COGS 14A: Intro to Research Methods
http://quote.ucsd.edu/creel/cogs14a
Basic information
Time: MWF 11:00-11:50am
Place: Pepper Canyon Hall 106
Professor: Sarah C. Creel (email: sçreél at ucsd.edu)
Office: Cog Sci 167
Office hours: Tue 12-1, Wed 10-11, or by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Josh Davis <jdd001 åt ücsd.edu>
Office hours: Wed 2-3pm in CSB 223 or by appointment
Teaching Assistant: Eric Morgan <e1mørgan åt ücsd.edu>
Office hours: Mon 3-4 in CSB 225 or by appointment
Instructional Assistant: Charles Dupont <cadupønt åt ücsd.edu>
Office hours: Thu 10-11am at coffee cart outside Mandeville Hall, or by appointment
Instructional Assistant: Cailin Liu <cål112 åt ücsd.edu>
Office hours: Thu 11:15-12:15 Peet’s Coffee or by appointment
Sections:
901273 LA A01 M 10:00a-10:50a CSB 004 Charles Dupont
901275 LA A02 W 3:00p-3:50p CSB 004 Josh Davis
901276 LA A03 F 9:00a-9:50a CSB 004 Eric Morgan
901277 LA A04 F 2:00p-2:50p WLH 2207 Cailin Liu
Final exam:
Friday 6/16/2017 11:30am-2:29pm
Textbook:
Schweigert, W. A. (2012). Research methods in psychology: A handbook (3rd ed.). Waveland: Long Grove, IL.
Selected articles to be posted on this web site under Schedule.
Course goals:
- Understand how research is conducted and evaluated in cognitive science
- Distinguish experiments vs. observations
- Understand when you can and can’t infer causality
- Gain fluency with sources for finding research articles and data resources
- Grasp basic types of data and how they can be analyzed
- Be able to identify basic types of research designs
- Know situations when certain research designs are more/less appropriate
- Become sensitive to potential pitfalls (confounds, nuisance variables, participant attrition, carryover effects) of different types of research
Course policies:
- Assignments are due at the beginning of class. Late work will be penalized.
- Readings are required. If expense is an issue, please try to find someone to share the book with or take a look for books on reserve in the library.
- If you have an emergency that prevents you from turning in an assignment, contact Professor Creel as soon as possible to make alternative arrangements.
- Podcasts (if provided) and posted lecture slides are not intended as a substitute for attending lectures and engaging in the class.
- If you miss a lecture, it is your responsibility to consult one of your fellow students to get notes.
- Academic honesty is of the greatest importance. See guidelines below.
- Please refrain from using electronic devices for any non-class purpose. It is disrespectful and distracting to other students to tweet, check Facebook, etc. in the middle of a course (Sana, Weston, & Cepeda, 2013, Computers and Education). If this becomes a persistent problem, expect to be called on to share the contents of your electronic device!
Grading:
- Midterm 1: 20%
- Midterm 2: 20%
- Final (semi-cumulative): 30%
- Ten weekly on-line quizzes: 20% (2% each)
- Participation (class and section): 10%
- Extra credit (up to 4 points on final grade): SONA–up to 4 exp. hours at 1 point each*
*If you don’t fit criteria for any experiments, see me for an alternate assignment.
Grades will be assigned as follows:
A 93-100
A- 90-92
B+ 86-89
B 83-85
B- 80-82
C+ 76-79
C 73-75
C- 70-72
D 60-70
F 0-59
Academic honesty
The crux of academic integrity: Your work should be your own. If you turn in something that is not indicative of your performance, you are doing a disservice to yourself in failing to actually learn the material. Relatedly, if you do someone else’s work for them, you are allowing them not to learn material. At a more practical level, you are doing something that, if caught, instructors are obligated to report to your college.
Overall, you should never copy someone else’s ideas or work.
If you’re not sure, it’s better to ask now than to risk trouble later. Just asking won’t get you in trouble.
Examples of things that are permissible:
- Studying in groups. (In fact, this is often a good strategy!)
- Talking about articles or class material in groups.
- Referencing material in the book (or an article) and noting that you have done so.
Examples of things that are NOT permissible:
- Looking at someone else’s exam.
- Using materials on an exam that are not permitted.
- Writing papers in groups. This includes taking someone else’s paper (or parts of it) and quoting verbatim, or changing a small number of words. The work you turn in should be your own interpretation and your own thoughts.
- Writing a paper for someone else.
- Copying someone else’s paper.
- Referencing material in article/book without noting that you have done so.
- Quoting a large proportion of your paper from the article (more than 5-10% of your paper directly quotes the original author). While you are giving credit to the author, this kind of “quote abuse” (Carver, 2010, personal communication) is counter to the purpose of written assignments, which is to demonstrate that you understand the material by evaluating it in your own words.
Schedule
Week Topic Readings Assignments
Apr 3 Intro; Research Ethics Ch. 1-2 Pretest
______________Ethics extras 1 2 3 4
Apr 10 Hypothesis testing; Ch. 3-4 Quiz2
______________Research resources
Apr 17 Research resources (cont’d); Ch. 5 Quiz3
______________Statistics in research
______________What’s a theory?
Apr 24 Between-groups designs Ch. 6 Midterm 1 (Mon), Quiz4
May 1 Within-subjects designs Ch. 7 Quiz 5
May 8 Factorial designs Ch. 9 Quiz 6
May 15 Quasi-experiments Ch. 8 Midterm 2 (Mon), Quiz7
May 22 Observation, ethnography Ch. 10 Quiz8
May 29 Single-subject designs Ch. 12 Quiz9
Jun 5 Big data Ch. 13 Posttest
June 16 Final exam, 11:30-2:30 Review TBA Final Exam