PSY 200: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Spring 2025
MWF 3:30 pm-4:20 pm
Physics Building, Room 114

Announcements:

• March 9: The scores for Exam 2 are available. Each row lists a student's CogLab ID, and their scores for the various parts of the course. There have been 17 attendance checks. The average score dropped, compared to Exam 1. If you score dropped, I suggest you visit Dr. Francis during office hours to consider how to improve your studying for the rest of the course.
• February 19: A couple of students signed up for the wrong CogLab group and so could not look up their grades. I resolved the problem and updated the grade sheet accordingly.
• February 18: Due to an Excel error, some student's scores were missing from the grade sheet posted yesterday. We've fixed the error, and posted a new grade sheet. Be sure to contact us if you see any errors in the grades.
• February 17: The scores for Exam 1 are available. Each row lists a student's CogLab ID, and their scores for the various parts of the course. We have had 10 CogLab assignments so far. There have been 11 attendance checks. The attendance count indicates how many times we have you listed as "present" when there was a check. (A few students submitted an attendance scantron that could not be scored--invalid ID or used ink instead of pencil. See the TA to get these absences resolved.) The attendance grade % takes into account that everyone gets 6 absences without penalty. The "Estimated class grade" supposes that your CogLab and attendance scores remain unchanged that your grade on the remaining exams is the same as for Exam 1. Optimistically, you can do better on the remaining exams and can maintain (or improve) your attendance and CogLab scores. A few students did not mark their exam 1 multiple choice answers on the test scantron. We scored these exams by hand, but also imposed a 5 point deduction because the test instructions clearly say to enter the answers on the scantron.
• February 13: The final exam schedule has been released. The final for this class is Monday, May 5, 8-10 am in Wetherhill Hall, Room 200.
• February 7: The TA needs to cancel today's office hours. Sorry for the short notice.
• January 29: Due to a death in family, today's class will not meet; instead I have posted the BoilerCast recordings from last semester. That class was a bit behind, so the information for today's lecture is spread across two recordings. The relevant part of the first video starts at time 22:00. Be sure to watch these recordings before Friday's class, because Friday's lecture builds on the information presented here. Dr. Francis will not have office hours today.
• January 17: Office hours for Tuesday, January 21 will start a bit late, at 2:15 pm.

Instructor:

Name	Office	Email	Phone	Office hours
Greg Francis	PSYCH 3186	gfrancis@purdue.edu	494-6934	T, W, Th 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/indexS25.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 Brightspace.

Vodcast recordings of lectures: BoilerCast recordings of the lectures will be available. Links to the video recording are in the schedule of classes, below. 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. Alternative final exam dates will only be considered for very exceptional reasons). 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 30 multiple choice questions (worth 2 points each) and 4 short-answer questions (worth 10 points each). 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. Except for documented emergencies, requests for make-up exams will not be considered unless you notify Dr. Francis at least 48 hours prior to the scheduled exam date. Make-up exams will only be granted for exceptional reasons. 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 Assistant:

Name	Office	Email	Office hours
Hailey Arreola	PSYCH 3196	harreola@purdue.edu	Monday 4:30-6:30 pm and Friday 4:30-5:30 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.