Psychology 5370,Learning, Motivation, and Cognition Fall,2016

Course Syllabus

Instructor: Dr. Theron , Phone 512-245-3163

Email is best way to reach me

Office hours :10-11AM Mon, Wed. other times by appointment. We sometimes work on papers after class.

Text: Learning Theories. 7th Edition by Schunk. This text combines the 3 topics of this course. The text is for general background information. This text is in a loose-leaf binder. Earlier editions are not usable as the book has been considerably updated!

Additional materials such as articles and instructor handouts will not always be listed in the syllabus but will either be given via email or in class.

Course Goals:

Understanding basic associative and cognitive factors in learning and motivation.

2. Learn how psychologists establish methods to study the above areas.

To use classic articles as well as current research to see how major trends in Learning and motivation may project into the future of psychology

A fourth overall goal is to look at some applications of research to solving such human problems of addiction, industriousness, depression, and helping to self regulate more effectively. We will use self- regulation issues as a group project in the last 3 weeks of the course.

The course is divided into 6 modules. Module 1 is the longest and we will spend about 3 weeks on it. We will spend about 4 weeks on Modules 2-3. The rest of the course will be covered in the remaining weeks. 4-6 are closely related. I will give you thought sheets-2 for Module 1 and one each for the other 5 modules. You will learn a lot in this class. You will learn from articles, my lectures, from each other and class presentations by the students. The text will help fill in details in a few area but most of the 2 quizzes will cover articles, content and materials presented in class. In this course we are a community of scholars dedicated to knowledge, critical thinking and having intellectual fun! Students have for the most part said they got a lot of good things from this course. One thing I was pleased about is how many students said this course was useful to them professionally and how much the learned that they could apply both to their personal life as well as to their jobs.

Attendance in this course is a must! Learning interactively is essential in graduate school . We only meet once a week but you must be committed to attending this class !

Graduate level understanding comes from critically reading research and from inputs from other students as well as from the instructor.

In the course schedule below S refers to the chapter in Schunk you should have read and thought about prior to class. We cannot have a good discussion without preparing ahead of time. After the first week we will have material both from students and the instructor. More about that under expectations and grading.

Course Schedule

Date Topic Chapter

Aug. 31 Psychology goes scientific . Organizing the course 1,2

Sept. 7 Pavlovian and Operant conditioning . Not what you may think they are ! Articles by Crombag, Navarrette, Eisenberger et al S2,3 see Golkar article before next class

Sept.14 Going beyond Skinner and Pavlov . Student talk(s) 3,4

Vicarious extinction- relation to PTSD?

Discuss above articles .Get new articles Bandura, Golkar

Sept. 21 Social learning Imitation to self-efficacy- Bandura article, Golkar, S3

Mueller. Student presentation. Get Gagne handout

Sept.28 . Applications and implications of social learning approach. S3,S4 Aggression. Cognitive behavioral therapy- student presentation. Articles from Stimmel. Get Gagne handout.

Oct.5 A brief tour of memory . Lecture by Stimmel Mueller article and encoding specificity. Student presentation on encoding specificity. S5

Oct. 12 Midterm 90 minutes Stimmel goes over constructivism and introduces the problem of false memories. Get articles. Ashcraft, Loftus

Oct19 Cognitive and emotional factors in memory. Stimmel leads S5.6discussion on anxiety and working memory. Important that everyone has read Ashcraft et al article. Creating false memories. Student presentation. .

Recovered memories? Student presentation.

Oct 26 The problems and issues in eye-witness testimony S5,6

. Big student presentation from forensic Psychology students if we have any!. Expertise and overcoming learning and memory obstacles. Stimmel. Sociocultural theory versus constructivism. Articles-2 given by eye witness team ahead of time. S6,7 Weiner, Dweck and Leggett. Mueller and Dweck

Motivation. Modern versions of achievement motivation . Bring in Weiner’s article and questions- student presentation .Consistency theory and motivation- Stimmel. Perceived control theory. Rotter, Seligman S8

Nov.2. Learned helplessness up to date-Student presentation. S8

Dweck’s synthesis of perceived control, achievement motivation, and attribution . 2 articles. Stimmel.Student presentation?

Nov. 9, Haimovitz recent article dealing with failure. Haimovitz, Carstensen, 18, and Dec.2. S9 Ageing, teen problems Casey article Student presentations.

Nov. 16. Self affirmation very recent stuff. Ties to Casey article. Big student presentation, maybe a pair of students. Current articles will post later. Introduction to self regulation Have a nice Thanksgiving!

Nov.30. Self-regulation - center on articles by Wagner and Job. Denson on aggression and self-regulation. Student presentations

Dec.7. Summarize self-regulation-come up in class with a synthesis.

FINAL EXAM Dec.10 1-3:30.

Grading:

Midterm 35%

Final :35%

2 short presentations support discussions and lead each 5 pts 10%

Original presentation for big subjects maybe work as a pair 20%

Makeups only for serious health or personal issues, cannot raise your grade.

Keys to success: come to class. Come thinking and prepared.

Play to win not to avoid failing. Asking questions is a sign of being aware not of being dumb!!

Closing note: we can be somewhat flexible in this course. When we have particular expertise from students I may call on them to present something interesting that may seem slightly far afield. Trust me, there is an overarching theme to this course and a very cumulative series of topics!