PSY 429 Experimental Psychology
Learning Objectives
PSY 429 Experimental Psychology
Learning Objectives
1. Define the area of psychology called 'psychophysics'.2. What are the typical dependent, independent, and control variables in psychophysical studies?
3. Describe the benefits of employing operational definitions in experiments.
4. Why define 'threshold' as the mean of the points in each trial block when 'yes' switches from 'no' or vice versa?
5. Distinguish 'absolute' threshold from 'difference' threshold.
6. Define the following terms: interval of uncertainty, point of subjective equality. Be able to calculate each given experimental data.
7. Describe Weber's Law and be able to determine the Weber fraction given experimental data. When would there be exceptions to Weber's Law.
8. Describe the assumptions behind the signal detection theory.
9. Describe a liberal decision criterion and a conservative decision criterion in terms of the percentage of hits and the percentage of false alarms. Be able to graphically portray both kinds of criteria with a receiver-operation characteristic (ROC) function.
10. What variables (factors) affect the rate of hits and false alarms?
11. How would a signal detection theorist use the concept of 'threshold' in a psychophysics experiment?
12. Define d'. Be able to calculate d' given experimental data.
13. Describe the advantages of signal detection methods over the classical psychophysical methods.
1. Briefly describe Broadbent's filter theory of attention and the cocktail party phenomenon.2. Describe the dichotic listening procedure. What is its purpose in the study of attention? What is "shadowing" and what is its purpose?
3. Describe Donders' A, B and C reactions. Be able to identify examples of each. Rank order each in terms of duration of reaction time.
4. Describe Donders' substraction method.
5. Why is reaction time used as a dependent variable in studies of attention?
6. What are the typical dependent, independent and control variables in studies of attention?
7. Describe the results of Gray and Wedderburn (1960) study and the follow-up experiment of Treisman (1960). When the confounded variable was eliminated in subsequent studies, what effect did it have on Broadbent's theory of attention?
8. What confounding variable did Norman (1969) notice with respect to studies on attention?
9. Describe the study (procedure and results) by Wood & Cowan (1995) with respect to the issue of confounding in studies of attention.
10. Why is confounding a serious problem?
11. Describe the relationship between speed and accuracy of performance.
12. Describe the "psychological refractory period" and its relationship to SOAs (stimulus onset synchrony).
13. Describe the procedure and results of the experiment by Lorig and associates on the effects of odors on cognitive activity.
14. What is an advantage of including more than one independent variable in a study? Use the results of the Lorig study as an illustration of this advantage.
1. Describe the standard paradigm for studying Pavlovian or classical conditioning in the laboratory. Be able to identify the components (CS, US, UR, CR) in classical conditioning.2. What is (are) the necessary conditions for classical conditioning to occur? for operant conditioning?
3. Describe instrumental or operant conditioning and cite differences with classical conditioning.
4. Define discriminative stimulus (SD) and be able to identify examples of such stimuli.
5. What are the typical dependent, independent and control variables in studies of attention?
6. Describe between-subjects designs. Be able to cite (or recognize) examples.
7. What are the disadvantages with the between-subjects design and what is the usual way of dealing with the problems?
8. Why is the "variance" of the groups in a between-subjects design of special importance?
9. Describe within-subjects designs. Be able to cite (or recognize) examples. Why does the text state that investigators prefer to use within-subject designs when it is possible?
10. Under what types of experiments would the investigator choose NOT to use a within-subject design? Define the following terms: carryover effects, practice effects, fatigue effects, counterbalancing.
11. Describe the matched-groups design and the 'split-litter' technique.
12. Describe the Grice & Hunter (1964) experiment (procedure and results) on stimulus intensity. What were the results?
13. Describe the Bower (1961) study(procedure and results) on simultaneous contrast. Describe positive and negative contrast effects. Describe the negative contrast effect in Bower's experiment.
14. Describe the ABAB design and the balanced Latin square design as a method to ensure counterbalanced conditions. Be able to cite (or recognize) examples. Be able to construct a balanced Latin square with both an even number of conditions and an odd number of conditions.
15. Why use a large-n design? Is it an appropriate design for most clinical settings? Why or why not?
16. What are the two areas in psychology where small-n designs appear to be the norm?
17. Describe the AB design, the ABA or reversal design. Be able to cite (or recognize) examples.
18. Describe the multiple-baseline design. Be able to cite (or recognize) examples.
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