homepage: http://love.psy.utexas.edu/418
Click here for a week by week class schedule.
| Who | Office | Office Hours | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Bradley Love | SEA 5.202 | T, TH 5-6PM and appointment (PM hours) |
love@psy.utexas.edu |
| Jesse Cougle | SEA 2.122 | W 1-3PM and appointment |
cougle@mail.utexas.edu |
| Yasu Sakamoto | SEA 2.122 | M 3-5PM and appointment |
yasu@psy.utexas.edu |
Prerequisite: Psychology 301 with a grade of at least a C, Mathematics 302 or a higher-level mathematics course, and a major in psychology.
I imagine many students do not look forward to taking this course. Although it will be difficult and you may want to reconsider taking the course if you are short on time, this course is very important (and I am excited to teach it). You will learn a lot about how to conduct science and evaluate arguments. One meta goal of this course is to encourage students to think critically (as a good scientist does) about findings in psychology. These thinking skills are applicable beyond psychology. For example, the media bombards us with statistics about the economy, sports, medicine, etc.. If you master all the principles in this course, you will have a powerful set of tools and will have insights that escape many of your peers.
Due dates and test dates will be set in the prior week. Any concerns about exam dates should be emailed to me during the first week of class. The same goes for any other accommodations that are required.
Here's the breakdown for grading purposes:
One interesting fact is that I have never given a make-up exam. I assume that during the course of the semester some students will become extremely ill or a family member will pass away. When these situations occur, you don't have to share your personal situation with me or explain yourself. Simply do not show up to the exam. One exam is dropped for this reason. No one has ever missed two exams in a semester, but if you are the first, bring all the grim documentation explaining why you missed both exams. For those students fortunate enough to attend every exam, we'll drop the lowest grade in the interests of fairness. The same policy goes for lab assignments (no late assignments for lab).
Attendance: Attendance is encouraged. Avoid arriving late as it disrupts class.
Cheating/Plagiarism: Looking on someone else's exam results in a zero on that exam. Plagiarizing any aspect of a paper results in an F in the course. All cases of cheating or plagiarism will be referred to the University. This is a sticky issue because we want students to collaborate with one another. I want the environment in class and lab to be open and congenial. Still, there are limits. For example, if you are ever copying answers off a partner's lab assignment, you have crossed the line. Cheating is rather obvious - there is usually one right way to do something, but a million ways to do it wrong so when two people do something wrong the same way.... Talk to me or the TAs if you are uncertain what is appropriate. Let's avoid this stress; it's just not worth it.
Withdraw/Incompletes: I will happily sign a withdraw form. However, it is the student's responsibility to be familiar with University guidelines and deadlines. Incompletes can only be given if 90% of the course work is completed. Unfortunately, incompletes cannot be given to students who are failing the course and wish to retake the course. In general, I am not a good person to ask about University policies. I am the person to talk to about the content of this course or if you want some advice down the road about graduate training in experiemental psychology, etc..
| Date | Topic | Assignments Due |
|---|---|---|
| January 18 | Welcome/Course Overview | None |
| January 19 | Welcome/Lab Overview | Read Chpt. 9 S&M |
| January 20 | Psychology as Science | Read Chpt. 1 S&M |
| ~ | ||
| January 25 | Basic Experimental Design / Operationalize | Read Chpt. 2 S&M and page 388 |
| January 26 | Coding Lab (movie) / Operationalize | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| January 27 | Naturalistic vs. Controlled Observation | Read Chpt. 3 S&M |
| ~ | ||
| February 1 | Experimental Design | Read Chpt. 10 S&M |
| February 2 | Developing a Hypothesis | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| February 3 | Writing | Read Chpts. 7 and 12 S&M |
| ~ | ||
| February 8 | Alice Andrew's visit followed by extra TA hours | see Jesse SEA 5.108A, Yasu SEA 5.108E |
| February 9 | Methods lab | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| February 10 | No Class, Extra TA hours | see Jesse SEA 5.108A, Yasu SEA 5.108E |
| ~ | ||
| February 15 | Advanced Experimental Design | First Paper, Read Chpt. 4 S&M |
| February 16 | Review Session | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| February 17 | *** Exam 1 *** | Study |
| ~ | ||
| February 22 | Probability | M Chpts. 9 and 11 |
| February 23 | Probability Lab | None |
| February 24 | Distributions and Variability | M Chpts. 1 and 2 |
| ~ | ||
| March 1 | Central Tendency and Standard Deviation | M Chpt. 2 |
| March 2 | Central Tendency and Variance Lab | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| March 3 | The Normal Distribution and Sampling Distribution | M Chpts. 3 and 10 |
| ~ | ||
| March 8 | Sampling Distributions, Central Limit Theorem, Confidence Intervals | M Chpt. 13 |
| March 9 | Confidence Interval Lab | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| March 10 | Confidence Interval Example | M Chpt. 13 |
| ~ | ||
| March 15 | Spring Break | None |
| March 16 | Spring Break | None |
| March 17 | Spring Break | None |
| ~ | ||
| March 22 | Hypothesis Testing (z test) | Review, M Chpt 14, 15 |
| March 23 | Hypothesis Testing Lab | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| March 24 | Hypothesis Testing vs. Confidence Intervals | M Chpt 14, 15 |
| ~ | ||
| March 29 | The t distibution | M pages 411-419 |
| March 30 | Review Session | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| March 31 | *** Exam 2 *** | Study |
| ~ | ||
| April 5 | The t distibution | M Chpt. 16 |
| April 6 | One sample t-test lab | Review |
| April 7 | Two sample t test | two sample t-test (equal variance) |
| ~ | ||
| April 12 | Hypothesis testing, three methods | Review |
| April 13 | Group Experiments - Data Collection | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| April 14 | Chi-Square | M Chpt. 20 |
| ~ | ||
| April 19 | No Class, Extra TA hours, SEA 5.108E | Review |
| April 20 | chi square lab | None |
| April 21 | Correlation | M Chpt. 4 |
| ~ | ||
| April 26 | Regression | M Chpt. 5 |
| April 27 | Return of the Pretest/Correlation and Regression | Second Paper , Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| April 28 | Correlation/Regression Example | Review |
| ~ | ||
| May 3 | Review | Review |
| May 4 | Review Session | Previous Week's Lab Assignment |
| May 5 | *** Exam 3 *** | Study |
| ~ | ||
| May 12th, 2PM, NOA 1.124 | Exam4/Final | Study |