PSY 200: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Fall 2023
MWF 3:30 pm-4:20 pm
University Church, Room 114

Breaking news...

• 25 August 2023: The Boilercast recordings of the first three lectures are available in the schedule (below). For the first recording, the capture settings were messed up, so there is mostly a shot from the document camera, which is not very useful. The sound is also pretty bad for this video, but seems to be better for the other lectures.
• 20 September 2023: Some pointed out at the start of lecture today that the video recording for lecture 10 (posted when I was sick) ends before the end of the lecture. While true, it's just missing the final word "out" and then the Conclusions and Next Time slides. You get all the necessary information from the posted video.
• 22 September 2023: Exam 1 grades are available. Each row starts with an assigned CogLab ID, which is unique to each student. Within the row of your ID you can find your exam 1 grade, CogLab grade (and score for each lab), and attendance grade. I also computed an "estimated grade", which supposes your CogLab and attendance grades are unchanged and that your score on future exams is the same as for Exam 1. Hopefully, you will do better on future exams, because the scores were not great. Roughly one-third of class did very badly. These students need to take the class more seriously. The TA will bring the exams to class next week. Please let Dr. Francis know if you see any errors in the grade sheet.
• 23 September 2023: The date/time of the final exam has been announced. It will be Saturday, December 16 at 10:30 am - 12:30 pm in University Church, Room 114 (same as the regular class location).
• 29 September 2023: The BoilerCast recording for today did not seem to work. I've put up a recording from a previous semester. Update: the recording is available, so I updated the link.
• 16 October 2023: Given the relatively last date for the final exam, I am switching the format to all multiple choice. This way, the grades can be completed relatively quickly. I have updated the study guide for final exam to indicate this change.
• 16 October 2023: Exam 2 grades are available. Each row starts with an assigned CogLab ID, which is unique to each student. Within the row of your ID you can find your exam 1 grade, CogLab grade (and score for each lab), and attendance grade. I also computed an "estimated grade", which supposes your CogLab and attendance grades are unchanged and that your score on future exams is the same as the average for exams 1 and 2. Scores for Exam 2 improved quite a bit relative to Exam 1. Some students who are doing well on the exams and not staying on top of their CogLab assignments, so that hurts their estimated class grade quite a bit.
• 09 November 2023: Exam 3 grades are available. Each row starts with an assigned CogLab ID, which is unique to each student. Within the row of your ID you can find your exam grades, CogLab grade, and attendance grade. I also computed an "estimated grade", which supposes your CogLab and attendance grades are unchanged and that your score on future exams is the same as the average for exams 1 through 3. Scores for Exam 3 were similar to Exam 2, at least on average. There were fewer extreme scores (both good and bad).
• 05 December 2023: Exam 4 grades are available. Each row starts with an assigned CogLab ID, which is unique to each student. Within the row of your ID you can find your exam grades, CogLab grade, and attendance grade. I also computed an "estimated grade", which supposes your CogLab and attendance grades are unchanged and that your score the final exam is the same as the average for exams 1 through 4. Scores for Exam 4 were similar quite good. The most common grade was an A. Note, all CogLab assignments are completed, so that score will not change. There are a few more attendance checks to be had. This grade sheet has updated all corrections that have been brought to our attention.
• 07 December 2023: Exam 4 grades have been updated with scores for a couple of students who took the exam late.
• 14 December 2023: Exam 4 grades have been updated with complete attendance scores. We also found, and fixed, an error in the attendance scores (one day was accidentally being scored twice).
• 17 December 2023: Final exam and final class grades have been updated. Scores on the final were similar to the average of the other exams. A few students unexpectedly did not take the final. We are checking with the testing center to see if they have them (this was an issue with some other exams throughout the semester). Overall, the class grades are pretty reasonable.
• 18 December 2023: Final exam and final class grades have been updated with the missing exams from the testing center.

Instructor:

Name	Office	Email	Phone	Office hours
Greg Francis	PSYCH 3186	gfrancis@purdue.edu	494-6934	MWF 2:00 pm-3:00 pm

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.

Class attendance: Your presence for the lectures is mandatory, and will be checked each class period. Over the course of the semester, each student may miss up to 6 lectures without penalty. Additional absences will proportionally reduce your class attendance score. This score contributes to 10% of your final class grade. Athletes and other special cases need to contact Dr. Francis.

Class home page: The home page for this course is http://www.psych.purdue.edu/~gfrancis/Classes/PSY200/indexF23.html From this page you can download lecture notes, view the class schedule, view current grades, and connect to the various homework laboratory and writing assignments. This course does not use Brightspace.

Vodcast recordings of lectures: BoilerCast recordings of the lectures will be available. At the time of syllabus preparation is not clear how the recordings will be distributed, but we will sort it out as the semester goes. The recordings are meant to be a (poor) substitute should you miss a lecture and to provide a way to go back and check on topics that you do not fully understand. The vodcast recording 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.

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). Exams 1 through 4 are each worth 15% of your class grade. The final will cover all topics of the course and is worth 15% of your class grade. Exams will be half multiple choice questions and half 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 2016. However, the course always changes a bit from semester to semester, and your exams will be made of different (but similar) questions. 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.

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 class grade. All the labs are on the Cognitive Psychology Online Laboratory (CogLab) web page at https://coglab.cengage.com. In the schedule below, individual labs are associated with different dates. You must complete each lab by 1:00 pm on the date indicated to get credit (better to do it the night before). You will receive log-in instructions in class.

Grading: Grading is on a straight scale, as described in Lecture 1. There is no rounding or curving of grades. There is no possibility of extra credit.

Teaching Assistants:

Name	Office	Email	Office hours
Corey Nack	PSYCH 3192	cnack@purdue.edu	Tuesday and Thursday, 10:00 am - 12:15 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.