PSYC 3450-A
Tues/Thurs 2:00 - 3:15 pm
Hale Center 303
Grades | |
ZAPS 2.0 ID 45965 |
Account sign-up Instructions |
Instructor: | Stephen T. Paul, Ph.D. | Office Hours: | M/W: 1:00 - 3:30 | |
Office: | 471 Nicholson | and by appointment. | ||
Phone: | (412) 397-5416. | E-mail: | paul@rmu.edu | |
Most people would die sooner than think; in fact they do. |
-- Bertrand Russell |
Overview: | Cognitive psychology may be defined as the study of people's ability to gather, organize, store, retrieve and use knowledge to direct their behavior. In short, it is the study of the mind. Cognitive psychologists develop and test theories (models) about the mental processes that direct observable behavior. This course will sample focal areas and classic studies in cognitive psychology as well as recent research of particular interest. | ||||||||||||||||
Objectives: |
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Text: | Reisberg, D. (2016). Cognition: Exploring the Science of the mind, 6th Ed. New York, W. W.
Norton (with access to ZAPS 2.0). IMPORTANT: Our ZAPS Class ID# is 45965. Access the online activities at: https://digital.wwnorton.com/cognition6. NOTE: Your access to ZAPS assignments for this class will END on Friday, April 20, 2018. Students are expected to have their textbooks and other required course materials (lab books, digital media, etc.) at the start of the course. Failure to have required course materials will not be accepted as justification for failure to be prepared for class, missed or incomplete assignments, failure to prepare for exams, quizzes and other course evaluations or inability to complete other course requirements. The only exception to this policy will be situations in which the textbooks and/or other course materials are not available from the publisher as determined by availability in the RMU Bookstore. | ||||||||||||||||
Web Site: | http://www.drspeg.com/courses/courses.html | ||||||||||||||||
The following breakdown will be used to determine final grades (based on overall percentage score earned by the end of the semester):
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Policies: |
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Schedule: | This is provided as a general outline and ordering of what will be covered throughout the semester. I've indicated approximate dates for tests but exact dates will be announced in class about one-week prior to each exam (the final-exam date, of course, is already known and cannot be changed). |
Meeting Date | Lecture Topic | Labs | Reading | ZAPS 2.0 | Online Quiz | |
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1 | January 8 | The Science of the Mind | Mindset-Release Task Dragon/Hollow Face Illusion (R) (G) (B) BONUS: Cat/Dog/Skull/Robo-Dog Hollow Face Illusions! |
Chapter 1 | Create Account | Quiz 1 |
2 | January 15 | Recognizing Objects | TD vs. BU | Chapter 4 | Face Perception | Quiz 2 |
3 | January 22 | Paying Attention | Overload & Overlap | Chapter 5 | Attentional Blink Stroop Effect |
Quiz 3 |
4 | January 29 | EXAM 1 | Visual Search | |||
5 | February 5 | Acquisition of Memories & Working Memory System | Levels of Processing | Chapter 6 | Sensory Memory Serial Position |
Quiz 4 |
6 | February 12 | Interconnections Between Acquisition and Retrieval | Priming | Chapter 7 | Memory Bias | Quiz 5 |
7 | February 19 | Remembering Complex Events | Reconstruction | Chapter 8 | False Memory | Quiz 6 |
8 | February 26 | EXAM 2 | ||||
March 5 ( |
Spring Break (no classes this week) | |||||
9 | March 12 | Concepts and Generic Knowledge | TBA | Chapter 9 | Sentence Verification | Quiz 7 |
10 | March 19 | Language | Ambiguity | Chapter 10 | Word Frequency Lexical Decision |
Quiz 8 |
11 | March 26 | |||||
12 | April 2 | EXAM 3 | ||||
13 | April 9 | Judgment & Reasoning | Anchor/Adjust | Chapter 12 | Decision Making | Quiz 9 |
14 | April 16 | Sudden Insight | ||||
Final Exam | Tuesday, April 24, 2018: 1:30 pm to 3:30 pm. | Review all chapters covered in class. |