1
Psychology 2301 Syllabus
Experimental Psychology
Spring, 2007
INSTRUCTOR: Maureen A. McCarthy, PhD
OFFICE: SS 4024
EMAIL:
PHONE: 770-423-6296 or (Psychology Office 770-423-6225)
OFFICE HOURS: Monday 3:15-4:30 and Wednesday 2:30-4:30 and by appointment*
LECTURE: M 9:30-11:30, Room SS 3017
LAB: W 9:30-12:15, Room SS 2028
Catalog Course Description
Prerequisites: PSYC 2300 and 2300L
Co-Requisite: The Laboratory component of this course is designed to compliment topics covered in lecture.
This course will focus on experimental designs used for laboratory research in psychology. Topics will include hypothesis testing, independent-group and within-subjects designs, complex designs, and statistical analysis using t-tests and the analysis of variance. Selection of appropriate designs for different research questions, data collection, data analysis, and interpretation of results, and writing laboratory reports will be emphasized.
Required Texts
American Psychological Association. (2001). Publication Manual (5th ed.). Washington, DC: APA.
Heiman, G. W. (2001). Understanding research methods and statistics. (2nd ed.) Boston, MA: Houghton Mifflin Company.
*Instructor Availability: I believe that it is important that students have access to assistance in a timely fashion. Assistance will be available through three avenues. First, you have access to me through email 7 days a week. I will check my email at least once daily and I will respond to your questions as soon as possible. Second, I will be available to meet with you during office hours. Finally, if you can not meet with me during office hours, I will be happy to make an appointment at a time that is more convenient for your schedule.
Attendance Policy: There is an expectation that students will attend class regularly and on time. Students are responsible for any material covered or announcements made in class during their absence. Any student who stops attending class should officially withdraw from the course.
Grades: Grades will be assigned based on the university established scale for letter grades (i.e., 90%-A, 80% - B, 70% - C, 60% - D, below 60% - F). Note: A minimum grade of a C is required for psychology majors.
Special Accommodations
IF ANY MEMBER OF THE CLASS HAS A DISABILITY THAT REQUIRES SPECIAL ACCOMMODATIONS, THE INSTRUCTOR WILL WORK WITH YOU. PLEASE NOTIFY ME OF SUCH DISABILITY DURING THE FIRST SCHEDULED CLASS MEETING.
Academic Integrity: Every KSU student is responsible for upholding the provisions of the Student Code of Conduct, as published in the Undergraduate and Graduate Catalogs. Section II of the Student Code of Conduct addresses the University's policy on academic honesty, including provisions regarding plagiarism and cheating, unauthorized access to University materials, misrepresentation/falsification of University records or academic work, malicious removal, retention, or destruction of library materials, malicious/intentional misuse of computer facilities and/or services, and misuse of student identification cards. Incidents of alleged academic misconduct will be handled through the established procedures of the University Judiciary Program, which includes either an "informal" resolution by a faculty member, resulting in a grade adjustment, or a formal hearing procedure, which may subject a student to the Code of Conduct's minimal one semester suspension requirement.
Specifically, regarding plagiarism and cheating, the Student Code states: "No student shall receive, attempt to receive, knowingly give or attempt to give unauthorized assistance in the preparation of any work required to be submitted for credit as part of a course (including examinations, laboratory reports, essays, themes, term papers, etc.). When direct quotations are used, they should be indicated, and when the ideas, theories, data, figures, graphs, programs, electronic based information or illustrations of someone other than the student are incorporated into a paper or used in a project, they should be duly acknowledged (http://www.kennesaw.edu/judiciary/code.conduct.shtml#II)."
Specifically within the Psychology Department: Although the Psychology Department supports multidisciplinary and focused scholarly interests, we do not ordinarily allow students to turn in (or modify) a paper from a previous course or use the same paper for concurrent courses. If students have references that apply to more than one paper, students can use them but must rewrite how you use the citations. If there are questions or concerns about potential violation of any of these statements, students are encouraged to meet with the course instructor to discuss these concerns. Also, refer to the current edition of the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association for specific guidelines on APA format regarding citations and references.
Specifically within this Course: In addition to the aforementioned definition of plagiarism unintentional plagiarism is also prohibited. Changing a few words in a sentence and then citing the author is plagiarism AND using exact quotations, with quotation marks and appropriate citations, is prohibited in this course. To help you avoid both the problems of unintentional plagiarism (primarily attributable to inappropriate paraphrasing) and overuse of quotations, the information that follows clarifies differences between appropriate and inappropriate paraphrasing. Unintentional or intentional plagiarism may result in an automatic 0 for the paper and a failing grade for the course.
Plagiarism can be intentional or unintentional. Most often students unintentionally plagiarize a published source. It is not enough to merely reference what you are reading. You must either place the information you are using in direct quotes or you must appropriately paraphrase the material. For example, if you were to try to paraphrase the following quote:
“Detailed analyses revealed that with increased age adults in this time management activity were less likely to perform self-paced tasks and to attempt difficult auditory discrimination judgments” (Salthouse, Hambrick, Lukas, & Dell, 1996, p. 305).
It is possible that you might try the following paraphrase:
Analyses revealed that increased age adults in the time management activity were less likely to perform self paced tasks (Salthouse, Hambrick, Lukas, & Dell, 1996).
This paraphrase is incorrect, even if you attach the appropriate citation. In other words, this constitutes plagiarism! Instead you should try to summarize the information in your own words. The following example is more appropriate:
Researchers found that age inhibited willingness of participants to initiate difficult tasks (Salthouse, Hambrick, Lukas, & Dell, 1996).
You will notice that this information is summarized and that this is a better example of a correct paraphrase. It is important to realize that this paraphrase must still be appropriately referenced. Additional information can be found at: http://library.apsu.edu/guides/1_3_20.htm.
Ethics: Students are adults and will be treated as such. In return, there is an expectation that students will behave as responsible, intelligent individuals. Academic freedom is respected and must be honored at all times by all persons.
Course Objectives: This course is the second, in a sequence, of courses designed to impart the basic scientific processes and tools for the discipline. This course involves learning experimental scientific methods and techniques. Most importantly, this course is designed to improve scientific writing. Upon completion of the course, you should be able to:
§ Describe and apply experimental scientific methods.
§ Design and interpret experimental methods.
§ Select, calculate, and interpret elementary statistical techniques.
§ Effectively communicate research findings.
Learning Outcomes
Evidence of competency in these domains will be evaluated on the basis of learning outcomes. In other words, you should be able to:
§ Articulate sound hypotheses.
§ Explain the logic of hypothesis testing.
§ Select and apply appropriate experimental designs and statistical analyses.
§ Operationalize independent and dependent variables.
§ Use a statistical program (SPSS) to perform analyses.
§ Identify potential confounds in experimental studies.
§ Apply statistical probability to statistical problems.
§ Describe and apply ethical research practices.
§ Perform a competent literature search for empirically-based articles.
§ Demonstrate effective use of written language:
o Consistent use of APA style in written assignments
o Use of formal and professional expression
o Develop plausible arguments to support research proposal
o Relate content from several sources
o Develop logical arguments for conclusions
§ Demonstrate effective poster presentation skills.
Exams: Four exams, predominantly multiple-choice, will be administered throughout the semester. Each exam will be weighted at 100 points. The final exam is NOT cumulative, but information is cumulative, so it is important to learn and retain the material.
It is not acceptable to miss an exam. If an emergency precludes taking an exam at the regularly scheduled time, the following actions must be taken. You must provide written documentation substantiating the reason for your absence within 24 hours of the exam. A make-up exam will be administered immediately following Exam 4. The make-up exam will not be the same as the originally administered exam.
Laboratory Manual: A laboratory manual will be required. Laboratory experiences will entail participation in 9 different experimental activities. A laboratory report will be required for each of these experiences. The report will include a description of the experimental activity, an explanation of when to use the appropriate statistic, the formula for the statistic, the SPSS printout for the activity, and an interpretation (i.e., narrative and requisite graphs) of the activity. Each portion of this manual will be worth 20 points. The combined set of materials will be submitted at the end of the semester. Organization of the materials will count for an additional 20 points.
Research Proposal: Each person will need to complete a research proposal. The proposal will include a minimum of 10 empirically based research articles. Each proposal should be designed so that it is possible for you to actually conduct the experiment. For example, you many not propose administration of medications because you do not have resources that would allow you to complete this experiment. Your proposal should also be designed so that you use one of the inferential techniques outlined in this course. The actual research will not be conducted because there is not sufficient time to obtain IRB approval. In lieu of this activity, each student must complete the IRB application that can be found at: http://www.kennesaw.edu/irb/. Additional guidelines for the proposal are contained on the KSU WebCT-Vista site.
Extra Credit: A maximum of 10 raw score points may be earned toward extra credit. Participation in a psychology experiment will result in 10 additional points. An alternative extra credit opportunity entails bringing in newspaper or periodical articles (2 points per article) that include statistical analyses. All articles must be submitted prior to April15, 2007.
All written work must conform to APA style. Specific instructions regarding font, format, and reference style can be found in the required manual. All written work exceeding one page in length must be stapled in the upper left corner of the paper or it will not be accepted.
Points
· Exams (4 @ 100 each) 400
· Lab Manual (9@20), Synthesis (20) 200
· Research Proposal 100
o Peer Review 25
o IRB Application 25
· Poster (To be discussed in class) 25
· Total 775
Course grades are calculated as a percentage of total points.
Note: A laboratory manual, research proposal and poster presentation must be completed in order to obtain a passing grade in this course. Failure to successfully complete any one of these items will result in a failing grade.
TENTATIVE Class Schedule*
lecture / LabS / Due DAtesJanuary 8 / Syllabus; Review
January 10 / SPSS Review Activity
January 15 / Holiday
January 17 / Hypothesis Testing (Chapter 12) / Lab 1 Due
January 22 / Single Sample Testing (Chapters 13 and 14)
January 24 / SPSS Single Sample
January 29 / Hypothesis Testing; Review / Lab 2 Due
January 31 / Exam 1
February 5 / Independent Samples t Random Assignment (Chapter 15)
February 7 / SPSS Independent t (cookies)
February 12 / Repeated Measures Design (Chapter 16) / Lab 3 Due
February 14 / Repeated Measures t
SPSS (IAT)
February 19 / Proposal; Exam Review / Lab 4 Due
February 21 / Exam 2
February 26 / ANOVA Design
(Chapter 17)
February 28 / SPSS ANOVA (Be a juror study)
March 5** / Spring Break / Spring Break
March 7 / Spring Break / Spring Break
March 12 / Factorial Designs
(Chapter 18) / Lab 5 Due
March 14 / 2-Way ANOVA (Gender Perception)
March 19 / Repeated Measures ANOVA (Chapter 19) / Lab 6 Due
March 21 / Repeated ANOVA
March 26 / Proposal / Lab 7 Due
March 28 / Exam 3
April 2 / Quasi-Experiment Designs
(Chapter 20)
April 4 / Peer Review of Proposal / Draft Proposal Due
April 9 / Non-Parametric Overview
(Chapter 21) / Proposal Due
April 11 / Chi-Square Goodness of Fit
April 16 / Non-Parametric Design / Lab 8 Due
April 18 / Chi-Square Independence (Dichotic Listening)
April 23 / Poster Development / Lab 9; Lab Manual Due
April 25 / Exam 4
April 30 / Poster Presentation
* This schedule is tentative. Announcements regarding changes in the schedule will occur in class. You are responsible for any changes announced in class.
** Last day to withdraw without academic penalty is March 2, 2007.