PSY 217: Experimental Psychology
Conditions |
Thanks for a Great Semester
and Have a Great Summer: I hope that you enjoyed the semester; you were one of the best classes that I have had in quite a while. I hope that each of you have a wonderful and safe summer.
Research: Now that you know something about psychological research and have some experience with it, I strongly encourage you to continue to do research with the faculty. If you intend to get a Ph.D. in psychology it is essential that you have lots of research experience. Talk to the faculty members whose research interests are closest to your own and get involved in their research. It will pay off when you need letters of recommendation for graduate school. Besides, research is one of the greatest learning experiences offered.
Exam 4 Grades: The grades for the final exam are available from the Check Grades link in the list of links on the left. The mean and standard deviation are currently 42.7 (out of 50) and 4.4. To figure out your letter grade in the course, divide the number of points that you earned by 410 (the number of points available in the class) and multiply by 100. Page 1 of the syllabus has the grading scale. The following frequency histogram shows the number of people who earned each letter grade on the exam:
If you want to see your exam, you can drop by during office hours (4/26 and 4/28) from 10 to 10:50 AM. If that is not convenient for you, please send me a list of times that you are available and I will pick one that also works for me.
Office Hours on Friday,
4/24: I do not usually have office hours on Friday, but because it is the day before our final, I will have office hours from 10 AM to noon. There is a faculty meeting until around 10 AM, so if I am not in my office right at 10 AM, please wait and I will be there soon.
Paper Grades:
The grades for the term paper are available from the Check Grades link in the list of links on the left.
The mean and standard deviation are 42.69 (out of 50) and 3.94. The
following frequency histogram shows the number of people who earned each letter
grade: If you want your paper before the exam, you can pick it up during my office hours on Friday (see above.)
Lab 8 Assignments Can Be
Picked Up:
I have put your lab 8 assignments in an envelope outside my office door (SJ
312.) I encourage you to pick them up and modify the title page and abstract of
your term paper before turning in the term paper on Monday at the start of
class.
Final Exam Is Saturday,
April 25: Our final exam is Saturday, April 25 from 12:20 to 2:10 PM. The final exam has the same format as the other exams and covers lab 7 and material aftter exam 3.
Have a Great and Safe
Spring Break : I hope that everyone has a great, safe and responsible Spring Break.
Graph for Lab 7 : Here is a video of me creating the clustered bar chart with 95% CI in Excel. You can following along with the instructions I handed out in class. Not every step is crystal clear in the video -- remember that the previous items in the video have to be copied to the clip board before they can be pasted into Excel. Also remember that when you need to select multiple items that are not contiguous, you should click the first item, then hold down the CTRL key while clicking on the other items. Finally, remember that to get a pop-up menu item, you can right click on the appropriate item. The item selected on the pop-up menu that is off the bottom of the screen is Format Cells. (Or you can just email Jim -- just joking.)
Lab 8 Assignment Is Due on
Wednesday, 4/15 : The assignment for lab 8, to create and APA style title page and abstract for the data collected in lab 7, is due at the start of class on Wednesday, 4/15. It should not take long to do and I strongly encourage you to do the assignment as soon as possible while the details are still reasonably fresh in your memory. If you wait until after Spring Break (almost two weeks) to start it, the details are much less likely to be in your memory.
Term Paper Is Due at the Start of
Class on Monday, 4/20 : The term paper is a complete APA style paper for the experiment we did in lab 7. You will be graded on both the content and APA style. The due date might sound like the distant future, but we have only two class sessions before it. I strongly encourage you to get started on it as soon as possible. The paper is worth 50 points (over 12% of your grade.) Be sure to write the paper in your own words -- here is the relevant quote from the syllabus: "Plagiarism is considered an instance of academic dishonesty.... In many of the labs, I will show you how to write a section of an APA style paper. Do NOT use these samples as your own work. Read the sample, put it away, and then type in your own words. All instances of academic dishonesty.... will result in a failing grade in the class."
Lab 7 Data : The data for lab 7 is available as an SPSS .sav file. I recommending saving the file, opening SPSS, and then opening the file from SPSS.
Lab 8 Is Wednesday 4/1 : There is no preparation for lab 8, but you should bring your computer. We will be working on the graph for Lab 7 and APA style.
Exam 3 Grades: The grades for the third exam are available from the Check Grades link in the list of links on the left. The mean and standard deviation are 41.3 (out of 50) and 4.99. The following frequency histogram shows the number of people who earned each letter grade:
Lab 7: We will discuss the article for lab 7 (Granrud, Yonas & Pettersen, 1984) on Monday, 3/30. We will also analyze the data from lab 7 on that day. Please bring your computers.
Extra Credit: Two of my PSY 495 students are looking for participants for their studies.
Each study that you participate in will earn you 5 extra credit points (for a
maximum of 10 points.) If you do not want to participate in the studies
you can earn the same extra credit points by writing a one page, double spaced
summary for one or two five page journal articles. You do not have to do
the extra credit assignment. If you do the extra credit (either by
writing summaries and/or by participating in the studies) you can earn at most
10 extra credit points. All extra credit must be done no later than
3/31. The studies have limited seats available and they will be assigned
on a first come, first served basis. Here are the opportunities: Read and Write:
Exam 3: Exam 3 is Wednesday, March 25. It has the same format as the first two exams. It covers chapters 8 and 9 of the text, and material covered in class from 3/2 to and including 3/23.
Lab 6 Assignment: Lab 6's assignment -- to write an APA style introduction to for the study we did in class -- is due at the start of class on Monday, March 23. The literature review in the introduction should include a discussion of the article by Craik and Tulving (1975) that was assigned for the lab, and at least one other appropriate article that you should find using PsycInfo. If you do the minimum amount of work for the assignment, expect a minimal grade for the assignment.
Lab 6: We will start lab 6 on Wednesday, March 11. Please read and be prepared to discuss pages 268 to 273 of the article by Craik and Tulving (1975). Please bring your computer.
Lab 5 Assignment: Lab 5's assignment is due at the start of class on Wednesday, March 11. I suggest that you do the assignment as soon as possible while the material is still fresh in your minds.
Lab 4 Graph: This video shows how we made the graph for lab 4. In the future, it is better if you do SPSS assignments as soon as you can; otherwise, you are likely to forget how to do it. If you wait until the day before the assignment is due, there isn't much time to seek help if you need it.
Lab 4 Output: The SPSS output that we did in class for lab four is available here. I suggest saving the file, opening SPSS and then using File | Open | Output to open the output. I won't post output in the future, so be sure to bring your computers on lab days.
Exam 2 Grades: The grades for the second exam
are available from the Check Grades link in the list of links on the left.
The mean and standard deviation are 43.5 (out of 50) and 4.90. The
following frequency histogram shows the number of people who earned each letter
grade:
Lab 5 Starts on
Monday, 3/2: We will start the fifth lab on Monday, March 2 and likely finish it on Wednesday, March 4. There is no preparation for the fifth lab. We will be using several of OhioLINK's online databases during lab 5. If you want to follow along on your own computer, be sure to bring it on Monday and Wednesday.
Lab 4's Assignment is Due on
Monday, 3/2: Your APA style table, figure captions page and figures are due at the start of class on Monday, 3/2.
Lab 3's Assignment is Due on
Monday, 2/23: The APA style discussion section for the data collected in lab 3 is due at the start of class on Monday, 2/23.
Exam 2 Is Wednesday, 2/25: The second exam is Wednesday, February 25. It has the same format as the first exam. It covers the material presented in class from 2/4 to and including 2/23 (slides 19 to 25 of the survey research presentation, the independent groups designs / true experiments presentation, chapter 7 of the text, and labs 2, 3 and 4.)
Lab 4 Starts on
Wednesday, 2/18: We will start on lab 4 on Wednesday, 2/18. Please bring your computers that day and be prepared to discuss the article by Roediger (1980).
Lab 2's Assignment Is Due on
Monday, 2/16: Lab 2's assignment, to write an APA style method section, is due at the start of class on Monday, 2/16.
Lab 3 Is Monday, 2/16: We will start lab 3 on Monday, 2/16. Please bring your computers and be ready to discuss the article by Bransford and Johnson (1972).
Exam 1 Grades: The grades for the first exam are available from the Check Grades link in the list of links on the left. The mean and standard deviation are 42.5 (out of 50) and 4.84. The following frequency histogram shows the number of people who earned each letter grade:
Lab 2 Is Wednesday, 2/4: We will do lab 2 on Wednesday. As such, you need to bring your laptops and read the article by Lounsbury.
UD Is Closed on Wednesday,
January 28: We will not have class on Wednesday, January 28 as the University is closed until at least 4:30 PM. We will still have our exam on Monday, February 2. If you have questions as you prepare for the exam, please email me, call (229-2171) or schedule a meeting with me.
Exam 1 Is Monday, February 2: The first exam is Monday, February 2. It covers everything we have done in the course so far including the labs. It also covers chapters 2, 4 and 5 of the textbook (be sure to know the bold face and italicized words in the text.) The exam consists of 20 multiple choice questions (1 point each), 10 fill in the blank questions (1 point each) and 2 essay questions (10 points each.)
Lab 2: We will start lab 2 on Wednesday, January 28. In preparation, you need to read the article by Lounsbury, Sundstrom, Loveland and Gibson (2003.) You should bring your computers to class on Wednesday.
Lab 1 Assignment Is Due on
1/28: The assignment for the first lab, to write a results section of the study, is due at the start of class on Wednesday, January 28.
Lab 1 Data Set: The lab 1 data set is available here. SPSS usually works best if you save the file to your computer and then open it.
Lab 1: We will start lab 1 on Wednesday, January 14. In preparation for the lab, you need to read and be ready to discuss Jenni (1976), bring your computer, and have SPSS successfully installed. The lab 1 page gives a little background on the lab. You will also need to bring your computer to class on Wednesday, January 21 so we can finish the data analysis and see how to write a results section.
SPSS: You need to install SPSS version 15 (statistical software) on your laptop computer. It is available from https://software.udayton.edu/ . Install it NOW. If you encounter problems installing it, you can contact the help desk at 229-3888. If you are using a Mac, you will need to install Boot Camp and run SPSS from Windows (I apologize for that -- UD has decided to not support the Mac version of SPSS.)
Lecture Notes: You can get the lecture notes for Monday by clicking on the Schedule link in
the list to the left. On the schedule page, click on the notes icon (
Welcome: Welcome to Experimental Psychology! The primary goal of the class is to do research -- designing meaningful studies, collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data, and presenting results, both in written and oral formats. Even though many students do not view research methods as "psychology", these methods form the basis for the knowledge base of psychology. |
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*The time until the next exam is based on your computer's clock.
If your computer's clock is wrong, the time until the exam will be wrong too.
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for the day that you want. Finally, enter your last name and student
identification number. I will not distribute copies of the lecture notes
in class -- it is your responsibility to print them if you want them.