PL 392: Cognitive Psychology

Spring 2009
D (11:00 – 11:55 AM) & E (1:55 – 2:50 PM) Hours
Thayer Room 268
Instructor: Ericka Rovira, Ph. D. Email: Ericka.Rovira@usma.edu
Office: Thayer 267C Phone: x5902

Required Texts:
Smith, E. E. and Kosslyn, S. M. (2007). Cognitive psychology: Mind and brain. New Jersey: Pearson Prentice
Hall.
CogLab Student Manual (2003), Stamford, CT: Wadsworth.

Course Objectives: To provide students with a foundation in cognitive psychology that will support future
independent experimental work. A goal is to help studentsmaster seminal psychological studies through an
understanding of the literature as well as active participation in classic experimental paradigms. Additionally,
recent progress in the field of cognitive psychology has come from the emerging field of cognitive
neuroscience; therefore findings in neuroscience will be presented to help answer fundamental cognitive
psychology debates. This course should begin to illuminate the implications of basic cognitive psychology on
how operators complete both everyday and complex tasks.

Student Requirements: Good scholarship depends on class participation. You will be expected to be prepared
to participate by asking questions or making comments in a way that shows knowledge of the material. Students
will be responsible for material covered in the lecture whether or not it is in the text.

-Reading assignments are specified on the course syllabus and should be read prior to class, in the
indicated lesson of coverage. There will be homework assignments associated with many chapters in
the books. Homeworkassignments include completing specific experiments using the student online
CogLab toolkit. Completion of all CogLab assignments should be done by 9pm the evening before
scheduled review of the data in class. DSQs will be administered to ensure readings and labs are
completed.

-Three exams will be given on class dates noted in the lecture schedule. Exams will cover assigned
readings, assigned movies, and class discussions since the previous exam. Exams will consist of fill-in-
the-blank, multiple choice, true false questions, and short answer questions. The fourth exam will be
given during the final exam period and will be comprehensive. Students may elect to take the final
exam; if that choice is made, the final exam will replace the lowest term exam grade.

-There will be two experimental design assignments to facilitate the application of cognitive theory and
research methods towards improving everyday problems. These reports must be written per the APA
style guide.

-There will be two movies assigned to watch over the course of the semester (Available on Academic
Playback). You will be required to answer questions based on the movie and associated cognitive
implications.
Class Structure: The time for each class will be divided among the lecture, review of homework assignments,
classroom exercises, and classroom discussion.

Missed Assignments/Cheating Policy: Missed DSQs need to be completed before the upcoming term exam.
It is the responsibility of the student to remember to make-up DSQs. DSQs will not be made up after the term
exam,there will be no exceptions to this policy. In the event that an exam will be missed, an office meeting
needs to occur the week prior, note a casual email or discussion pre or post class is not appropriate.

Cheating Policy: If students are caught cheating, plagiarizing, copying, or in any other way attempting to
represent the work of others as their own, students will receive a failing grade for the assignment. There will be
no exceptions to this rule.

Grade Determination: Final grades will be determined based on the student's performance on DSQs, exams,
assignments, and class participation. Each final grade will be calculated as follows:

Grading Policy

Exam 1 20% = 200 points

Exam 2 20% = 200 points
Exam 3 20% = 200 points
DSQs (27@ 3pts)/LABS (15@8pts) 20% = 200 points
Experimental Designs 10% = 100 points
Movie Assignments 5% = 50 points
Class Participation 5% = 50 points
TOTAL 1000 Course Possible Earned Points

Grading Scale

A+ > = 95.00
A > = 93.00
A- > = 90.00
B+ > = 87.00
B > = 83.00
B- > = 80.00
C+ > = 77.00
C > = 73.00
C- > = 70.00
D > = 67.00
F > = 0.00

*Note, lesson objectives are listed in the textbook at the beginning of each chapter.
FUNDAMENTALS OF COGNITION
January 8……...Introductions & Syllabus Review Imaging Lab
January 12……..Foundations, History
January 14……..Mind & Brain
January 16……..Special Reading
January 20……..Recap
January 22……..Methods
January 26……..Perception, Visual
January 28……..Perception, Recognition
January 30……..Perception, Interpretation
ATTENTION
February 3…….Attention, Failures
February 5…….Attention, Successes
February 9…….Attention, Info. Processing
February 11……COURSE DROP:
February 13…….Psychophysiological Demo
MENTAL REPRESENTATION
February 18…….Knowledge
February 20…….Knowledge, Category
February 24…….EXAM 1
MEMORY
February 26…….Long Term Mem., Encoding
March 2..…...Long Term Mem., Retrieval
March 4….….COURSE DROP:
March 6..........Working Memory, Models
Ch.1, pp. 1-13; CogLab: Mental Rotation(30min)
Ch.1, pp. 13-26; CogLab: Receptive Field (25min)
The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat Chapters 1 & 8
In Class Discussion
Ch.1, pp. 27-48; CogLab: Brain Asymmetry (10min)
Ch.2, pp. 49-69;
Ch.2, pp. 70-84;
Ch.2, pp. 85-102
Ch.3, pp. 103-118; CogLab: Change Detection(10min);
CogLab: Attentional Blink(30min)
Ch.3, pp. 118-128;
Ch.3, pp. 128-146; CogLab: Visual Search (20min)
Experimental Design 1 Due
EEG/ERP/Eye Movements
Ch.4, pp.147-168;
Ch.4, pp. 168-191
Ch.5, pp. 193-214; CogLab: Implicit Learning(25min)
Ch.5, pp. 214-238; CogLab: False Memory(15min)
Movie Assignment 1 Due
Ch.6, pp. 239-262; CogLab: Brown-Peterson(20min);
CogLab: Operation-Span(15min)
March 10.........Working Memory, Mechanics Ch.6, pp. 262-279;

EXECUTIVE PROCESSES
Marc
h 12…….Executive Processes Ch.7, pp. 280-301; CogLab: Stroop Effect (20 min)
March 14-22 ..SPRING BREAK
March 23……Executive Processes Ch.7, pp. 280-301; CogLab: Stroop Effect (20)
March 25……Executive Processes, Attn. Switching Ch.7, pp. 301-324
March 27…….Mental Workload Johnson & Proctor, Chapter 9 pp. 261-280
March 31…….Situation Awareness Johnson & Proctor, Chapter 9 pp 280-292
April 2……..EXAM 2

DECISION MAKING & EMOTIONS

April 6…….Decision Making, Overview Wickens Ch.8, pp. 293-314

April 8…….Decision Making, Choice of Action Wickens Ch.8, pp. 314-336
CogLab: Risky Decisions (10)
April 10…….Recap In Class Discussion
April 14…….COURSE DROP: Experimental Design Due
April 16…….Emotion, Basics Ch.8, pp. 325-342
April 20…….Emotion, Learning and Arousal Ch.8, pp. 342-365

MOTOR COGNITION & LANGUAGE

April 22…….Motor Cognition, Chapter 11, pp. 451-464

April 24…….Motor Cognition, Chapter 11, pp. 464-481
April 28……..Language, Ch. 12, pp. 482-502; CogLab: Word Superiority (30)
May 1……..Language, Ch. 12, pp. 502-531
May 5……..EXAM 3
May 7…….Final Evaluations Movie Assignment 2 Due