PSY 429 Experimental Psychology

Fall Quarter, 2000

PSY 429 will provide an introduction to experimental psychology, but unlike many courses in research methods, it will do so in the context of fundamental research in content areas of psychology. The course will provide an integrated blend of content and methodology in the context of actual research.

Reasons to take Experimental Psychology -

Experimental Psychology is offered as one of two choices in the core of the Psychology Major. A psychology major has to either take Experimental Psychology or Group Dynamics. Thus, you can satisfy a major requirement by taking PSY 429.

If you take Group Dynamics for the core requirement, however, you can still take PSY 429 and use it in a concentration as a restricted elective with approval from your advisor.

Experimental Psychology is STRONGLY recommended for those students who plan on doing graduate work in psychology. If you take a look at graduate programs in psychology (either MS/MA or Ph.D.), experimental psychology is often a recommended or required undergraduate course to take prior to going to graduate school. (If you don't have experimental psychology as an undergraduate, for those programs which require it, you may still be admitted to the graduate program but will be asked to make up the requirement once you get there.)

Upon taking Experimental Psychology, and then taking the GRE in psychology, students have told me that the course helped them cover material that was on the test.

In addition -

You will learn things in psychology that haven't been covered in any other course.

You will gain a sense of competence and understanding of research methodology that adds to and even goes beyond what is covered in Research Methods (PSY 329) and Quantitative Methods (PSY 333).

And you might even have some fun!

The objectives of the course are focused on developing an understanding of

the underlying logic of hypotheses testing procedures.

the underlying assumptions of various parametric and nonparametric tests used in experiments.

the concepts of "experimental control" and "statistical control" as they are used in experimental psychology.

research design, both in general, and as specific designs are used in particular areas of psychology.

methodology in specific content areas of psychology, e.g. psychophysics, attention & reaction time, conditioning & learning, remembering & forgetting.

how to use and apply descriptive and inferential statistics to specific research designs.

 

Prerequisites of the course:

Some students ask me whether they should try to take this course if they have not yet had either PSY 328 Research Methods, PSY 333 Quantitative Research Methods, or a statistic course. My answer is that if a student hasn't had either a research methods course or a statistics course, or both, then this course will be more difficult. I do not want to mislead anyone into thinking that NOT having this background is OK. If a student lacks this background, he or she will spend much more time outside of class trying to acquire this material, in addition to the required material for the course. Therefore, I don't recommend that a student take this course without already having taken a research methods course and a statistics course.

If, however, a student still wishes to pursue taking the course without one or both of these prerequisites, then I would highly recommend, at a minimum, that the student access and carefully go through the on-line workshops in research methods and statistics, provided by Wadsworth Publishing. Links to these workshops are provided below.

 

 

 

Syllabus	Sample Tests Answers
Learning Objectives	Homework Exercises Answers to Homework Exercises
Statistical Notation and Formula	Research Methods & Statistics Workshops
Statistical Tables	Experimental Dilemmas Answers
Class Exercises	Recommended Web Resources
Answers to Class Exercises	Current Grades (password required)

 

 

Office Hours for Fall Quarter, 2000 Monday 9:10 - 10:30 AM Tuesday 8:30 - 9:30 AM Wednesday 9:10 - 10:30 AM Thursday 8:30 - 9:30 AM or by appointment

 

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