COGNITION CLASS - PSY 435/550

Department of Psychology - University of Oregon, Spring 1998

Overview

The purpose of this course is to provide a basic understanding of cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes that underlie functions such as perception, memory, attention, language, and reasoning. We will also examine how modern cognitive neuroscience investigates the relationship between brain and mental processes. In particular, we will review empirical evidence and critically evaluate the relationship between experimental data and theories of cognitive processes. Several guest lectures will provide more detailed information on particular topics in cognition.

Course requirements

The course requirements include doing the reading, attending the class, attending guest lectures, participating in class discussions, doing the weekly assignments, and taking the examinations.

Required readings

Each week there will be reading assigned from the textbook. Readings are to be completed BEFORE the Monday class meeting for which they are assigned. The recommended textbook is:

• Payne, D. G. & Wenger, M. J. (1998), Cognitive Psychology, Houghton Mifflin.

Additional readings will be added during the course.

Guest lectures

Almost every week there will be a guest lecture. Participation at guest lectures is mandatory. Each guest lecture will be considered part of the reading assignments and you will be required to write a short abstract that summarizes the main points of the lecture. At least one question in each quizz will be on material from the guest lecture.

Grading

Your grade will be computed by combining your scores in the following overall categories for a total of 270 points:

• Quizzes (total of 5 20 points scores)100
• Abstracts (total of 7 10 points scores)70
• Paper50
• Take-home final40
• Extra credit potentials20

TOTAL 280

Final letter grades will be approximately determined from point totals as follows:

• 250-280A
• 220-249B
• 190-219C
• 160-189D
• Below 160F

Based on the actual distribution of final grades, this criterion might be relaxed, but not stiffened. Plusses and minus will be used for performance near the edge of a range.

More about grades and requirements

QUIZZES -- 100 POINTS

Five quizzes will be given. Each quiz is worth 20 points. The quizzes will be structured to assess your knowledge of the readings, class discussions and guest lectures. Each quiz consists of 5 short-answer questions. Typically, two questions will pertain to the textbook readings, two questions to the class discussions, lectures and/or demonstrations, and one question to the guest lecture. You will be graded on your knowledge, synthesis of the ideas, and also the clarity with which you present your ideas in the examination. You should try to be concise and avoid long and wordy answers. You will have good grades if you read the assigned chapters in the textbook AND if you come to class.

ABSTRACTS -- 70 POINTS

Guest lectures are a very important part of this course. Attendance of the guest lectures is mandatory. After each lecture you are required to write an abstract. The abstract must be short (not more than 1000 words) and can be written using your notes from the class. More information on how to write a good abstract can be found in the fourth edition of the APA Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (for example, pp. 8-11). Your effort should concentrate in trying to understand the main points of the lecture, organizing them in a logical manner and giving a brief evaluation of the lecture. The last 10 minutes of each guest lecture will be reserved for questions. It is very important to ask questions during this period. Make sure that you understand everything and ask questions to clarify difficult points. If you miss a guest lecture, you should come to my office hours so we can arrange a make-up assignment. For the third abstract, you will be required to find a journal article on applications of cognitive psychology and to write a short summary of the article.

PAPER -- 50 POINTS

You are required to write a paper for this class. The paper should be more than 5 pages and less than 10 pages long and must contain at least 4 references. The focus of the paper must be a review of experimental data on a topic of your choice that is related to cognitive psychology. The paper should follow the basic American Psychological Association (APA) style for a review paper or a research report. This means that there should be an abstract, introduction to the issues, justification of the importance of the proposed topic, a review of the literature, conclusions and a reference list. By the fourth week of the class you are required to prepare an outline of the paper and the reference list. The paper is due by Friday of the eighth week. Extra credits may be gained returning the paper before the deadline and/or if the paper suggests a possible experiment to test the hypotheses that you will report.

FINAL -- 40 POINTS

The take-home final will consist of essay questions on the main topics of the course. The text of the final will be given during the last day of class. The final is due by noon of Wednesday, June 10th.

EXTRA CREDITS -- UP TO 20 POINTS

Extra credits can be earned in a variety of ways. If you make especially valuable contribution to class or on-line discussion you may earn extra points. If you do something creative, special, and above-and-beyond the course requirements you may earn extra points. If you return your requirements before the designed deadline you may earn extra-credits (but you will lose credit if your assignments are late).

REVIEW WEEK

The last week of class (June 1st-June 5th) will be used to summarize and clarify the topic discussed in the course in preparation for the final exam. Your contribution during this week is particularly important. You will be asked to prepare questions, to contribute to the discussion, and to participate in group activities. Your contribution to the discussion and group activities will be evaluated and will be part of your grade.

E-MAIL LIST

The course will have a mailing list. It is essential that you get an e-mail account immediately if you do not have one. I will use the e-mail to send the overheads used during class, class notes, study questions or other important communications for the class. The e-mail list will also be used for on-line discussion sessions. Undergraduate students at the UO can get free accounts on the server "gladstone" and can use the "Pine" e-mail system. For instruction on how to get a gladstone account and use Pine, see the Computing Center publication "Getting Started on Gladstone", available from the Computing center room.

By the second week of class you should subscribe to this mailing list by sending an e-mail message from your e-mail account to the program that manage the list, i.e. to "majordomo@lists.uoregon.edu". In that e-mail message, leave the "Subject" line blank, and in the body of the message include two lines: "subscribe COG435" and "end".

PINE 3.91 COMPOSE MESSAGE Folder: INBOX 0 MESSAGE

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STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES

If you have a documented disability and anticipate needing accommodation in this course, please make arrangements to meet with the instructor soon. Also please request that the Counselor for Students with Disabilities send a letter verifying your disability.

Weekly schedule of Topics, Readings, and Assignments

(Additional small assignments may be added in the next weeks)

WEEK 1: Overview and Methods

Readings: CHAPTER 1

• Mon, March 30th: Syllabus and Introduction
• Wed, April 1st, First Guest Lecture:
  DIEGO FERNANDEZ-DUQUE (Metaphors and Cognitive Science)
• Friday, April 3rd: Methods in Cognitive Psychology
  ABSTRACT 1 DUE

WEEK 2: Methods in Cognitive Neurosciences

Readings: CHAPTERS 2 and 3

• Mon, April 6th: Second GUEST LECTURE:
  MICHAEL POSNER (Methods in Cognitive Neurosciences):
• Wed, April 8th: Cognitive Codes
• Fri, April 10th : QUIZ 1
  ABSTRACT 2 DUE

WEEK 3: Perception, Object Recognition

Readings: CHAPTER 4

• Mon, April 13th: Stimulus detection
• Wed, April 15th: Perception
• Fri, April 17th: Object recognition
  SELECT PAPER FOR ABSTRACT 3, APPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
  QUIZ 2

WEEK 4: Attention

Readings: CHAPTER 5

• Mon, April 20th: Spatial Attention.
  ABSTRACT 3 DUE
• Wed, April 22th: Selective Attention
• Fri, April 24th: Third GUEST LECTURE:
  SCOTT DORAN (Sleep and Cognition)
  PAPER: REFERENCE LIST AND OUTLINE DUE

WEEK 5: Inhibition and Cognition

Readings: to be announced

• Mon, April 27th: Inhibition and Cognitive Deficits
  ABSTRACT 4 CUE
• Wed, April 29th: Executive Functions
  QUIZ 3
• Fri, May 1st, Fourth GUEST LECTURE:
  MICHAEL ANDERSON (Memory retrieval and inhibition)

WEEK 6: Short Term Memory

Readings: CHAPTER 6

• Mon, May 4th: Working Memory(1)
  ABSTRACT 5 DUE
• Wed, May 6th: Working Memory(2)
• LFri, May 8th, Fifth GUEST LECTURE:
  JENNIFER FREYD (False memory and traumatic memory, part 1)

WEEK 7: Long Term Memory

Readings: CHAPTERS 7 and 8

• Mon, May 11th: Episodic memory
• Wed, May 13th: Semantic Memory
  QUIZ 4
• Fri, May 15th, Sixth GUEST LECTURE:
  JENNIFER FREYD (False memory and traumatic memory, part 2)

WEEK 8 - Language

Readings: CHAPTERS 9 and 10

• Mon, May 18th: Language production
  ABSTRACT 6 DUE
• Wed, May 20th: Language comprehension
• Fri, May 22th, Seventh GUEST LECTURE:
  HELEN NEVILLE (Language and brain plasticity)
  PAPER DUE

WEEK 9 - Aging, Decision Making

Readings: CHAPTERS 11 and 12

• Mon, May 25th: Holiday
• Wed, May 27th: Aging and Cognition
  ABSTRACT 7 DUE
• Fri, May 29th: Decision making
  QUIZ 5

WEEK 10 - Review Week

• Mon, June 1st: Perception and Attention
• Wed, June, 3rd: Memory
• Fri, June 5th: Language and Reasoning
  TAKE-HOME FINAL

The take-home final is due Wednesday, June 10th at noon.

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