[Course syllabus] [Lab]

 

Psychology 212: Survey of Research Methods ("Introduction to Scientific Thinking”)

Spring 2018

Course Syllabus

TR 3:00-4:15PM, PHYSCI 217

 

Description: Survey of standard methods and related conceptual issues employed in psychological research. Both experimental and non-experimental methods will be reviewed.

 

Student learning outcomes: This course provides an overview of the methods of science, focusing on their application to psychology. The focus is on how scientific methods produce and refine theories. By the end of the course:

1.      Students will be able to describe key research concepts (theory, hypothesis, confound, causation, independent and dependent variables, random sampling, random assignment, interaction, etc.) and develop a working knowledge of measurement, sampling, design, and analysis in psychology (Psychological Knowledge)

2.      Students will be able to distinguish strong from weak evidence for (or against) a claim using scientific reasoning; design, conduct, and interpret a replication study. (Scientific inquiry and critical thinking)

3.      Students will be able to apply ethical standards to evaluate psychological science and practice. (Ethical responsibility)

4.      Students will be able to demonstrate effective writing and speaking; exhibit effective presentation skills; interact effectively with others. (Communication)

 

Instructor: Adam S. Cohen

Office: Sakamaki C405

Office hours: Thursday 9:00-11:00 AM,

Email: If x = cohen9, then x@hawaii.edu (put “psych 212” in the subject line)

 

Teaching Assistants:

 

Lab Section/CRN	Day	Time	Lab location	TA information
001/85358	M	3:00-5:00PM	Sakamaki B102	Stevy Scarbrough If x = smscar, then x@hawaii.edu Office: Sakamaki C204A Office Hours: By appointment
002/85359	M	3:00-5:00PM	Sakamaki B101	Christine Weingarten If x = cweinga, then x@hawaii.edu Office: Krauss 11, cubicle #1 Office Hours: By appointment
003/85360	W	3:00-5:00PM	Sakamaki B102	Stevy Scarbrough Office: Sakamaki C204A Office Hours: By appointment
004/85361	W	3:00-5:00PM	Sakamaki A103	Christine Weingarten If x = cweinga, then x@hawaii.edu Office: Krauss 11, cubicle #1 Office Hours: By appointment
005/85362	F	3:00-5:00PM	Sakamaki B102	Jillian Adams If x = jtadams, then x@hawaii.edu Office: Krauss 11, cubicle 6 Office Hours: F 1:30-3pm or by appt
006/85363	F	3:00-5:00PM	Sakamaki A103	Jillian Adams If x = jtadams, then x@hawaii.edu Office: Krauss 11, cubicle 6 Office Hours: F 1:30-3pm or by appt

 

Required reading: Readings are posted on the course website. You do not need to purchase a textbook. I’m happy to recommend textbooks in case you want one for reference, although there are extensive online sources that provide high-quality coverage of the same topics.

With the exception of the first lecture, readings should be completed ahead of time. It is critical that you read ahead of lecture to do well in this course.

 

Laptop Policy: You are encouraged to go without a laptop in class. The reasons for this will be discussed during week 1.

 

Labs: See the Lab page for details about lab.

 

Grading:

 

Assignment	Date and Time	Weight
Exam I	Feb 1st, 3:00-4:15PM	10%
Exam II	March 1st, 3:00-4:15PM	10%
Exam III	April 5th, 3:00-4:15PM	15%
Exam IV	May 10th, 2:15-4:15PM	15%
Assignments	Lab-specific	20%
oral presentation	Weeks 13 and 14	10%
final paper	April 29th by 11:59 PM	20%

Lab assignments, the oral presentation, and final paper are discussed on the lab syllabus.

 

Exams: There are four exams. Sounds like a lot but research shows that testing improves learning (why do you think this is?). This is known as the testing effect (On the virtues of repeated testing, see the FAQ and Advice section below). Exams are cumulative and cover lecture and reading material. You do not want to be late! Once the first exam is turned in, the exam is closed – no new exams will be given out.

Practice exams will be posted ahead of the exam.

Make-up exams will not be granted without prior approval from the instructor. No make-up exam is possible for Exam IV: If you cannot take Exam IV when scheduled, you must drop the course.

 

Grade lines

90% ≤ A ≤ 100%

80% ≤ B < 90%

70% ≤ C < 80%

60% ≤ D < 70%

 

+/- Grades: Will be given within 3% of the grade cutoff, lower bound inclusive, upper bound exclusive. For example, an 86.9% is a B, an 87.0% - 89.9% is a B+, a 90.0% - 92.9% is an A-, and a 93.0% is an A. 

 

Requests for accommodation: Any student who feels s/he may need an accommodation based on the impact of a disability is invited to contact me privately. Please come to office hours or make an appointment with me outside of class to discuss potential requests before the first exam. I would be happy to work with you, and the KOKUA Program (Office for Students with Disabilities) to ensure reasonable accommodations in my course. KOKUA can be reached at (808) 956-7511 or (808) 956-7612 (voice/text) in room 013 of the Queen Lili'uokalani Center.

 

Title IX: From the UH Office of Institutional Equity: “The University of Hawaii is committed to providing a learning, working and living environment that promotes personal integrity, civility, and mutual respect and is free of all forms of sex discrimination and gender-based violence, including sexual assault, sexual harassment, gender-based harassment, domestic violence, dating violence, and stalking.  If you or someone you know is experiencing any of these, the University has staff and resources on your campus to support and assist you.  Staff can also direct you to resources that are in the community…For more information regarding sex discrimination and gender-based violence, the University’s Title IX resources and the University’s Policy, Interim EP 1.204, go to: http://www.hawaii.edu/titleix”

 

Course Schedule

 

Lecture		Date	Topic	Readings
week 1	T	01/09/17	Logic of science: The demarcation problem (science vs non-science); Structure of science; Where do hypotheses come from? Features of good theories; Misunderstandings about theories
	R	01/11/17		ALL READINGS ARE AVAILABLE ON LAULIMA
week 2	T	01/16/17	Scientific reasoning: Science compared to other sources of knowledge (experience, intuition, and authority/testimony); How to find and read research; Research ethics and other scientific limits
	R	01/18/17
week 3	T	01/23/17	Studying behavior – variables, relationships between variables, and validities: Types of variables; Descriptive, correlational, and experimental methods; causal vs non-causal claims; methods vs claims; four validities
	R	01/25/17
week 4	T	01/30/17	Catch up and Review Exam 1
	R	02/01/17	Exam 1
week 5	T	02/06/17	Measurement: From conceptual variable to operationalization; Validity and reliability; Three ways to measure psychological variables
	R	02/08/17
week 6	T	02/13/17	Sampling: Biased sampling; representativeness; sampling techniques
	R	02/15/17
week 7	T	02/20/17	Correlational designs: correlation and prediction; 5 reasons correlation does not equal causation; multiple regression; can correlation ever imply causation?
	R	02/22/17
week 8	T	02/27/17	Catch up and Review Exam 2
	R	03/01/17	Exam 2
week 9	T	03/06/17	Basic experimental designs: Manipulating IV’s, controlling EV’s, measuring DV’s; random assignment; threats to experimental design
	R	03/08/17
week 10	T	03/13/17	Factorial experimental designs: Multiple causation (no magic bullets); Interactions = “It depends”
	R	03/15/17
week 11	T	03/20/17	Quasi-experimental designs: When you can’t manipulate variables
	R	03/22/17
week SB	T	03/27/17	spring break
	R	03/29/17	spring break
week 12	T	04/03/17	Catch up and Review Exam 3
	R	04/05/17	Exam 3
week 13	T	04/10/17	Statistical inference: hypothesis testing (NHST); What is a p-value? Type I and type II errors; estimation; CIs; effect size; power analysis and how to determine target sample size; causal inference
	R	04/12/17
week 14	T	04/17/17
	R	04/19/17	Replication crisis: publication bias, false-positive psychology, HARKing, power shortage, and interpreting failures to replicate; Bayesian vs Frequentist inference; open science; pre-registration
week 15	T	04/24/17
	R	04/26/17
week 16	T	05/01/17	Catch up and Review Exam 4
Exam Period	R	05/10/17	Exam 4: 2:15 - 4:15PM

 

FAQs and Advice:

FAQs

1.      What should I do if I miss a class?

2.      What should I do if I have to miss an exam because of [a family wedding, vacation plans, or other event scheduled in advance]?

3.      What if I need to miss a lecture/exam/lab for an Official University-Sponsored Event?

4.       What happens if I turn in my assignment one minute past the deadline?

5.       Do I have to attend the lab I'm enrolled in or can I go to a different one?

Advice

6.      How to (and how not to) write an e-mail to your professor and TAs

7.       When to ask questions over email and when to set up an appointment

8.       Questions you probably should avoid asking your professor

9.      Performance enhancing supplements for learning and remembering

10.  Advice on academic writing

 

FAQs

1.      What should I do if I miss a class?

You should find a classmate willing to lend you their notes and review the material with you (for example, a member from your lab group). Do this as soon as possible while the material is still fresh in their mind. After meeting with the classmate, if you have questions, I encourage you to set up an appointment with me or the TAs. Although we want to help you catch up on the material, please understand that it’s not feasible for us to repeat the class during office hours, so make sure to have questions prepared before seeing us.

 

2.      What should I do if I have to miss an exam because of [a family wedding, vacation plans, or other event scheduled in advance]?

If you need to miss an exam because of an event scheduled in advance, you should take the course next semester. Accommodation is provided under extreme and limited circumstances. Medical and family emergencies will be accommodated as long as appropriate documentation is provided (e.g., formal note on letterhead from a physician for medical emergencies or a university counselor for family emergencies). If you miss an exam because of a medical or family emergency, you should contact me by e-mail no later than the day after the exam (for a Thursday exam, notify me on Friday at the latest) to discuss accommodation. If you miss a lab or lab-related work because of a medical or family emergency, please notify your TA within 24 hours to discuss accommodation.

 

3.      What if I need to miss a lecture/exam/lab for an Official University-Sponsored Event?

“For regularly-scheduled events, students are to notify instructors within the first two weeks of the semester. For special events or tournaments, students are to notify their instructors as soon as they learn of the anticipated absence. In both cases, students who must miss class for such events will be responsible for completing all assigned work as expeditiously as possible.” http://www.catalog.hawaii.edu/about-uh/campus-policies1.htm#excused

 

4.      What happens if I turn in my assignment one minute past the deadline?

Doh! One of the most painful, spirit-crushing academic experiences a student can endure! My advice: don’t put yourself in a situation where you could turn in an assignment 1 minute late. Do whatever you need to do to turn it in with plenty of time to spare: pretend the deadline is 5 hours earlier; reward yourself with a cookie for turning it in early; plan something an hour before the paper is due so that you have to get it done well in advance. A 10% penalty applies for every day an assignment is late. Even if the assignment is 1 minute late. Even if it’s for reasons out of your control like the internet going down or your hard drive crashing. So avoid putting yourself in this situation and submit early. That way if any unforeseen things happen, the assignment won’t be late.

 

5.      Do I have to attend the lab I'm enrolled in or can I go to a different one?

Because of potential space issues and the need to keep the TA work load balanced, you must attend the lab you are enrolled in. An exception will be made if someone from the section you want to attend is willing to switch with you. In that case, you and the other student must notify your TAs.

 

Advice

6.      How to (and how not to) write an e-mail to your professor or TAs

When you email your professors or TAs, take a minute to think about what you want to say and how you want to say it.

·         Your message should be clear and grammatical.

·         Stylistically, there’s no need to be overly formal, but at the other extreme avoid internet slang (e.g., thx, omg, lol) since some professors care about a minimum level of formality.

·         Before writing your message, read the syllabus and other course material carefully to make sure the information you need isn’t already there.

 

Here are some examples of how to and how not to write an email to your professors and TAs.

 

Example #1: Don’t do this

Hi Professor Cohen,
I was wondering for our Methods course if their are weeks posted as to what chapters in our textbook correlate with the discussions of that weeks lecture.
Thank you so much for your time,
***** *****

What’s the problem with example #1? Besides the sloppy grammar and spelling and the question not being clear, this information can be located in the syllabus.

 

Example #2: Don’t do this

hey prof, is the paper due tmrw? bc i dont understand it, thx.

What’s the problem with example #2? Try to avoid internet slang. But more importantly, ask for support early! We want to help you succeed in this course!

 

Example #3: Do this

Hi Dr. Cohen,

May I look over my exam sometime this week? I’m available any morning before 12:00 PM. Please let know if any of those times work for you.

Thanks,

***** *****

Clear and direct. Not too formal, not too informal. Good job!

 

7.      When to ask a question over email and when to set up an appointment

Sometimes we can provide help over e-mail, but often it’s easier to talk in person. If you have a few questions and they can be answered quickly, e-mail is probably fine. But if your questions require a longer response, then we recommend you set up an appointment to meet with me or the TAs. Our top priority is to help you understand and think about the material, and it’s often more efficient to do that by talking in real-time during office hours than by the brilliantly slow process of exchanging e-mails.

 

Please read the syllabus closely before asking a question via e-mail. Many of the most common questions are answered in the syllabus.

 

8.      Questions you probably should avoid asking your professor

Q1. Is it still possible for me to get [grade]?

Occasionally, a student will send an email that goes like this:

---start of email---

Hi Dr. Cohen,

May I please have your honest opinion regarding whether you think I could end up with a final mark of 75+% in the course if I work hard on [assignments, exams, etc.]? As well, what do you predict to be the likelihood that I will be able to get 75+% at the end of the semester? I have roughly calculated that I would need at least an average grade of 82% on the remaining 60% of the course content.

Thank you very much for your time.

Sincerely,

***** *****

---end of email---

 

Explanation: Please resist the urge to contact me or the TAs about whether it’s possible to get a certain grade. We have too much respect for you to treat you like someone incapable of doing the math and figuring this out for him/herself. Beyond that, there’s not much we can say because what grade you actually earn depends on how hard you work, and we can’t predict that. You have control over your performance on the remaining assignments; the TAs and I do not, although we will do whatever we can to help you succeed.

 

Q2. Do we need to know [X] for the exam?

For example:

---start of email---

Hello professor, I have a question from the reader should I memorize this chart?

Thanks,

****** *****

---end of email---

 

Explanation: Out of fairness I can’t provide information to one student that puts them at an advantage relative to other students. But more importantly, this isn’t the right question to ask if you’re preparing for an exam. You’re in college to learn, so ask questions that will help clarify what you don’t know or don’t understand, that way you can do better on the exam by knowing more, not less. Use questions to figure out what you don’t know, not what you don’t need to know.

 

9.      Performance enhancing supplements for learning and remembering

What if you could take a pill that would help you learn and remember better? And what if it were completely safe and legal? Would you be interested in trying it? It turns out there are performance enhancing supplements that on average give you an advantage in learning and remembering, but they don’t come in a pill. They are techniques that cognitive scientists and educational psychologists have discovered that facilitate remembering and learning, and it’s been shown that students who use these techniques on average outperform those who don’t. Here are a few of the ingredients for enhancing academic performance:

a.      The spacing effect: Students who space their studying across multiple sessions outperform students who spend the same amount of time studying in a single session. This isn’t just the obvious recommendation to avoid procrastinating, which has to do with the size of the gap between studying and testing (study -> gap -> test). This is about creating a gap between studying and re-studying (study -> gap -> re-study -> gap -> test). The size of the study-restudy gap, like the size of study-test gap, matters and there’s interesting evidence that a longer study-restudy gap is better than a shorter one (see the papers below for details).

b.      The alternating practice effect: If you’re learning to hit a baseball, is it better to practice hitting a 100 fastballs in a row, a 100 curveballs in a row, and a 100 sliders in a row, or is it better to practice hitting 300 pitches in which the types of pitches are mixed together? There’s evidence that learners who use the second “alternating” or “interleaving” or “mixed” approach, outperform those using the first “blocking” approach. For psychology, if you have a set of practice problems for chapter 1, chapter 2, and chapter 3, it’s better to alternate the problems than block them by chapter.

c.       The testing effect: This one’s on the house. Students who study and take a test score higher on a final test than students who spend the same amount of time just studying before the final test. This is why we have 3 exams throughout the course.

d.      Taking notes with pen and paper vs a laptop: There is evidence that students who take notes with pen and paper show better recall and test performance than students who take notes on their laptop. Students who use pen and paper are more likely to write down notes in their own words and actively process the material, whereas students using laptops are more likely to copy down what the teacher says word-for-word without actively processing the content. See Mueller and Oppenheimer (2014) below for more details and an explanation.

 

References:

Mueller, P. A., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2014). The Pen Is Mightier Than the Keyboard: Advantages of Longhand Over Laptop Note Taking. Psychological science, v, pp-pp.

This paper reports a set of studies showing that students learn better when taking notes with pen and paper than with a laptop.

 

Rohrer, D., & Pashler, H. (2010). Recent research on human learning challenges conventional instructional strategies. Educational Researcher, 39 , 406–412.

This paper reviews the spacing effect, the alternating practice effect, and the testing effect.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/20/opinion/sunday/how-tests-make-us-smarter.html

An article in the NYTimes reviewing the virtues of repeated testing (the testing effect).

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/09/07/magazine/why-flunking-exams-is-actually-a-good-thing.html

Another article in the NYTimes on the testing effect.

 

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/23/sunday-review/studying-for-the-test-by-taking-it.html

And another article in the NYTimes on the testing effect and mixed practice effect.

 

Other papers of interest on the science of learning:

Freeman, S., Eddy, S. L., McDonough, M., Smith, M. K., Okoroafor, N., Jordt, H., & Wenderoth, M. P. (2014). Active learning increases student performance in science, engineering, and mathematics. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, v, pp-pp.

This paper reports a meta-analysis demonstrating the virtues of being an active learner rather than a passive listener and shows that active learning is more effective than traditional lecturing.

 

Kozhevnikov, M., Evans, C., & Kosslyn, S. M. (2014). Cognitive Style as Environmentally Sensitive Individual Differences in Cognition A Modern Synthesis and Applications in Education, Business, and Management. Psychological Science in the Public Interest, 15, 3-33.

This paper has a section on the “matching hypothesis” (p. 11), the idea that students learn more efficiently when the teaching method matches their learning style (whether you’re a visual learner, auditory learner, etc.). It comes to the surprising conclusion that the evidence for the matching hypothesis is weak. What seems to matter more is a) whether the teaching method matches the material and b) style flexibility, the ability of students to switch between learning styles.

 

10.  Advice on academic writing

Writing is hard. And writing clearly is even harder. Here is a paper I recommend that will help you as an academic writer.

Plaxco, K. W. (2010). The art of writing science. Protein Science, 19, 2261-2266.