PSY 200: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Spring 2021
MWF 1:30 - 2:20 pm
Online

Breaking news

• 09 May Very minor updates (just for two students with some missing grades) PDF grade sheet.
• 07 May Grades are in for the final exam. The scores were quite good. I have updated the PDF grade sheet and also indicated your final class score and corresponding letter grade. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The cutoffs for letter grades are in lecture 1. Remember from lecture 1 that there is no rounding up. There is no extra credit.
• 06 May A student noticed that I slightly miscalculated the CogLab grades (I was counting one lab twice), so I have updated the PDF grade sheet. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The only outstanding grade is the final exam. The estimated grade supposes that your final exam grade is the average of the previous four exams.
• 03 May Writing assignment 4 has been graded, so I have updated the PDF grade sheet. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The only outstanding grade is the final exam. The estimated grade supposes that your final exam grade is the average of the previous four exams.
• 28 April I have pulled together all grades up to today and put them in the PDF grade sheet. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The estimated grade supposes that your exam, writing scores, and CogLab scores will be unchanged for the rest of the semester. Scores were uncommonly good for exam 3 (they are usually good but these were uncommonly good). Writing assignment #4 will be graded next week, and I will update the grade sheet accordingly.
• 21 While looking over the study guide for exam 4, I noticed it had the incorrect date. I have updated the study guide (below).
• 09 April I have pulled together all grades up to today and put them in the PDF grade sheet. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The estimated grade supposes that your exam, writing scores, and CogLab scores will be unchanged for the rest of the semester. Of course, you can probably do better than your current score. Scores were OK for exam 3, but a fair number of students did not take it. That accounts for the fairly large number of F grades in the estimated grade column. CogLab scores are also rather low, which is a shame because these are easily earned points. There's only a few CogLab assignments remaining in the class, so be sure to get them finished on time.
• 08 April The final exam will be available on Brightspace for the period Thursday, May 6, 3:00 pm -- Friday, May 7, 3:00 pm. The final exam is cumulative. A study guide is available in the course schedule, below.
• 18 March Them most up to date PDF grade sheet now includes scores from Writing Assignment #2.
• 13 March I have pulled together all grades up to today and put them in the PDF grade sheet. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The estimated grade supposes that your exam, writing scores, and CogLab scores will be unchanged for the rest of the semester. Of course, you can probably do better than your current score. Scores were not as good for Exam 2 as for Exam 1. This seems to be because quite a few people did quite badly (but the number of A-grade exams was hardly changed at all). There is still over half of the course grade remaining so there is time to substantially improve your grade.
• 28 February Several students have contacted me with a requested extension for Writing Assignment #2. Rather than give individual extensions, I am allowing _everyone_ to submit the assignment one day later than planned. Thus, writing assignment #2 is due on Tuesday at 1:30 pm on Brightspace. If you have already uploaded your assignment, you should be fine.
• 18 February I have pulled together all grades to today and put them in a PDF grade sheet. You can find the row with your grades by looking up your assigned CogLab ID. The estimated grade supposes that your exam, writing scores, and CogLab scores will be unchanged for the rest of the semester. Of course, you can probably do better than your current score.

Instructor:

Name	Office	Email	Phone	Virtual office hours
Greg Francis	PSYCH 3186	gfrancis@purdue.edu	494-6934	MWF 2:30 - 3:30 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 (around 71 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.

Office hours: Virtual office hours will be held MWF 2:30-3:30 pm (US Eastern time) via WebEx.

Class attendance: Lectures will be streamed via WebEx during the scheduled class time. I recommend that you attend the lecture so that you can ask questions and so that you keep a regular study schedule. The lectures will be recorded and made available on this page for viewing at your convenience.

Class home page: The home page for this course is http://www.psych.purdue.edu/~gfrancis/Classes/PSY200/indexS21.html From this page you can download lecture notes, view recorded lectures, view the class schedule, view current grades, and connect to the various homework laboratory and writing assignments. Brightspace is also used for some aspects of the course, as discussed below.

Examinations: There will be four section exams and one final exam. Each exam will be on-line through Brightspace. Given the on-line format, the exams are open book and open notes; however, I think you will find that if you need to check your material to find answers that you will run out of time. You will be able to begin each exam during a 24 hour period around the day indicated in the class schedule, below. The exact days/times will be shared as we get closer to the exam date. Once you begin a regular exam, you have 50 minutes to complete it and it must be taken in one setting (e.g., you cannot take the exam for 20 minutes, stop, and then return later to finish the remaining 30 minutes). Once you begin the final exam, you have two hours to complete it. The final exam will be given during the final exam period (this course's final exam is sometimes scheduled for the last day of exam week, so plan accordingly). The first two exams are each worth 10% of your class grade. The last two exams and the final are each worth 15% of your class grade. The final will cover all topics of the course. Exams will be all multiple choice questions. Extensive study guides are available as links in the class schedule below. 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.

Practice Examinations: For each exam, there is also a practice exam available on Brightspace, which will count as 5% of your class grade. These practice exams were the actual exams from Spring 2019. However, the course always changes a bit from semester to semester, and your exams will be made of different (but similar) questions. Practice exams can be taken as many times as you like, and Brightspace will keep track of your highest score on each practice exam. Combined scores across all five (four section and one final) practice exams will count as 5% of your class grade. A practice exam will not be available once the corresponding real exam is available, so you must take the practice exam before taking the regular exam.

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 10:00 am on the date indicated to get credit (better to do it the night before). You will receive log-in instructions by email from one of the TAs.

Writing assignments: Four times during the semester (the precise dates are listed in the schedule below), you must submit a short (1500 - 2000 words) report related to CogLab assignments or other topics discussed in class. The details of each assignment are provided in the linked documents in the schedule, below. Each report must be typed, single space, and follow the format indicated in the linked document. The report should be free of grammar and spelling errors, and it must address all the topics indicated in the instructions. Each report will be scored on a 10 point scale. The average report score for each student across the semester will make up 15% of your class grade. So, if a hypothetical student were to score 7, 8, 9 and 10 on each of the writing assignments, they would receive a final grade of 8.5 out of 10 for the writing assignment portion of their grade. Reports must be prepared in a word processing program (Microsoft Word or something similar) and be submitted through Brightspace by the start of class on the date indicated in the schedule, below. Late submissions receive a score of 0. Plagiarism (using someone else's writing as your own) will not be tolerated. Do not simply copy and paste material from any source, including the CogLab site. For short reports like this assignment, you should not be quoting text from any source, even with proper attribution. See the Purdue Online Writing Lab for details about plagiarism. If deemed serious enough, plagiarism will be reported to the Dean of Students.

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
Maria Kon	PSYCH 3188	mkon@purdue.edu	MWF 9:30 - 10:30 am link to Microsoft Teams
Corey Nack	PSYCH 3192	cnack@purdue.edu	Tuesday, Thursday 1:30 - 3:00 pm Connect via WebEx

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.