PSY 429 Experimental Psychology

Syllabus

 

Text: Kantowitz, Roediger, & Elmes, Experimental Psychology, Seventh Edition, 2000.

Required Materials:

Hand calculator. I realize that some of you may have taken Psy 333 Quantitative Research Methods and know how to analyze data on computers using statistical software like SPSS or Statview. However, I do NOT want you to use computer statistical software to perform data analysis in this course. A hand calculator which does simple addition, substraction, multiplication, and division is sufficient.

One of the objectives of this course is for you to learn how to perform routine data analysis using traditional statistical formula. A hand calculator, in which you enter the data and work out the answer according to a formula, will encourage you to learn the fundamentals of statistical analysis, and thereby learn the logic behind experimental design.

Although this may sound intimidating at first, almost all students report that this feature of the course was worthwhile. After finishing the course, students often report feeling more empowered and knowledgeable, and less intimidated about research and statistics.

 

Prerequisites:

PSY 329 Research Methods, or equivalent, and a statistics course.  

Course Description:

The course is divided into two components, a lecture component and a lab component.

Lecture: The first few weeks of the quarter will be spent in reviewing research methodology in general, and experimental research methods in particular. Following the first mid-term exam, specific content areas in psychology will be covered with respect to particular research designs within those content areas. The content areas covered are: psychophysics, attention and reaction time, conditioning and learning, remembering and forgetting.

Lab: The first few weeks will be spent in reviewing general descriptive and inferential statistics in the context of psychological research topics. Class exercises and homework exercises will be required. Following this review, the remainder of the course will concentrate on analysis of variance, both between-subject and within-subject designs, using one and two independent variables.

Evaluation:

Evaluation will consist of 1) two mid-term exams and a final exam, and 2) written homework assignments. Each mid-term exam will make up 25% of the course grade, the final exam will make up 35% of the grade and the written assignments will make up 15% of the grade. There will be 5 homework assignments.

The exams will consist of multiple choice and short answer questions. The final exam will NOT be cumulative; that is, it will not contain material from specific chapters in the text covered on previous tests. Each mid-term exam as well as the final exam will contain material from both the lecture portion of the course and the lab portion of the course. However, in order to allow enough time for you to complete the exam and not feel rushed, exam exam will be divided into two sections, one section covering material from the lecture portion and the other section covering material from the lab portion of the course. The final exam will take place during finals week at the regularly scheduled final exam time as listed in the quarter schedule. Because the final exam accounts for 35% of the course grade, the 35% breaks down to 20% based on lecture and text material and the remaining 15% on lab material. The grading scale will be as follows:

93 - 100% A	73 - 76.5% C
90 - 92.5% A-	70 - 72.5% C-
87 - 89.5% B+	67 - 69.5% D+
83 - 86.5% B	63 - 66.5% D
80 - 82.5% B-	60 - 62.5% D-
77 - 79.5% C+	below 60% F

 

Learning Objectives:

To help you study material from the text, learning objectives covering each assigned chapter are available. These are not to be turned in as homework. They are to help you study the required readings. Material in he text NOT covered by a learning objective will NOT be on the exam. There are no learning objectives covering the lecture or the lab. Thus, you will be held responsible for all material covered in class.  

Statistics:

Statistical tests typically used in experimental psychology will be covered mostly in the labs. You will NOT be required to memorize statistical formula. A formula sheet will be available to you on each exam and for the homework. Any exceptions to this rule will be minor (e.g. mean) and will be announced in class prior to the exam.

Research Methods and Statistics Workshops:

Available to you from Wadsworth Publishing are free research methods and statistics on-line workshops. All 10 research methods workshops and 10 statistics workshops are accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. To get started, simply click on any of the workshop topics that you want to explore.  

Fall Quarter, 2000

Fall Quarter, 2000

 

Week	Topic	Reading	Homework Exercises
9/18	Descriptive Statistics Review	pp. 477 - 488	-----
9/25	Correlation; Inferential Statistics	pp. 488 - 508	Exercise #1 Due 9/28
10/2	Inferential Statistics	pp. 488 - 508	Exercise #2 Due 10/5
10/9	Mid-term Exam #1 on lab material only: TUESDAY, 10/10, 12:10 - 1:30 PM ANOVA: one factor, between-subjects Hartley's F max test on homogeneity of variance	pp. 508 - 522	-----
10/16	ANOVA: Tukey HSD Test	none	Exercise #3 Due 10/19
10/23	ANOVA: two factor, between-subjects	none	-----
10/30	ANOVA: two factor, between-subjects	none	Exercise #4 Due 11/2
11/6	Mid-term Exam #2 on lab material only: TUESDAY, 11/7, 12:10 - 1:30 PM ANOVA: 2 x 3 between-subjects	none	-----
11/13	ANOVA: repeated measures	none	-----
11/20	Strength of Association tests; power	none	-----
11/27	Non-parametric Tests	none	Exercise #5 Due 11/30
Finals Week	Final Exam: TUESDAY, 11/5, 1:10 - 4:00 PM	none	-----

 

Psy 429 Main Page	Syllabus	Class Exercises	Homework Assign.	Experimental Dilemmas	Sample Tests;Answers	Statistical Tables
Learning Objectives	Statistical Formula	Answers to Class Ex.	Answers to Homework	Answers to Dilemmas	Web Links	Additional Exercises

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