Assignment courtesy of Prof. K.J. Jantzen

Cognitive neuroscience

psychology 319

Literature Review

The goal of this paper is to integrate the knowledge and skills acquired over the quarter to delve deeper into a topic in cognitive neuroscience. You will write a paper (approximately 8-10 pages) that reviews and critiques the recent literature on a topic in cognitive neuroscience. The topic areas can come from any resource including the text or lecture. All topics require instructor approval by the date indicated on the syllabus.

I must approve the topic for the paper by the date indicated in the syllabus. This means you should start researching your topic well before this date. Failure to approve a paper topic with me prior to the paper due date will result in a 10% penalty to the final paper grade. Paper topics can be submitted via email or in person.

You must also submit an outline of your paper by the date indicated on the syllabus. There is a sample outline in the document entitled “ReviewPaperInformation.pdf” available on blackboard. I will comment on your outline and indicate where changes should be made. I may request another outline before allowing you to proceed with writing your paper. Failure to provide a final outline for your paper will result in a 10% penalty applied to the final paper. Outlines must be submitted via email or on disc.

The paper should accomplish the following general goals:

  1. Introduce the basic question and hypothesis under investigation.
  2. Provide a review of literature relative to the hypothesis.
  3. Organize the literature in a coherent and critical way that demonstrates consideration of the whole body of research.
  4. Provide a critical summary of the current state of the literature and how it supports (or fails to support) the hypothesis as well as a consideration of areas where future research might concentrate.

Topics must be related to some area of research in cognitive neuroscience. The research must involve human participants. Avoid research that investigates neural basis of disordered or diseased states. Although interesting, they are usually outside the scope of this paper. If you have your heart set on a particular topic that involves some disease state in humans then you must explain to me how your topic is related to a greater understanding of normal brain function.

Hints:

Find an area of research, a specific question or hypothesis (or competing hypotheses) that has motivated cognitive neuroscience research. For example:

“The mirror neuron system provides a mechanism for understanding the action and intentions of others”

or

“The hippocampus plays a role in coordinating information represented across multiple brain areas.”

The topic should not be so broad as to not either indefensible or undisputable (i.e. occipital areas of the brain are related to vision) or so narrow that only one or two papers are available. You may wish to use the text as a guideline to identify specific theories of interest and then use electronic databases to dig deeper into the relevant literature.

Do not wait until we cover a topic in class before deciding on a review topic. If you adopt this approach you will have insufficient time to write an adequate paper.

An example of a topic that is too broad is: “The role of the frontal cortex in working memory”. A more manageable topic might be: “The frontal cortex is organized according to the content of working memory”.

Your review of the literature should include at least 8 original research papers and may include reviews. You should provide context and discussion of these papers and how they contribute to the theory or overall questions you are investigating rather than just recounting details of the relevant studies. Try to include papers that both support and refute the theory.

Be sure to identify areas where knowledge is still lacking and where future research might contribute.

Guides to writing the final paper

  1. Organize your essay well. Think about the best way to organize your essay before you write. Start by deciding what are the most important things to say on your topic. Cover the topic as fully as you can in the space you have, but do not just list a number of unrelated facts. Present your material so that it easy for your readers to understand. Don't expect them to fill in missing assumptions. Provide a clear line of thought for the reader to follow. Label each section of your paper with a heading, which will make your organization easy for the reader to see.
  1. Support your claims. Wherever possible, include your own independent thoughts and conclusions, but be sure they are well supported. Don't just state your opinion on an issue. Explain your reasons for believing it. Provide an argument that will persuade your readers that your conclusion is right.
  1. Think about what your readers don't know. Don't assume they know everything you know. Explain things in a way that will make sense to them, given their background. If you can, have someone else read it and give you feedback.
  1. Your goal is to use this paper as an opportunity to become more of an expert in a specific area of cognitive neuroscience. Treat this paper as an opportunity to teach what you have learned. As in all teaching you should clearly outline the problem or question of interest and clearly state how the supporting (or non-supporting) literature connections back to the main question and to the other literature.

Paper Presentation

The goal of the presentation is to demonstrate your level of understanding of an individual research paper using an in class presentation. You will select one original research article from your review paper and give an in class, conference style presentation of the material.

  • You must use power point for creating and presenting.
  • You presentation should not exceed 7 minutes in length. (Note, this may change depending on the number of students in the class).
  • Your presentation must have the following components.
  • Introduction
  • provide basic background on the question
  • Introduce the question under study
  • Provide a basic rationale for the study
  • Methods
  • What was done and how was it done
  • Results
  • What was found
  • Discussion
  • How are the results interpreted
  • What is there significance
  • What are potential problems or shortcomings of the study
  • What should be done next