Psychology 2135A-650

Cognitive Psychology

If there is a discrepancy between the outline posted below and the outline posted on the OWL course website, the latter shall prevail.

Welcome to Cognitive Psychology 2135B! I plan to make this year’s course every bit as successful
as in previous years. Below you will find a course description, evaluation summary, lecture outline,
and some other important information. Please take a few minutes to familiarize yourself with the outline right now. I look forward to being your online instructor, and wish you all the best for a great year!

- Mark Holden

1.0    CALENDAR DESCRIPTION

An introduction to empirical, computational, and theoretical approaches to the study of human cognitive processes. The topics surveyed will include: perception, attention, memory, concepts, language and problem-solving. The course will show how these diverse psychological processes are related to and influence one another.

Antirequisites: Psychology 2010A/B, 2180E

Antirequisites are courses that overlap sufficiently in content that only one can be taken for credit. So if you take a course that is an antirequisite to a course previously taken, you will lose credit for the earlier course, regardless of the grade achieved in the most recent course.

Prerequisite: At least 60% in a 1000 level Psychology course
0.5 course, equivalent to 4 lecture hours

Unless you have either the requisites for this course or written special permission from your Dean to enroll in it, you may be removed from this course and it will be deleted from your record. This decision may not be appealed. You will receive no adjustment to your fees in the event that you are dropped from a course for failing to have the necessary prerequisites.

2.0    COURSE INFORMATION

Instructor: Dr. Mark Holden       
Email: mholde3@uwo.ca    
Office and Phone Number:  Social Sciences 9242B     
Office Hours: by appointment
*please note that I am happy to meet with students, but that I am only on campus on certain days of the week. I will try my best to work with you to meet at a time that is convenient. I am also more than happy to answer questions via e-mail.

Course website: The course website will be found on your OWL page ( http://owl.uwo.ca/portal )  
This is where you will find lecture slides, notes, study guides, assignments, important announcements, and the discussion board. Please check it often.

If you or someone you know is experiencing distress, there are several resources here at Western to assist you.  Please visit:  http://www.uwo.ca/uwocom/mentalhealth/ for more information on these resources and on mental health.

Please contact the course instructor if you require material in an alternate format or if you require any other arrangements to make this course more accessible to you.  You may also wish to contact Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) at 519-661-2111 ext 82147 for any specific question regarding an accommodation.

3.0  TEXTBOOK

Goldstein, E.B. (2014). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. 4th Edition. Cengage Learning.

Note: when purchasing this book from the university bookstore, the text comes bundled with the CogLab Manual and Student Access Code. This is required for you to complete your
assignments. Furthermore, each Access Code will only work once, so if you choose to buy a used textbook, you will still need to purchase an Access Code directly from the publisher (it costs about $50 on its own) at http://www.nelsonbrain.com/shop/isbn/9781285461083.

If you need choose to buy the textbook from another retailer, please make sure that you buy the book bundled with Coglab 5 (the ISBN for the bundle is 9781305519633).

4.0    COURSE OBJECTIVES

This course surveys of a number of experimental and theoretical topics in modern cognitive psychology. Topics covered will include a brief history of the field, cognitive neuroscience, sensation
& perception, attention, memory, concept learning, imagery, language, problem-solving, and decision-making. This course also addresses general issues in psychology such as experimental
design, the role of theory, models, and paradigms, and the interdisciplinary nature of cognitive psychology. We will also cover applications of cognitive psychology, such as artificial intelligence,
cognitive engineering, and the reliability of eyewitness testimony. The goal is to provide students with an overview of various topic domains within the realm of psychology. As such, students will be
exposed to diverse theoretical viewpoints and various methods and procedures for the scientific investigation of psychological issues.

Note: Modern psychology is scientific in nature. Consequently, we will spend a lot of time on scientific topics, such as research design, neural functioning, sensory mechanisms, etc.
Each chapter in the text covers a major topic within cognitive psychology. Following each chapter, students will be able to identify the major concepts and terminology for that topic area, and
understand how they relate to one another. In addition, when presented with a hypothetical problem or case, students will be able to assess and evaluate the problem and choose the best solution.

5.0     EVALUATION


Although the Psychology Department does not require instructors to adjust their course grades to conform to specific targets, the expectation is that course marks will be distributed around the following averages:


70%    1000-level and 2000-level courses
72%     2190-2990 level courses
75%     3000-level courses
80%     4000-level courses
   
The Psychology Department follows the University of Western Ontario grading guidelines, which are as follows (see http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/handbook/general/grades_undergrad.pdf):

A+    90-100    One could scarcely expect better from a student at this level
A    80-89        Superior work that is clearly above average
B    70-79        Good work, meeting all requirements, and eminently satisfactory
C    60-69        Competent work, meeting requirements
D    50-59        Fair work, minimally acceptable
F    below 50    Fail

This course will include two midterm exams, a final exam. All exams will be non-cumulative, will consist of 75 multiple choice questions, and will be worth 30% of your final grade. Exam 1 will cover chapter 1-4, Exam 2 covers chapters 5-9, and the final exam will cover Chapters 10-13. In addition, there will be a series of short assignments (see below) which will make up the final 10% of your grade.

5.1 Exam Content

Although there is substantial overlap between lecture and textbook material, it is not complete overlap. Some material that I cover in the slides is not in the textbook, and some textbook content will not be covered in the lecture slides (although I generally try to cover as much of the material as possible). Still, I expect that my students will be able to answer questions from both the textbook and lecture material. Therefore, exams will test the material covered in the assigned readings from the textbook, as well as the material covered in the lecture slides/notes.

5.2 CogLab Assignments (10%)

In addition, there will be a series of brief assignments in this course. CogLab is an online resource that allows students to experience important classic and current experiments in cognitive psychology.
It essentially helps to demonstrate the concepts or experiments that we discuss in the course. In fact, because you are immediately shown your own data, as well as that of the class, you’ll be able to see the effects of the demonstrations and the results of the experiments on yourself and your peers!

The experiments are all fairly brief (10-25 minutes) and you will be asked to complete three short answer questions for each assignment. Each assignment will be marked out of 3. There will be 6 assignments through the course, but only the top 5 will count toward your final grade. If you get full points on the first 5, then you obviously don’t need to complete the final assignment!

Assignments are due by midnight on the Friday of the week indicated in the course schedule. One point (out of 3) will be automatically deducted for late assignments for every portion of 24 hours that an assignment is late (i.e. 1 point for anything up to 24 hours late, 2 points for 24-48 hours late, automatic zero for anything beyond 48 hours late).

Further details about CogLab and the assignments will be posted on the course website.

5.3 Class Discussion

Each week there will be supplemental course materials and a class discussion posted through OWL. You are expected to read and contribute to the class discussions on OWL. This resource is set up to allow you to communicate with students, as well as your instructor, to enhance your learning of the course material, and to develop your critical thinking skills. It is where we get to know each other, learn from each other, and is in essence our virtual classroom. As would be expected for an in-person class, you are expected to keep your posts respectful.

5.4 Chapter Questions, Quizzes, Study Guides

Chapter quizzes for a previous edition of the book are available through the text’s companion website (http://www.cengagebrain.com/cgi-wadsworth/course_products_wp.pl?fid=M20b&product_isbn_issn=9780840033550&token=)

In addition, practice exam questions and study guides will be made available on the OWL website.

These do NOT count towards your final grade, but can be used as a valuable type of study aid. However, just taking the quizzes or answering the questions does not prepare you for exams. Rather, these resources should be used to help you to better judge your preparedness and your understanding of the concepts from each chapter.

6.0  TEST AND EXAMINATION SCHEDULE

Midterm Exam 1 (30%) Saturday, October 17th
Time: TBA
Chapters 1-4
75 multiple choice questions

Midterm Exam 2 (30%) Saturday, November 14th
Time: TBA
Chapters 5-9
75 multiple choice questions

Final Exam (30%) TBA (between Dec. 11th and 22nd)
Chapters 10-13
75 multiple choice questions

7.0   CLASS SCHEDULE

All Supplementary lecture material will be delivered through OWL. On each Monday of each week
of the term, class materials and class discussions will be posted on our class website. You are
expected to read the assigned reading each week, to login to Owl each week for supplementary
materials, and each week to respond to posted questions and or post your own questions/thoughts. Discussions will start on the Monday for the topic (ie Starting Monday, September 14th, you will be reading and discussing chapter 1). That topic will close on Sunday at noon. You are expected to keep up, week by week, with the class material.

I will be monitoring the class forums, and responding to student e-mails within 48 hours during regular business hours.

Topic

Chapter

Week

Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Chapter 1

Sept. 14

Cognitive Neuroscience

Chapter 2

Sept. 21*

Sensation & Perception

Chapter 3

Sept. 28*

Attention

Chapter 4

Oct. 5

Thanksgiving Break

 

 

MIDTERM EXAM 1 (30%)

Ch. 1-4

October 17

Short-Term and Working Memory

Chapter 5

Oct. 19*

Long-Term Memory

Chapters 6 & 7

Oct. 26

Memory Errors

Chapter 8

Nov. 2*

Knowledge & Concepts

Chapter 9

Nov. 9

MIDTERM EXAM 2 (30%)

Ch. 5-9

November 14

Visual Imagery

Chapter 10

Nov. 16*

Language

Chapter 11

Nov. 23

Decision Making

Chapter 13

Nov. 30*

Problem Solving

Chapter 12

Dec. 7

FINAL EXAM (30%)

Ch. 10-13

TBA

* indicates the week that a CogLab Assignment is due (on the Friday, at midnight, of that week)

8.0     STATEMENT ON ACADEMIC OFFENCES

Students are responsible for understanding the nature and avoiding the occurrence of plagiarism and other scholastic offenses. Plagiarism and cheating are considered very serious offenses because they undermine the integrity of research and education. Actions constituting a scholastic offense are described at the following link:  http://www.uwo.ca/univsec/pdf/academic_policies/appeals/scholastic_discipline_undergrad.pdf

As of Sept. 1, 2009, the Department of Psychology will take the following steps to detect scholastic offenses. All multiple-choice tests and exams will be checked for similarities in the pattern of responses using reliable software, and records will be made of student seating locations in all tests and exams. All written assignments will be submitted to TurnItIn, a service designed to detect and deter plagiarism by comparing written material to over 5 billion pages of content located on the Internet or in TurnItIn’s databases. All papers submitted for such checking will be included as source documents in the reference database for the purpose of detecting plagiarism of papers subsequently submitted to the system. Use of the service is subject to the licensing agreement, currently between Western and Turnitin.com http://www.turnitin.com

Possible penalties for a scholastic offense include failure of the assignment, failure of the course, suspension from the University, and expulsion from the University.

9.0    POLICY ON ACCOMMODATION FOR MEDICAL ILLNESS

The University of Western Ontario’s policy on Accommodation for Medical Illness can be found at:
http://www.westerncalendar.uwo.ca/2015/pg117.html

Students must see the Academic Counsellor and submit all required documentation in order to be approved for certain accommodation:
http://counselling.ssc.uwo.ca/procedures/medical_accommodation.html


10.0        OTHER INFORMATION

Office of the Registrar web site:  http://registrar.uwo.ca

Student Development Services web site: http://www.sdc.uwo.ca

Please see the Psychology Undergraduate web site for information on the following:

    http://psychology.uwo.ca/undergraduate/student_responsibilities/index.html

- Policy on Cheating and Academic Misconduct
- Procedures for Appealing Academic Evaluations
- Policy on Attendance
- Policy Regarding Makeup Exams and Extensions of Deadlines
- Policy for Assignments
- Short Absences

- Extended Absences
- Documentation
- Academic Concerns
- 2015 Calendar References

No electronic devices, including cell phones, smart watches etc., will be allowed during exams.