PSY 200: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Fall 2015
MWF 2:30 pm-3:20 pm
Smith Hall, Room 108

Update

• 18 December 2015: The final exam and class grades are posted.
• 14 December 2015: The pdf listing of grades has been updated to reflect changes to a few exams.
• 07 December 2015: The fourth exam has been graded. You can look up your score in the pdf listing of grades. In general grades were much improved, with an average increase of 10 points compared to exam 3. The exams will be distributed in class or you can arrange to pick up your exam from the TA. For your reference, you can download the answers for the multiple choice questions.
• 05 December 2015: The study guide for the final exam is now available for download from the schedule, below.
• 19 November 2015: Dr. Francis will keep regular office hours during final exams week (MWF 10-11 am). Also, the TA will not be able to keep her office hours today only.
• 19 November 2015: The pre-recorded vodcast for lecture 34 is now available for viewing. I decided to switch around Lectures 33 and 34, so on Monday December 7, we will have Lecture 33 in class.
• 17 November 2015: The pre-recorded vodcast for lecture 32 (the last lecture for the material leading into Exam 4) is now available for viewing.
• 15 November 2015: I updated the study guide for Exam 4 to reflect an option for Exam 4. You will have the option to partially replace your score on Exam 1 with the score on Exam 4. On the front page of Exam 4 will be a box. If you check the box, your current exam 1 score will be replaced by the average of your old Exam 1 score and the score you earn on Exam 4. Thus, if you think you have done better on Exam 4 than on Exam 1, you should check this box. If you think you have done worse on Exam 4 than on Exam 1, you should leave the box unchecked.
• 13 November 2015: As discussed in class today, Dr. Francis will be out of town November 30 - December 3. To allow for a review session before the fourth exam, the lecture of November 23 will be available as a vodcast from the class web site (link will be provided below) and the class experience will be review for the fourth exam. There will be no class on November 29. The fourth exam will occur in class on December 1 2 (as regularly scheduled). The lecture for December 3 will be available as a vodcast (link will be provided below) and there will be no class. During my absence, I will do my best to respond to emails, but I will be in Europe and 6 hours ahead of Indiana time. Thus, an email sent to me at around 6 pm will probably not be seen by me until (my) morning (your middle of the night).
• 11 November 2015: Some exam scores for three students were mixed up in the previous listing of grades. A a corrected pdf listing of grades is now available. I highlighted in yellow the changed scores. Sorry for the trouble. If you find any discrepancies in the grade listing, please let me know.
• 09 November 2015: The third exam has been graded. You can look up your score in the pdf listing of grades. In general grades were much improved, with an average increase of 10 points compared to exam 2. The exams will be distributed or you can arrange to pick up your exam from the TA. For your reference, you can download the answers for the multiple choice questions.
• 30 October 2015: The pdf listing of grades has been updated to include all CogLab assignments up to this date.
• 15 October 2015: You will be able to pick up your exams from the TA. She will bring them to class this week or you can get them during her office hours. It would help to email the TA in advance if you stop by her office to pick up your exam. That way she can pull it out of the stack so that you can get it quickly. For your reference, you can download the answers for the multiple choice questions.
• 15 October 2015: The second exam has been graded. You can look up your score in the pdf listing of grades. Your row of grades is identified by your CogLab log in ID (if you do not know your CogLab ID, you can look it up by logging into your CogLab account). I also included all CogLab scores up to today. The Estimated grade column supposes that your score on the remaining exams is the average of your first two exams scores. I was surprised to see that the average scores on the second exam were lower than for the first exam. This is uncommon. It seems that some people who did reasonably well on the first exam did better on the second, there is an increase in the number of A's and B's. On the other hand, some people who did relatively poorly on the first exam did much worse on the second, there is a large increase in the number of F's. THERE IS NO CURVE FOR THIS CLASS, so those of you who are doing poorly will need to do better on the remaining exams and make certain that you get all possible CogLab credit for the rest of the semester.
• 09 October 2015: The schedule for the final exam has been posted. It will be Friday 18 December 10:30 am - 12:30 pm. The location is Smith Hall, Room 108 (the same as for lectures).
• 22 September 2015: You will be able to pick up your exams from the TA. She will bring them to class this week or you can get them during her office hours. For your reference, you can download the answers for the multiple choice question.
• 22 September 2015: Due to a data entry error, some of the scores for the first exam were assigned to the wrong students. Also, the Brain Asymmetry CogLab was scored relative to the original due date rather than the revised due date (Friday of week one). Both errors have now been corrected in the pdf listing of grades. Sorry for the confusion.
• 21 September 2015: The first exam has been graded. You can look up your score in the pdf listing of grades. Your row of grades is identified by your CogLab log in ID (if you do not know your CogLab ID, you can look it up by logging into your CogLab account). I also included all CogLab scores up to today. The Estimated grade column supposes that you score the same value on all remaining exams as on the first exam. Hopefully, you actually do better on the later exams (and historically this is what happens).
• 02 September 2015: The links to the study guides for exams one to four are now active in the schedule below.

Instructor:

Name	Office	Email	Phone	Office hours
Greg Francis	PSYCH 3186	gfrancis@purdue.edu	494-6934	MWF 10-11 am

Please contact me (email is best) if you cannot visit during office hours to schedule an alternative time to meet.

Text: There is no textbook. Material for exams will be taken from the lectures. If you want to use a textbook, you can use any cognition text from other (present and past) sections of this course, or you can purchase a textbook online. Class notes will be available on the web (see below). The notes are reduced in size so that six slides fit on a single page. You can either download individual lectures (below) or you can download the entire set of lectures notes in a single file (51 MB). There are also optional readings in the schedule below. These readings may help if you are unsure about something or want to explore a topic further.

Lectures: BoilerCast recordings of the lectures will be available as a vodcast. As they become available, the “vodcast” links in the schedule below will become links to the recordings. It sometimes takes a few days for the vodcast to be uploaded. Do not be tricked into believing that you can get the full benefit of the lecture from the BoilerCast recordings. Moreover, the system does not always properly capture the lecture, and sometimes the audio is quite poor. Your best option is to attend the lecture itself and use the vodcast as a way to refresh selected topics.

Class home page: The home page for this course is http://www.psych.purdue.edu/~gfrancis/Classes/PSY200/index.html From this page you can download lecture notes, view the class schedule, view current grades, and connect to the various homework laboratory assignments. This course does not use Blackboard.

Examinations: There will be four section exams and one final exam. The section exams will be in-class and the final exam will be given during the final exam period (do not plan to leave campus early, this course's final exam is sometimes scheduled for the last day of exam week). Each section exam and the final is worth 17% of your class grade. The final will cover all topics of the course. Exams will include a mix of multiple choice and short answer questions. Extensive study guides are available as links in the class schedule below. You might also find it useful to look at old exams from Spring 2012. However, the course was structured a bit differently then, some topics have changed (both added and removed), and the exams for this semester will involve entirely new questions with more short-answer questions and fewer multiple choice questions.

CogLab: CogLab is an Internet site that allows students to participate in classic experiments related to cognitive psychology. You will be given lab assignments throughout the semester. These labs are run through the Internet and can be carried out at any computer lab on campus or at a home computer. Your overall lab grade will make up 15% of your final grade. All the labs are on the Cognitive Psychology Online Laboratory (CogLab) web page at http://coglab.cengage.com. In the schedule below, individual labs are associated with different dates. You must complete the lab by 8:00 am on the date indicated to get credit. You will receive log-in instructions in class.

Make-up exams: Make-up exams will not be permitted unless you notify Dr. Francis at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled exam date. Missed exams will receive a grade of 0.

Teaching Assistant:

Name	Office	Email	Office hours
Liz Wiemers	PSYCH 3198	ewiemers@purdue.edu	Tues/Thurs 1:30-3:00 pm

Schedule:

The links to the optional readings provide some additional background or related information. You do not need to read this material, but if you are interested in the topic, it is a place to start further exploration.