Cognitive Psychology PSYC 40445

Dr. Chris Was

E: cwas@kent.edu

P: 330-672-2929

Office hours:  My office hours (in person) are Monday and Wednesday from 12:00 – 2:00 pm and Tuesday from 12:00-2:00 pm (online via Teams).  I have an open door policy (room 313, Kent Hall Annex), so feel free to set up an appointment at any time.  To do so, either send me an e-mail (preferred) or call my office (2-2929).

Course Description:  Cognitive Psychology is a survey of the study of human attention, memory, and thinking. We will address a variety of topics, including selective attention, short-term and long-term memory, encoding and retrieval processes, problem solving, language, and many others.  Although these represent a diverse set of topics, we will bind them together with common themes and questions, such as “How does the human mind operate?”  And, “How do limitations of the human mind impact our success in life?”  For each topic, we will discuss the nature of the problem to be studied and methods that have been used to investigate it.  We will mainly be interested in exploring scientific theories – that is, explanations for human behavior with respect to each topic we cover – but will also cover questions of general public interest relevant to everyday life, such as “Can you train your brain playing games?” and “How good is eyewitness testimony?”

Learning Outcomes:  By the end of this course, it is expected that students will be able to:

1. Describe the major psychological concepts and theories in cognitive psychology;

2. Articulate the research methods used to study the major theories, principles and concepts in cognitive psychology;

3. Be able to answer key questions relevant to the role of cognition in everyday life.

Textbook

Cognition (Required)
Margaret W. Matlin
Wiley, 8th Edition, 2009
I have ordered this text through the bookstore. If you can find an older or newer edition for less money, please buy it! BUT pay attention to the Chapter/Section titles. If you do not buy the 8th edition, be sure you are reading the correct material.

COURSE EXPECTATIONS

This is a fully online course, meaning that all course work (100%) will be conducted online. Expectations for performance in fully online courses are the same as for traditional courses; in fact, fully online courses require a degree of self-motivation, self-discipline, and technology skills that can make them more demanding for some students.

Fully online courses are not independent study courses. You will be expected to interact online with the professor and your fellow students; to do assignments; to meet deadlines; and in many classes, to work in virtual groups. 

Practice Quizzes: One of the objectives of this class is to encourage you to examine how you learn. Later in the semester the problems associated with cramming for exams and the advantages of distributed practice will be covered. By distributing your studying over the course of the week you will learn more and will retain information for a longer period of time. To encourage you to distribute your practice during the week you will be given the opportunity to take practice quizzes.  There is a 20-question quiz associated with each chapter. You can take each quiz as many times as you like before the due date (each quiz is due the day the test in which that chapter will be covered, by 8:00am). I will only count the best  score for each quiz. Each time you take the quiz questions  and answers will be presented randomly. These are a great way to study for the test.

12 practice quizzes  @ 20 points each  = 240 points total.

Exams: 

In order to take your assessments in Canvas, you will now have to download our Lockdown Browser. You will still login to your courses as you would normally do, however in order for you to access your exams you will need to login in to the browser. Once you have successfully taken the assessment in the browser, logout and login to Canvas to view your scores. It is strongly suggested that you take the available practice exam before you take any exams in order avoid any problems in the future. Please read the instructions in the assessments section about the lockdown browser.

Midterm Unit exams are intended to assess your comprehension, retention, and knowledge of the materials covered in lectures and the textbook for a designated unit. There are four (4) midterm exams. Each exam is non-cumulative, and covers the only chapters in that module. Each exam is comprised of 33 multiple-choice questions. Each exam is available for 60 hours (from Friday at 8 AM until Sunday at 8 PM). Students have 40 minutes from the time they start the exam to complete 33 questions. You have only 1 opportunity to take each exam. Questions are randomized across students so no two students will have the same questions. Failure to take the exam in the allotted time period will result in a zero (0).

Final Exam: There is one cumulative Final Exam in this course. THE FINAL EXAM IS NOT MANDATORY. If you take the final exam and the score is better than your lowest midterm exam, I will drop you lowest midterm exam score and replace it with the Final Exam Score. If you are happy with your four midterm exam scores, you do not need to take the Final Exam. The format of the Final Exam is the same as the Midterm Exams.

Four exams @ 66 points each = 264 points total.

Review Questions

From each of the four modules I have posed 6 review questions.  For each module you are to answer 2 (two)  of the 6 questions. Your responses do not need to be lengthy (think a paragraph or two MAXIMUM) but should completely answer the 2 questions to which you choose to respond. You are also required to peer review the answers provided by your classmates. Canvas will automatically assign you one classmate's answers for each module. Your review is completely anonymous. Your peer review should address both strengths and weakness of your classmate's answers to the questions and rate them on a scale of 1 (completely unsatisfactory) to 10 (excellent).

Review Questions @ 6 points per module = 24 points total.

Peer Review of Answers @ 3 points per module = 12 points total

HOW TO SUCCEED IN THIS COURSE

Use the power points to  focus your readings and studying.

Watch the videos for further explanation and examples of key concepts.

Take advantage of the the practice quizzes to help you learn the material and prepare for exams.

Answer the review questions at the end of the chapters.

Complete assignments and take exams during the allotted period. Failure to do so will result in an automatic zero for that assignment.

Grades

A >      497.         

A- =    496 - 486.    

B+ =   486 - 475  

B =      474 - 442.  

B- =    441 - 432.  

C+ =  431 - 421

C =     420 - 388

C- =    387 - 378

D =     377 - 324

F <      324