Psychology 315: Cognitive Psychology

Spring, 2009

Mon, Wed, Fri, 11:15-12:05 Herter 231 email: psy315@psych.umass.edu

Instructor: Kyle Cave office: 432 Tobin phone: 5-2787 office hours: Wed 2:00-3:00 pm or by appointment

Teaching Assistant: Hanna King office: Tobin 537 office hours: Mon 4:30-5:30 p.m. or by appointment

(This page last updated 14 May, 2009.)

The first half of the final exam will cover the material presented since Exam 3. That includes chapters 11-13 and 15 from the textbook. You should be familiar with the material in those chapters, but we have covered these topics rather quickly, and so there will be fewer questions from those readings and they will be less in-depth. When distributing your study time across the different chapters, you should probably give relatively less time to these final chapters.

This course will cover the study of human cognition. We will start with the computational foundations of Cognitive Psychology and Cognitive Science. Then we will work our way up from lower-level perceptual aspects of cognition, such as vision and object recognition, through a discussion of memory, and then on to higher-level cognitive abilities including language and decision making. At the end we will discuss the philosophical questions that underlie consciousness.

Readings:

The textbook for this course is Cognition by Daniel Reisberg. Be sure to get the Third Edition (ISBN 0-393-92542-0) or the Third Media Edition (ISBN 978-0-393-93054-2). It is available at the Textbook Annex. If you buy a new copy of the textbook, it comes with a set of online experimental demonstrations called "ZAPS". The online demonstrations are not required for the class, but can be used for extra credit. You can also receive extra credit for participating in experiments, as explained below. A copy of the textbook is also on reserve in the W.E.B. Du Bois Library.

Other readings may be added later.

Schedule:

Below is a schedule showing the topic, and readings from the textbook for each class. Be sure that you have completed the readings before class, so that you can understand the material presented during class and can participate in the discussion. If you are confused about any part of the reading, try to formulate questions and ask them at the beginning of class.

date

topic

reading

1	Jan 26	History of Cognitive Psychology
2	Jan 28	Information Processing	chapter 1
3	Jan 30	Information Processing continued

4	Feb 2	Neuroscience	chapter 2
5	Feb 4	Neuroscience continued
6	Feb 6	Neuroscience continued

7	Feb 9	The Visual System	chapter 3
8	Feb 11	The Visual System continued
9	Feb 13	The Visual System continued

	Feb 16	holiday
10	Feb 18	Word Recognition
11	Feb 20	exam 1

12	Feb 23	Object Recognition
13	Feb 25	Attention	chapter 4
14	Feb 27	Attention to Locations and Objects

15	Mar 2	Visual Search and Automaticity
16	Mar 4	Reading
17	Mar 6	Visual Awareness

18	Mar 9	The Modal Model of Memory	chapter 5
19	Mar 11	Working Memory
20	Mar 13	Getting Into Long Term Memory	chapter 6

***Spring Break ***

21	Mar 23	Getting Back Out of Long Term Memory
22	Mar 25	exam 2
23	Mar 27	Implicit Memory

24	Mar 30	Implicit Memory continued
25	Apr 1	Amnesia
26	Apr 3	Remembering the Gist

27	Apr 6	Forgetting True Memories and Creating False Memories	chapter 7
28	Apr 8	False Memories continued
29	Apr 10	Network Models of Memory	chapter 8

30	Apr 13	Network Models continued
31	Apr 15	Concepts	chapter 9
32	Apr 17	Prototype and Exemplar Theories

	Apr 20	holiday
33	Apr 21	Tuesday: Concepts as Implicit Theories
34	Apr 22	exam 3
35	Apr 24	Language	chapter 10

36	Apr 27	Syntax
37	Apr 29	Language and the Brain
38	May 1	Visual Imagery	chapter 11

39	May 4	Imagery in the Brain
40	May 6	Availability and Representativeness	chapter 12
41	May 8	Deduction	chapter 13

42

May 11

Consciousness

chapter 15

We may decide to change the schedule as the class progresses.

Communicating Outside of Class:

There is a World Wide Web site for this class with this syllabus, class notes, and other materials. The address for the Web site is at the bottom of this syllabus. There is also a Spark site for turning in papers and accessing grades.

The best way to contact the instructor and teaching assistant is through e-mail, using the address at the top of this syllabus, or to come by during office hours. You can also phone us at the numbers above.

Exams:

	Read this carefully. Ask us if there is any part you do not understand.
	There will be three regular exams during the semester and a final exam at the end.
	The exams will cover both material from class and material from the reading.
	The exams may include multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, and matching questions, along with short answer questions.
	Each of the three regular exams will be devoted mainly to the most recent material that has been presented up to that point, but parts of Exams 2 and 3 will cover material from earlier in the course that may have also been covered on previous exams.
	The final will have two parts. The first part will cover the last part of the course, and will be similar to the three regular exams. The second part will cover the entire course.
	No make-up exams will be given.
	The lowest exam score will be dropped. The two parts of the final will count as two separate scores. Thus, the three regular exams and the final will give you five different scores, and your grade will be based on the top four scores.
	Repeat: No make-up exams will be given.

Paper:

There will be one paper, with a maximum length of 1200 words. You can select the paper topic from this list of topics. Note that different topics are due on different dates throughout the semester. Be sure to read carefully the Guide to Writing the Paper before you begin. When the paper is done, turn it in electronically through Spark, which will route it through TurnItIn.

There may be other short assignments throughout the class. They could include your written thoughts and questions about one of the readings or a class discussion, other short written assignments, and perhaps an occasional short quiz. I may encourage you to discuss these assignments with other students (except, of course, the quizzes). However, unless I specifically say otherwise, the work you turn in for the assignments must be entirely your own.

Extra Credit:

By participating in experiments done within the Psychology Department, you can learn first hand how experimental psychology is done, you can contribute to the advancement of the field, and you can improve your grade through extra credit.

	You can sign up to participate in experiments at http://umasspsych.sona-systems.com.
	You will receive one credit for each half-hour of experimental participation. Each credit will add one-half of one percent to your total number of points.
	If you sign up to participate in an experiment and do not show up, you lose one credit for each credit you would have received.
	The total amount of extra credit you can receive is 8 credits, which will take 4 hours, and will add 4% to your point total.

If you purchase a new copy of the textbook with access to the online experiment demonstrations (ZAPS), then you can also earn extra credit by writing a report for each of the experimental demonstrations that you complete.

	Each report should be at least 350 words, and must be well written to receive credit.
	If you complete a ZAPS experimental demonstration and write a satisfactory report, one-third of one percent will be added to your total number of points.
	Choose your topics from this list.

Here are the limits on extra credit, whether it is earned by participating in Psychology Department experiments or writing reports on ZAPS experimental demonstrations.

	The maximum extra credit that you can receive is 4% of the total possible points.
	All extra credit must be completed by May 4.
	Extra credit cannot make a failing grade into a passing grade.

Academic Honesty:

All students are expected to adhere scrupulously to the University policy concerning academic honesty.  If you fail to follow these rules, you could receive a failing grade for the class and be reported to the Academic Honesty Office. For more information on the University's academic honesty policy, check this web site:

http://www.umass.edu/dean_students/codeofconduct/acadhonesty/

Also, this website from Indiana University provides examples to help you understand how to avoid plagiarism.

Course grade:

The paper and any other assignments will make up 10% of the course grade. The rest of the grade will be made up of the four exam scores after the lowest score is dropped. See above under "Exams" for details.

Extra credit is available through experimental participation. See above.

 

An updated version of syllabus is available on the World Wide Web at: http://courses.umass.edu/psy315/

Psych 315: Cognitive Psychology Kyle Cave Psychology Dept. U. Mass.