memory for the classical conditioning concepts, but also has him/her apply them to a novel example. When you email me your question, please include the pages of the reading assignment in the subject line. Questions must be emailed before the beginning of the class period that the reading assignment is due. Any questions you send for one reading assignment are worth 1 point, and you must send questions based on 10 different readings. That is, only one question per reading assignment will be counted for credit. If you will have difficulty accessing the internet for some reason (e.g., no internet access at home), other arrangements can be made for you to turn in your questions. Please see me about this.

Final grades will be based on the following scale: 93-100% (421-455 pts.) = A; 90-92% (408-420 pts.) = A-; 87-89% (394-407 pts.) = B+; 83-86% (376-393 pts.) = B; 80-82% (362-375 pts.) = B-; 77-79% (349-361 pts.) = C+; 73-76% (330-348 pts.) = C; 70-72% (317-329 pts.) = C-; 67-69% (303-316 pts.) = D+; 63-66% (285-302 pts.) = D; 60-62% (271-284 pts.) = D-; 0-59% (0-270 pts.) = E.

Attendance and Class Participation
Class attendance is required, and is crucial for lab. It will not be officially factored into your final grade, but it will affect your grade. If you don't attend class, you won't perform well on the exams. In addition, attendance and participation will be considered in the cases of borderline grades (e.g., consistent attendance and active participation might earn a student with an 89% an A).

Test Make-up Policy & Late Assignments
Students are expected to take the tests on the days they are given. Make-up exams will be given only under exceptional circumstances. These include illness or a death in the family. Let me know as soon as possible if you must miss a test.
Assignments are to be turned in at the beginning of the class period on the day they are due. Late lab assignments will not be accepted under any circumstances!! Therefore, it is crucial that you attend the lab sessions without exception. Drafts of project write-ups can be accepted up to one week late, with a penalty of 1 pt. for each day late (including Saturday and Sunday), but only in cases of verifiable illness or emergency.

Extra Credit
You have the opportunity to earn 20 points of extra credit. This amount can raise your final percentage by 5% (half a letter grade). There are four ways to receive extra credit: (1) Participate in experiments being run by faculty and students in the psychology department. This is a good way to learn about experimental design, and about the research going on in the department. You will receive 1 point of extra credit for each 15 minutes of participation. To sign up for experiments, go to the Psychology Experiments sign-up board in the hallway outside of Mahar 318. Make sure the experimenter has extra-credit slips to hand out after you participate to document your participation. This slip should be given to me any time throughout the semester. If you do not show up to an experiment that you signed up for, without canceling 24 hours in advance or without a valid excuse, you will lose the number of points the experiment was worth (e.g., 2 points for an experiment lasting 30 minutes). (2) Bring a friend to participate in the studies being run by your classmates for this course. Two class sessions are set aside for data collection for your projects. Bring up to two friends to each of these sessions, and you will earn 3 extra credit points for each hour your friend participates in these studies. (3) Attend QUEST and write a review. On April 21, SUNY Oswego is holding its annual conference, QUEST 2004. The conference will have presentations, posters, and displays by students and faculty at the college. You can receive 5 extra credit points for each psychology-related presentation you attend and review. Each one- to two-page, typed review should include the title of the presentation, the presenter's name, and details about the design of the study including (a) the hypothesis, (b) operational definitions of the variables (specification of IVs (and levels) and DVs if experimental), (c) the design used to test the hypothesis (be specific), (d) the inferential statistic(s) used to determine whether the hypothesis was supported, (e) a statement indicating whether the researchers found support for the hypothesis, and (f) potential problems with the design. For (f), explain why these are problems and how the problems could be dealt with. The reviews are due Wednesday, April 28. (4) Email additional exam questions from the assigned readings. There are more than 10 reading assignments in the course, so if you consistently read the book before class and email a question for each of them, you will get 1 point of extra credit for each question asked over the 10 required.

Academic Conduct
SUNY Oswego has a policy against cheating, plagiarism, and other forms of academic dishonesty. This policy will be strongly upheld in this class.To avoid plagiarism: If your paper contains other researchers' ideas, you need to reference them. If you quote another researcher verbatim, you need to give the page numbers of the quoted material and the reference. You should not copy sentences and paragraph structures from other written documents. You should not copy other students' papers, or write papers that are substantially similar to those written by other students.

Students with Disabilities
If you are a student with a disability and want me to be aware of this, please come to see me. I will do what is necessary to make your learning experience worthwhile. Alternatively, the Student Advisement Center and the Office of Disabled Student Services have information and resources for students with disabilities.

Notes
Please be considerate of others - turn off cell phones, beepers, etc. before coming to class! The information in this syllabus is subject to change. Any changes made will be announced in class. It is your responsibility to find out about these changes if you miss a class.