Dr. Michael Diehr

mdiehr@csusm.edu

Phone: see below

Office: UH322A

Hours: Tu 1030-1130

PSYC 362 : COGNITIVE PROCESSES

Spring 2007 Syllabus

 

CRN 21243

Meeting Times :  Tu Th 0900-1015 MARK 305

 

Required Texts:    Ashcraft, M.H. (2006).  Cognition. 4th Edition. New York:  Prentice Hall.

                           Frances (2001).  Coglab Student Manual.  New York:  Wadsworth.

 

Overview of the Course

Cognitive Psychology is the sub-field of Experimental Psychology that examines how the human mind processes information.   Typical areas of research include Perception, Sensation, Learning, Memory, Problem Solving and Reasoning.   The field is relatively young and is generally considered to have truly blossomed with the “Cognitive Revolution” in the 1950s as the creation of the digital computer provided new models of information processing as well as new tools with which to perform research.

 

Since most, if not all of the mechanisms (a.k.a. Cognitive Processes) by which the human brain manipulates information are not directly observable, the field relies heavily on indirect evidence.   Therefore, in class we will pay close attention to details of the scientific method – model creation and hypothesis building, creation of testable predictions, and consideration and refutation of alternate theories to explain the data.    Because experimental manipulations in humans are very limited, we pay particular attention to cognitive processes and function in non-normal situations (such as brain disease or damage).

 

Components

The class will include these major components:

         • Lecture

• Assigned readings from the text (Ashcraft) and library reserves

         • Computerized cognitive testing of yourself using the Coglab website

         • Experiment Journal in which you will write synopses of key experiments

         • Quizzes (multiple choice)

         • Midterms (essay format)

         • Final Exam (multiple choice)

 

Grading

There are 400 possible points in this course:

1. Quizzes (100 points).  There will be ten multiple-choice quizzes worth 10 points each.  There are no make-up quizzes for any reason.  Some of the quizzes may be given without warning (to encourage and reward attendance and reading of material prior to class). 

Quizzes will be focused on the current week’s readings and will not be cumulative.

2. Coglab (30 points).  The Coglab website lets you self-administer some of the most famous experiments in Cognitive Psychology.   Completion on time is worth 2 points each, late completions are worth 1 point.

3. Experiment Journal (50 points).    You will write a 1-page abstract/summary of certain key experiments covered in class.   The Journal will be used on the two Essay tests as a reference source, so it is very important to complete it.   The Journal will be turned in once during the semester for preliminary feedback, and fully graded at the end of the semester.   No late turn-ins or make ups allowed.

4. Essay Tests (100 points).  Essay questions will require you to use the experiments in your Journal as evidence to support a theory.  They are closed-book and closed-notes, except for your Journal.   Make-up tests are only possible with a documented serious emergency.

5. Final Exam (100 points).   50 item multiple choice test, cumulative for the entire semester.

6. Bonus activities (up to 20 points).   Optional activities such as book reports, movie reviews,  participation in on-campus research (if available).  Details will be provided later.

7. Class participation (up to 10 points).   Students making a notable contribution in class will earn up to 10 points at my discretion.

 

Approximate point to grade conversion:  90% = A, 80% = B, 70% = C, 60% = D, below = F

 

Resources

Class Website:  http://courses.csusm.edu/psyc362md

      Contains class notes, syllabus, and links to resources.

Office Hours:  Tuesday 10:30am to 11:30am in UH 322A. No need to make an appointment, just stop by.

Email: I will be sending out emails to all students from time to time.  Checking your email regularly is a requirement of the class.

Phone: This is a shared phone line among several lecturers.  If you call during my office hours I’ll answer it.  If I don’t answer, it’s best to just send email rather than leaving a voice message.   760-750-4191

Textbook Website:  The website for the textbook is at http://www.prenhall.com/ashcraft/ 

Includes learning objectives, practice tests, links to other web resources and Powerpoint presentations of each chapter that you can download.

 

Policy

Students with Disabilities

In compliance with federal ADA laws:  If you have a need for any in-class accommodations, special test-taking arrangements, or help accessing any class materials because of a verified physical or perceptual limitation, please speak with me during the first two weeks of class.

 

Academic Honesty

Cheating or plagiarism (presenting the words or ideas of others as your own) or falsification of data will result in failure of the assignment, possible failure of the course, and notification of the offense to the University.  Please note that copying material from your sources without proper citation is plagiarism (see the APA manual for instructions on how to cite your sources).

 

 

PSYC 362 COURSE SCHEDULE, Spring 2007.   Revision 3

 

Dates

Topic

Reading

Exams

Coglab Due

Jan 23

Introduction & History

Ch 1

 

 

Jan 25

Introduction & History

Ch 1

 

 

Jan 30

Introduction & History

Ch 1

Quiz 1

 

Feb 1

The Big Issues

Ch 2 *

 

 

Feb 6

Methods: Behavioral

Ch 2 *

 

Partial Report

Feb 8

Methods: Neuroscience

Ch 2

Quiz 2

Word Superiority

Feb 13

Perception: Sensory Memory

Ch 3 *

 

Spatial Cueing

Feb 15

Perception: Pattern Recognition

Ch 3 *

 

 

Feb 20

Perception: Object Recognition

Ch 3 *

Quiz 3

 

Feb 22

Midterm 1

 
Midterm 1
Memory Span

Feb 27

Attention

Ch 4

 

Stroop Effect

Mar 1

Attention

Ch 4
 
 

Mar 6

Attention

Ch 4

Quiz 4

Brown-Peterson

Mar 8

Short Term Memory

Ch 5

 

Sternberg Search

Mar 13

Short Term Memory

Ch 5

 

Mental Rotation

Mar 15

Short Term Memory

Ch 5
Quiz 5
Serial Position

Mar 20

Episodic Memory

Ch 6 *

 

Encoding Specificity

Mar 22

Episodic Memory

Ch 6 *

 

 

Mar 27

SPRING BREAK

 
 
 

Mar 29

SPRING BREAK

 

 

 

Apr 3

Episodic Memory

Ch 6 *
Quiz 6
 

Apr 5

Episodic Memory

Ch 6 *
 
 

Apr 10

Semantic Memory

Ch 7 *

 

Lexical Decision

Apr 12

Semantic Memory

Ch 7 *
 
 

Apr 17

Midterm 2

 
Midterm 2
 

Apr 19

Semantic Memory

Ch 7 *

 

 

Apr 24

Semantic Memory

Ch 7 *

Quiz 7

False Memory

Apr 26

Memory Distortion

Ch 8 *

 

 

May 1

Memory Distortion

Ch 8 *

 

Monty Hall

May 3

Memory Distortion

Ch 8 *

Quiz 8

Risky Decisions

May 8

Memory Distortion

Ch 8 *

 

 

May 10

Review for Final

 
Extra Credit Due
 

May 15

FINAL EXAM Tuesday May 15

09:15am to 11:15am

 
Final Exam
 

 

 

Notes about Reading Assignments

Unless otherwise specified, read the entire chapter.

Chapter 2:     All.

                  *Sacks, O. (1970).  Chapter 1

Chapter 3:     Visual Perception

                  Pattern Recognition:  Written Language

                  Object Recognition and Agnosia  (Skip Auditory Perception pages 113-120)

                  *Sacks, O. (1970).  Chapter 8

Chapter 6:     Episodic Memory (Skip “Paired associate learning” pages 240-242)

Chapter 7:     Semantic Memory (pages 259-277)

Skip Physiological Evidence (pages 277-281)

Skip Categorization, Classification and Prototypes (pages 282-287)

                  Priming in Semantic Memory (pages 287-297)

                           Skip Context, Connectionism and the Brain (pages 298-307)

Chapter 8:     Intro and Reconstructive Memory and Semantic Integration (pages 308-321)

                           Skip Propositions, Propositions Semantic Networks and Scripts (pages 322-341)

                  False Memories, Eyewitness Memory and Forgotten Memories (pages 341-353)

                  Autobiographical Memories (pages 353-361)

                  *Schacter, D. (2000).  The Seven Sins of Memory.

*Note.  Articles are on electronic resource. http://eres.csusm.edu/eres/coursepage.aspx?cid=599&page=docs   Password = think

Assignments

 

Coglab

 

For the Coglab activity you will self-administer some of the famous cognitive psychology experiments using a website.   Serving as a research subject is perhaps the best way to understand the process of introspection and meta-cognition and generate theories about how your own mind works.    

 

Coglab scoring is 2 points for completed and on-time, 1 point otherwise.  

Please read the text in the Ccglab book and on the website, but you do not need to do any sort of writeup.

 

Experiment Journal

 

Overview:

The Journal has several purposes: 

• to get you to engage in deep processing about the key experiments. 

• to meet the writing requirement of the Psychology department. 

• to serve as a reference source for you during essay tests.  

• to help you with thinking using the scientific method – understanding hypotheses, experiments, data, and conclusions.

 

Requirements:

The journal must be in a laboratory-style notebook (such as the “Edison Lab Notebook, Item #77108” at the bookstore).    Leave space at the beginning for a Table of Contents.   Every experiment should be limited to a single page, and every experiment should be on the same page # for all students.   I recommend that you hand-write them, however it is acceptable to use a word processor  and graphics program – if you choose to do this please tape the journal entries on the correct pages, limiting to a single page.

 

Format:

Reference : Authors and Year (APA format)

Question/Hypothesis: What issue, question, theory or problem were the researchers trying to solve?  Formulate this as specifically as possible, in terms of a testable hypothesis.

Subjects: Who were the experiments performed on?

Method: A brief summary of the key procedures followed.  

Predicted Results: If the hypothesis is true, what results would have been seen?

Actual Results: What results were actually seen?

Explanation/Summary: What do the results say about the hypothesis, and about the larger cognitive process under study?

 

 

Grading:

You’ll turn in your journals at the first Midterm – I will spot-check them for quality and help anyone who is having trouble.   They will also be turned in with the final exam.    No late turn-ins are allowed for any reason.  They will be returned to you at the psychology office after the semester is over.

 

Your journal will be checked for completeness, and a sample of entries will be graded on a 1-5 point scale.   Your overall score will be the # of completed entries times this score.   For example, if you completed 80% of the entries, and the average grade was a 5, you’d receive 5 x 80%  = 40 points total.   If you did 100% of them, but your average grade was a 3, you’d receive 3 x 100% = 30 points total, etc.

 

The key points on which you will be evaluated is the quality of your Question/Hypothesis and Explanation.

 

 

Journal Entries by Chapter

 

 

Author & Date                                                    Book page(s)

Chapter 3        

1.  Sperling (1960)                                              84-85

2.  Averbach & Sperling (1961)                              84-87

3.  Averbach & Coriell (1961)                                 88-89

4.  Rayner et al. (1981)                                       90

5.  Neisser (1964)                                               97-99

6.  Biederman (1987)                                          106-107

 

 

 

Chapter 4

7.  Bonebakker et al. (1996)                                 127

8.  Posner, Snyder, & Davidson (1980)                     129-131

9.  Treisman (1960)                                            141

10. Johnston & Heinz (1978)                                  145-146

11. Stroop (1935)                                               149

12. Shiffrin & Schneider (1977)                              152

13. Bisiach & Luzzatti (1978)                                 159

 

Chapter 5

14.  Peterson & Peterson (1959)                             169-170

15.  Wickens (1972)                                            172-173

16.  Murdock (1962)                                            176

17.  Sternberg (1966, 1969)                                  180-183

18.  Shepard & Metzler (1971)                               187-188

19.  Smith and Jonides (1999)                               199-200

20.  Daneman & Carpenter (1980)                          203-204

 

Chapter 6

21.  Ebbinghaus (1885)                                        217-218

22.  Rundus (1971)                                             224

23.  Glenberg, Smith, & Green (1977)                     228

24.  Jensen & Dallenbach (1924)                            238-239

25.  Tulving & Pearlstone (1966)                             243

26.  Thomson & Tulving (1970)                              245-246

27.  Blakemore (1977)                                         253

28.  Jacoby & Dallas (1981)                                  255

 

Chapter 7

29.  Collins & Quillian (1969)                                 268-269

30.  Novick (2003)                                              272

31.  Rosch (1975)                                               291

32.  Meyer & Schvaneveldt (1971)                          292-293

33.  Neely (1976)                                               293-294

34.  Marcel (1980)                                              296

 

 

Chapter 8

35.  Bartlett (1932)                                             312-313

36.  Sulin & Dooling (1974)                                   315

37.  Bransford & Franks (1971)                              316

38.  Roediger & McDermott (1995)                          341-342

39.  Loftus & Palmer (1974)                                  345

40.  Wade Garry Read and Lindsay (2002)                348

41.  Bahrick, Bahrick, & Wittlinger (1975)                 354-355

42.  Conway, Cohen, & Stonhope (1991)                  359

 


Bonus Activities

 

Up to 20 points total.   Must be submitted on or before May 10 for credit.

 

Book & Movie reviews:   5 points each.  1-2 pages.  The fictional treatment of issues in Psychology is often disturbingly inaccurate for the sake of plot.   However, sometimes it accurate enough to reality to be worthy of analysis.      To do a review, please follow these guidelines:

• The plot must include a major point about some issue of cognition studied this semester, and must be at least somewhat reasonable.   If you have a question about whether a particular book, movie or story is a good choice, please check with me first.

• Analyze the Cognitive-Psychology-related plot issues based on what you’ve learned in class.  In particular, look for issues where the plot is consistent with our existing knowledge of the human mind, and those that are inconsistent.    

As an example, a common plot cliché is when a character gets “Amnesia” and loses their identity – e.g. they forget their name and all biographical info.   It turns out this is rather inconsistent with actual Amnesia in several fashions.  

 

Literature Review:   5 points each.  1-2 pages.  Obtain a copy of any original research paper mentioned in class.  Compare the actual research with how it is described in the book, noting particularly any points that were missed, and any exaggerations or simplifications in the book.  For example, the original article might state as fact, something that is described as only a theory in the original research.   For credit you must turn in a copy of the original article with your review.

 

 

 

HPP: NOTE: HPP IS NO LONGER ALLOWED  -- DO NOT DO:  Human Participant Pool – 2 points for each half hour of participation.   The signup board is outside UH360.   Provide a copy of your signed receipt as evidence of participation.  Keep the original for yourself.