Guidelines
The goal is for you to explore a topic in Cognitive Science that you find interesting. You must do this in connection with material from your textbook. Additionally, you can use themes from movies or books to drive the rationale for your paper topic. As long as you adhere to the rubric you can basically pick any topic you like.
You can write your research paper on any topic, in other words the topic is NOT constrained by the module where the due date occurs.
All of the logistical details are presented here. Feel free to speak to your TAs or Professor Arriaga if you have any questions.
In addition to web sources, the following material must be included in the paper you submit:
Three primary sources from peer reviewed journal articles/proceedings (may not be older than 5 years). These must be empirical studies. I want to know what the newest finding in the academic community.
Must include 2 different methodologies (e.g., behavioral, neuroimaging, simulation, animal studies, etc.)
When you are deciding if a paper will count toward this criteria ask yourself: Do the authors "collect" their own data or are they simply reporting on others' researchers'?" If they complete their own study and present findings then this paper will count, if not then, it will not count toward this criterion.
Either a fourth scientific source or a popular press book chapter. This can be a review article where a researcher reports on other's findings and comes up with some conclusions.
You must reference the chapter in the Fridenberg & Silverman text that best fits with your topic. You must also present an in depth discussion of the relevant concepts from the chapter(s). As a reminder you can pick ANY chapter that makes sense. In other words, you can read a chapter that we haven't covered in class yet or that we don't even cover in class.
Students will be asked to submit papers via Turnitin. This should be done early enough that the student can resubmit their paper if there is substantial overlap (more than 10%) with either online material or their own previous work.
If a student gets a warning indicating that there is more than a 10% overlap with other material (even their own, self-plagerism) ---and the student does not FIX it-- then the student will lose half the points associated with the material that is found to overlap.
the student can choose to cite their own paper, however, this does not count towards item 1 or 2 above.
You can learn more about how turn it in can improve your writing: http://www.canvas.gatech.edu/blog/uncategorized/guest-post-from-i-caught-you-to-i-taught-you-utilizing-turnitin-to-improve-student-writing/
Paper Format
Cover page optional
6 pages of text (Double spaced, 1 inch margins, either Helvetic, Arial 10pt or Times New Roman 12pt)
1 page for references (citation format is open, pick your favorite (ACM, IEEE, APA, etc))
Points
Introduction (10)
Arguments/Implications (20/4 References)
Examples (15)
Conclusion (10)
Reference (20/4): Must meet requirements discussed above
F & S Chapter Reference (10) also includes some points for arguments and implications
Clarity (10): Were there grammatical/spelling errors that made the writing hard to follow? Is the paper organized in a manner that makes it easy to follow?
Formatting (5):
Rubric Details
Here are notes developed by the TAs in past years
The introduction lays out the goal for your paper and provides a "road map" for what the reader should expect.
1. Describe in brief the statement of intent.
2. A brief elaboration on the chosen topic.
3. If the paper is trying to argue a point through series of theories and implications then describing that argument.
4. Why you have chosen this particular topic.
5. Detailed information on what topics will be covered and how the paper is organized.
1. Theories that supports your paper and what do they infer from those theories with regards to the paper topic/ argument.
2. How the theories/ facts that have been quoted are laid out.
3. Are the quoted points adding to the topic or digressing from the actual topic?
4. Points stated in brief rather than just pulling out completely from the references. If the points are stated directly through references, then it should be followed by the student's interpretation/understanding of the material.
5. Unique take on the theories/ facts that have been quoted. How far they believe that they are true? Are there any drawbacks? Are there any other contrasting theories/ facts?
6. Elaborating the topic.
7. Points of interest (history/ facts etc) with regards to the topic.
8. EACH of the references should be addressed-- if a paper is missing references then those points are deducted automatically since the reference is missing.
1. Are the examples relevant?
2. If they are directly derived from the references, then can they explain it based on their understanding and relevancy to the topic?
3. Some real life examples (which are applicable in most of the cognitive science topics), these real life examples can be derived from their own experience, through lectures in class, may be create their own, or they might have read it through different articles.
4. Explaining those examples in brief
5. Quoting in brief what they imply through the examples, and is it relevant to the topic.
1. Does it cover the relevant material in a substantive manner-- not just quotes. In other words, is the textbook material incorporated with the paper topic
2. Are terms defined and are they introduced in a manner that makes them relevant to the paper's thesis.
Their view on the paper topic or argument that they have gone through in the paper.
Explaining in brief what they have achieved through the paper.
Their views on how successful they were in countering their argument/ future scope depending on the type of paper.
How apt were the references that they have chosen.
Brief explanation of what they have learnt through this paper.