Experimental cognitive psychology I
HUM-403 / 3 credits
Teacher: Jonauskaite Domicele
Language: English
Remark: Une seule inscription à un cours SHS+MGT autorisée. En cas d'inscriptions multiples elles seront toutes supprimées sans notification.
Summary
The media frequently report on trendy studies in experimental cognitive psychology, and which inform the public on human functioning and its causes. We teach students basic skills and requirements when performing, understanding and comprehending such studies, through the angle of replication crisis
Content
Performing a replication of an empirical study in cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychology covers all aspect of our mental world, whether it is perception, attention, memory, language, mental imagery, emotion, concept formation, problem solving, creativity, decision making, reasoning, etc. To assess cognitive functioning, psychologists working in this field have traditionally applied experimental scientific methods.
In this annual course, in a group of maximum six students, you will set-up a replication of an existing recent empirical experiment. In the first weeks of term, you will learn about the general concepts behind the empirical replication, get divided into groups, and then, together with a project supervisor, choose a specific empirical study you wish to replicate.
Throughout the two semesters, the team has to analyse and synthesize the recent published scientific literature, choose and formulate their study question, adapt and be able to apply the method for the experiment, collect data from human participants, analyse and interpret their data in comparison to the original study.
After having read the relevant literature, the team will decided on an empirical study to be replicated (autumn term), refine their method (autumn term), orally present the intended study (autumn term), collect data from participants (spring term), statistically analyse and interpret the data (spring term), and orally present the obtained results (spring term). Their work is evaluated by two written assessements - introduction and method of the scientific report (autumn term) and final complete scientific report (spring term).
Keywords
experimental psychology, replication, cognition, scientific methods, empirism, statistics, hypothesis testing, reading scientific articles, writing scientific article, testing human subjects, data collection - input - analysis.
Likely topics are colour perception, emotion, memory, and conservation psychology.
POLY-perspective :
- creative perspective
- citizen perspective
https://www.epfl.ch/schools/cdh/cdhs-vision/
Learning Outcomes
By the end of the course, the student must be able to:
- Identify important research questions based on the published scientific literature.
- Formulate a study question and hypothesis.
- Analyze the previous research findings.
- Interpret the previous research findings.
- Assess / Evaluate the tacit and technical skills involved in the production of knowledge.
- Critique constructively the previous research accounts and outcomes.
- Construct an argument.
Transversal skills
- Assess progress against the plan, and adapt the plan as appropriate.
- Set objectives and design an action plan to reach those objectives.
- Evaluate one's own performance in the team, receive and respond appropriately to feedback.
- Negotiate effectively within the group.
- Assess one's own level of skill acquisition, and plan their on-going learning goals.
- Manage priorities.
- Write a scientific or technical report.
- Collect data.
- Make an oral presentation.
Teaching methods
Group work
Expected student activities
Attend weekly meetings, contribute intellectually to teamwork, communicate reliably and responsibly with group members and project supervisor, find, read, and understand research articles, critical analyses of own and others' scientific work, share knowledge with group members, contribute to shared sections of research report, write individual sections of the research report.
Assessment methods
Independent evaluation at the end of each term (grade associated to 3 ECTS). Individual written work is submitted.
Autumn term: Evaluation will be based on the first two sections of a written scientific research report, namely, the introduction and method sections. Each student writes their own introduction (60% of the overall individual mark). The method section is prepared and written by the group (40% of the overall individual mark).
Spring term: Evaluation will be based on the final written research report consisting of a title page, abstract, introduction, method section, result section, discussion and bibliography. Each student writes their own abstract and discussion (60% of the overall individual mark). The updated method and result sections are prepared and written by the group (40% of the overall individual mark).
Supervision
| Office hours | No |
| Assistants | Yes |
| Forum | No |
| Others |
Resources
Bibliography
Research articles depend on the project to be performed. Information and skills to find the literature in the course of the autumn term
Moodle Link
In the programs
- Semester: Fall
- Number of places: 60
- Exam form: During the semester (winter session)
- Subject examined: Experimental cognitive psychology I
- Courses: 2 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Project: 1 Hour(s) per week x 14 weeks
- Type: mandatory