These tests are all over the place, and there are a million questions to explore about them.  Exactly how well do they work?  Do I want to give a test or do an in-person job interview? How can tests be best used in conjunction with other indicators of performance?  Do tests work better for some people than for others?  Do they produce “adverse impact,” defined as unfair discrimination against some people?  These are big questions among those educational psychologists who explore psychology in educational contexts, and among those industrial/ organizational psychologists who explore testing in the workplace. 

 

Want a second example of practical impact? One area of applied psychological research concerns “consumer behavior.”  This area is concerned with questions such as “why do people buy certain products and eschew others?” and “does store design impact consumer spending?”  Let’s consider the latter question.  Certainly, you’ve been to grocery stores, haven’t you?  Have you ever wondered why the milk is often in the very back of the store? One reason is that research has shown that there is a relation between the amount of time you spend in a store on a given visit and the amount of money that you spend.  Hence, store owners try to maximize your “in-store time” on a given visit by sending you off to the “nether reaches” of the store to obtain oft-used products (such as bread and milk).  The farther you have to walk, the more time you spend in the store and (hopefully, from the store owner’s perspective) the more money you spend. 

 

Need a third example? One major implication of violence research is that observing violence causes people to be violent.  Now, we know that many of you have spent hours playing Doom or Grand Theft Auto and are thinking “playing those games did not turn me into a serial killer.”  However, that’s not the way to think about it. The way to think about it is epidemiologically, in terms of risk:  The more you play, the higher the risk of engaging in subsequent violence. An analogy to cigarette smoking might help you think about this clearly.  It’s hard to tell if smoking gives a single person lung cancer. However, when you look at large groups of people, it becomes easy to see that lung cancer risk is greater in those who smoke than in those who do not.  The same applies to violence exposure.  It’s hard to tell if a single person executed an act of violence because of prior exposure to violent acts. However, when you look at large groups of people, it’s easy to see that the greater the exposure level, the higher the risk of engaging in violence.  Someday you may have your own kids – given these data, would you allow them to play Grand Theft Auto until their fingers bleed, or given the risk, might you restrict your child’s access to such materials? 

 

Our main point is that psychology has had, and will continue to have, a huge impact on the lives of many people.  We simply don’t have the time or space in this course to show you all of psychology’s practical applications – but if you are interested, you can find such applications in courses that you might take later at this university, or elsewhere.  These might include courses in consumer behavior, educational psychology, industrial/organizational psychology, human factors psychology, political psychology, the psychology of advertising, health psychology, psychology of sports, and forensic psychology.  Nonetheless, in this course we will sometimes highlight a few of these applications.  Thus, after you have finished this course, we hope that you have acquired some knowledge about the many ways in which the science of psychology has affected, and will continue to affect, peoples’ day-to-day lives.

 

 

The Magnificent Seven: A Summary of PSYC 102 Course Goals

 

To summarize, the goals that we had in mind when designing the course were:

 

1)     to expose you to the research that constitutes the scientific bedrock psychology;

2)     to introduce you to METHODS of scientific inquiry and to have you develop a clear understanding of how scientific inquiries in psychology are conducted;  

3)     to make you a better consumer of scientific research and to be able to have some insight into what makes some research “scientifically credible;” 

4)     to familiarize you with the diversity of scientific approaches in psychology;

5)     to allow you to acquire knowledge about theoretical ideas and research findings that COMPRISE the science of psychology; 

6)     to foster the development of your ability to think logically, statistically, critically, and in an integrative manner;

7)     to offer insights into how the findings of scientific psychology can be applied in the real world.

Maximizing Your Learning and Performance

 

 

One of the places in which psychology is most urgently relevant to you concerns the topic of learning.  Why is knowledge about this topic absolutely URGENT for you?  A sad fact about life at many major public universities (e.g., NIU) is that half of any given freshman class won’t graduate from their university within five years. HALF! What is the cause of such abysmal non-matriculation rates?  There are a lot of reasons that people leave the university, but a big one is that people don’t study hard enough, or effectively enough, or both, so they flunk.  

 

To get through college, you must learn more and at a higher rate than you ever had to learn before.  Those who do not understand this, and who do not adapt to the study demands of college, don’t make it. However, everyone says that you need to study a lot in order to learn a lot.  Can one be more specific?  Sure – one major topic in psychology is learning. It’s something that our field knows a lot about.  We can use what has been discovered from the study of learning to give hints about maximizing learning and course performance.  The hints that follow are all supported by copious amounts of research.

 

 

Textbook Study Hints

 

One of the things psychologists know from studies of learning is that the more time spent studying, the more learning that occurs.  College courses, including this one, ask you to learn a LOT.  Thus, to learn enough to pass this course, you must put in A LOT of time studying – a heck of a lot more time than you were used to spending on studying for your high school courses.   

 

How much time? A university oversight group, the Carnegie Foundation, suggests that for an average student to earn an average grade of C in an average course, they should be putting in two hours of work outside of class in addition to every hour spent in class. That works out to six hours of outside-of-class study time per week per course.  This recommendation is not unusual. For example, Purdue University’s Undergraduate Studies Program Website (as of March, 2008) says: “A general guideline is about two hours of study for every hour you spend in class. You'll spend more time for some classes and less for others. Good study habits and reading skills are necessary if you plan to earn As and Bs.” Hence, if you claim that we are asking too much of you, you’d be wrong: Students at other universities are being asked for very much the same amount of effort and time in each university’s version of this course. 

However, note that the Carnegie Foundation recommendation makes copious use of the word “average” as a qualifier. Similarly, the Purdue website says that “you will spend more time on some classes and less on others.” Three considerations suggest that, for this class, ADDITIONAL study time is required:

 

- This is not an average class – data suggest that it’s HARDER than average.

- Most of you are not average students - most of you are FRESHMAN and are still adapting to the level of learning that you need to excel in college. 

- Most of you probably want more than an average grade of C in the course. 

 

Hence, consider the 6 hour rule to be only a rough guideline Your exam and quiz results will tell you if you need to be studying more. Our past experience with this class says that many of you will need to do so.  A few of you may not. 

 

What data back up such study time recommendations? One important corpus of data shows that one-trial learning is not common.  Instead, learning almost any kind of complex task requires much repetition and practice.  

There is one more reason to study a lot, to repeatedly read the chapters, and to use as many of the practice tools provided by this course as you can.  Psychological research suggests that it is desirable to overlearn material; many do not practice enough to experience overlearning. Lack of repetition often produces superficial awareness of material, but does not facilitate either memory for the material or understanding of the material. To get to the point of really knowing material, most learners must repeat material often enough to remember the material without struggling to do so. One reason that overlearning is important concerns peoples’ ability to perform when stressed. Research shows that stress (e.g., exam-related nervousness) interferes with the ability to perform poorly-learned skills (such as remembering underlearned material). Overlearning acts as a buffer against stress, so performance of overlearned tasks tends not to decrease under stress.  In fact, there are data suggesting that performance on overlearned tasks might even increase under stress.  Thus, overlearning the material is one of the things that you can do to maximize your exam performance.     

Reading early also gives you a chance to seek help well before Departmental Exams.  We believe that we have selected a text that any college student should be able to read independently, so that’s what we ask you to do.  Class lectures typically will not duplicate the textbook.  However, we also know that, from time to time, almost everyone might need help with the reading.  By reading early, you can identify those things that puzzle you and act to get your confusion dispelled by talking to the teaching staff. ONE COMMON ERROR THAT PEOPLE MAKE IS TO NOT READ EARLY ENOUGH TO GET THEIR QUESTIONS ANSWERED WELL BEFORE THE EXAM.  We have a large teaching staff that often sits around, lonesome, except for those moments of student panic when everyone wants last-minute exam help.  Reading early allows us to give you individual attention and allows you to beat the last-minute rush.  Use us early and often and you will learn more and do better on tests!!!!  We want to help you!  Please ask for help early enough to allow us to do so.

 

Even though time and repetition are important to learning, psychologists also know that learning occurs more efficiently under some conditions than others.  One thing that leads to efficient learning is being an active learner.  Basically, this means that you should THINK as you READ.  For example, as you will learn when you study memory, people tend to remember new material especially well when that material can be related to stuff they already know.  Doing this often involves elaborative rehearsal – a fancy name for the process of effortfully trying to link new knowledge to old knowledge. For example, a good way to help remember that the area of the brain known as the cerebellum helps to regulate physical movement might be to imagine how you would wobble down the street if someone conked you in the lower portion of the back of the head (which is roughly where the cerebellum is located) with a brick, and physically rubbing that spot on your head as you conjure the mental image of your wobbling walk.  THINK and LINK when you read - you’ll read more slowly than when you read mindlessly, but you’ll retain much more than when you read passively.    

 

You can link and think in other ways.  For example, there is a list of key terms and concepts that appears at the end of each chapter. After reading each chapter, look at each term.  Find the term in the chapter and write down the term’s definition.  It would also help if you could write down something about the term that relates to your own life. Remember – when you encounter material from this course, link and think, think and link, link and think!!!!

 

 

Practice Hints

 

It has always been fascinating to us how people often focus on the input task for exams, but they forget that a test is a situation on which they are expected to produce output.  Why is this important?  Well, research shows that people often underperform on tests because they did not practice outputting the material. This matches the teaching team’s experience: We’d like to have a nickel each time we heard a student say “I just blanked out when I got into the exam room.”  You can help to prevent “blanking” by practicing output.

 

We make this easy by providing lots of study tools for you to use.  There are some practice questions that are presented right in your text. There is also a textbook companion website (from our text publisher, CENGAGE) that accompanies the textbook (the web address will be provided in class). This website contains lots and lots of stuff that you can use to test your own knowledge. We recommend that you use as much of this stuff as you can.  Why all the different ways?  Well, psychological studies have shown that thinking about the material in a variety of different ways helps you to better learn it – and as you now know, this course is all about learning as much as you can. 

 

Psychologists also know that performance is best when one can practice under conditions that simulate real performances. Hence, try to complete some of practice tasks with a closed book, under time pressure, and with something at stake. For example, consider staging a competition on a practice task in which the loser buys dinner for the winner.

 

 

Practice Departmental Exams

 

One set of especially important practice opportunities come from practice Departmental Exams that are designated homework assignments. Complete these with your book open. These multiple-choice exams will be an especially close match to the “real” exams that you will encounter.  You will note from the questions on the exam that they have different goals. Some questions will simply assess factual memory. Some questions assess your understanding of a concept by seeing if you can differentiate it from other concepts. Some questions try to see if you understand a concept by seeing if you perceive similarities among concepts.  Some questions test your understanding of an idea by seeing if you can apply it in the real world.  All of these kinds of questions are on the practice Departmental Exams and on the real Departmental Exams.  The more of this kind of thinking you can do BEFORE the Departmental Exam, the better you will LEARN the material and the better you will do on the real Departmental Exam. 

 

 

A Few More Hints

           

Try getting your gluteus maximus (keister, booty, rear end, caboose) into every class.  Why?  The staff’s observation over the years is that many of those who do poorly in PSYC 102 can’t be bothered to come to class.

 

In PSYC 102, there is an especially important reason why you need to get your gluteus maximus (keister, booty, rear end, caboose) into every class. You earn points through performance on LECTURE QUIZZES that each of your instructors design and administer.  These quizzes will largely cover material presented in class lectures. Most often, this material is NOT in the book.

 

Sometimes people think that the lecture quizzes are unimportant – after all, each quiz is only worth 10 points, and scores on the two quizzes on which students perform poorest will be ignored  Such thoughts cause some people to “blow off” lectures.  Don’t do this!  Our experience suggests that lecture quiz points can be crucial to your grade – they often make the difference between earning a passing grade and earning a failing grade.  Our experience with this class also shows that many students simply can not afford to throw points away, and that is exactly what students are doing when they fail to attend class.  Attend class!

 

In addition, when in class, pay attention and keep focused on psychology.  Turn off your *$!!*&^*&$&^$#&@#!!! cell phones, I-pods, and other electronic devices (or we may confiscate them, break them, burn them, eat them, run over them, or otherwise annihilate them), put away your chemistry homework, and stop thinking about your latest love. When you are in class, make the time count by focusing on psychology. The extra point you earn on a lecture quiz may make all the difference to you at semester’s end. 

 

Finally, fulfill experiment requirement and participate in extra experiments.  Doing so will help you in two ways.  First, modern psychology is grounded in research: the more you are in it, the better you will understand it.  Second, participating in experiments earns points.  These points can come in handy, especially if your performance on exams does not meet your expectations. Things don’t always go your way, so these extra credit points may be just the ticket to help you get “over the top” to the grade that you want.

 

 

THANKS DAVE! THE PSYC 102 STAFF’s TOP TEN LEARNING AND PERFORMANCE HINTS

 

Your goal in this course is to learn and understand psychology, and in doing that, to earn a good grade. To do those things well, we recommend that you:

 

(1) study the textbook AT LEAST 6 hours per week outside of class (and probably more);

(2) read early and often (read chapters as many as 5 times before each exam);

(3)  link and think as you read;

(4) find the definitions to all the terms at the end of each chapter, write them down and learn them – and generating a real-life example of each will help;

(5) use all the practice tools on the class textbook website;

(6) use the practice Departmental Exams on the class textbook website to help guide your study;

(7) do some of the practice exams under “game conditions”;

(8) attend every class session and focus on psychology while you are there;

(9) review your class notes before and after every class to help you do well on lecture quizzes;

(10) do as many experiments as you can to better understand research and maximize points.

 

Points of Contact

 

PSYC 102 instructors keep three office hours per week. Contact instructors during office ho0urs for information, guidance, and remedial help. Do not hesitate to do so. We’re here to help you, and are happy to do so.  Your instructor's office number, office hours, and office phone number will be announced in class at the beginning of the semester.   

 

In addition, PSYC 102 has a class web page. It lists instructors’ names, office hours, telephone numbers, and assignment information. Information about psychology tutoring hours is also available on the website.  The link is:

 

http://www.niu.edu/psyc/psyc102/

 

The PSYC 102 webpage will also contain links to other sites.  Some sites will be useful to you in this course. Some link to various psychology organizations.  Some just offer good old psychology fun!   

 

Two of these links will take you to CENGAGE (the text publisher) websites that accompany our textbook.  One is the CENGAGE NOW website; the other is the Nairne Companion (or textbook companion) website. The Companion website contains useful study aids such as computerized flashcards, crossword puzzles, and a glossary. No assignments will be required from this website, but the diligent student will make extensive use of the practice aids that reside here. As this introduction the course, is being written, the Cengage Now website is being significantly revised and it is unclear how much the course will use it.  Under ideal conditions (e.g., the website is fully operational), Practice Departmental Exams, which you complete for a grade, will be accessed and will be completed on the Cengage Now website. The simulated experiments, also assigned in the course, will be also accessed through the Cengage Now website.

 

Remember: CENGAGE NOW = Simulations (and maybe) Practice Tests

                       NAIRNE COMPANION = Many, many (non-required) study aids

 

The class web site will also contain links to the PSPM web site that will be used to sign up for real experiments (described below). 

 

Don’t worry about keeping track of all these web links – they will all be announced in class and will always be available from links listed on the PSYC 102 class website. We will keep you posted and give you updates once the class starts.

 

PSYC 102 PROCEDURES AND REQUIREMENTS

 

Know Your Section Basics: Where are You?

 

Learn the SECTION NUMBER and NAME OF THE INSTRUCTOR for the section in which you are enrolled and should be attending. You will need this information many times during the semester, and especially if you want to request a grade review after the semester is over. 

 

Double-check to make sure that you are attending the correct section! Double-check to make sure that you are attending the correct section!  Double-check to make sure that you are attending the correct section!  There are section-to-section differences in the content of lectures and in the lecture quizzes, so if you are attending the wrong section, it could prove to be costly.  Double-check to make sure that you are attending the correct section! 

 

 

Section Syllabus: What’s The Buzz?

 

A section syllabus will be handed out to all students by their instructors during the first week of each semester.  The syllabus varies by section; use only the syllabus for your section. This syllabus may include a variety of useful information, including dates for topics to be covered in the course, reading assignments, and dates for departmental exams and lecture quizzes. It is each student's responsibility to know these dates and assignments.  PLEASE DO NOT LOSE THE SYLLABUS. If a syllabus is lost or misplaced, some information from the syllabus may be available on the PSYC 102 webpage.  However, not all of your section’s syllabus information may be on the web page.  Thus, if you lose a syllabus make sure to get a copy as soon as you are able.    

 

 

Attendance: Present and Accounted For

 

Regular attendance is required and expected.  Remember that the course is designed so that you learn from the classroom sessions as well as from the textbook.  In fact, a lot of the material covered in lecture will NOT be found in the textbook, and your lecture quizzes will cover ONLY material covered in class.  You snooze, you lose.

 

In addition, changes to the course will typically be announced in class.  There are always some changes that need to be made – you’ll miss them if you don’t attend. 

Academic Misconduct: Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap

 

When completing assignments, taking exams or taking quizzes, you are expected to do your own work. Cheating will not be tolerated.  BE WARNED!

 

If you believe that someone in your class is cheating on an assignment, examination or a lecture quiz, report your suspicions to your instructor.  Your instructor will forward them to the PSYC 102 Coordinator.  Students and instructors are strongly encouraged to document any factual information regarding all incidents that could be viewed as ethical violations. 

 

There are many ways in which cheating might occur in the course. Sometimes students try to get credit for participating in experiments without doing all of the work that the experiment requires of them.  We want to be clear about this: The credit that you get in experiments is received in return for your efforts.  If you do not exert effort but try to get credit, THAT’S CHEATING.  Don’t do it.

 

People also try to cheat on quizzes and exams. Computerized methods of detecting cheating on examinations are available through the N.I.U. Testing Services office. We use them when departmental examinations are scored.  We also reserve the right to record testing sessions with webcams or other recording devices and to review the webcam evidence in search of cheating behavior.

 

There’s a lot of stuff that constitutes cheating, and there is not space to generate and list them all (and we’re probably not creative enough to do so).  If it’s not listed in this section, how do you know if it’s cheating?   Simple – if you have doubts, don’t do it (or ask an instructor for permission to do it before you do).  DON’T DO IT.  DON’T CHEAT!  DON’T EVEN THINK OF IT!

 

When any form of cheating is detected, we will sic O.J. Simpson, Charles Manson, Jefferey Dahmer, and John Gacy on you.  OK…for real, and even worse, you will have to deal with the Coordinator of Psychology 102.  That coordinator will immediately FAIL you in the course – regardless of the number of points that you have accumulated via exams, quizzes, and assignment completion.  The coordinator will also try to designate you as a cheater on your permanent record, will try to get you kicked out of school, and do whatever else is necessary to make your academic life miserable.  Such treatment is in accord with guidelines described in the N.I.U. Judicial Code.  The code suggests that penalties for academic misconduct may range from receiving an "F" on an examination to recommendation for expulsion from the University.  Past history suggests that the PSYC 102 Coordinator vigorously and enthusiastically enforces the class rules against cheating (most think he’s a real meany – and he is when it comes to cheating).  DON’T DO IT.  DON’T CHEAT!  DON’T EVEN THINK OF IT!

Study Assistants: Baywatch Academic Lifeguards

 

A tutorial service is typically provided during 10 office hours for Psychology 102 students. The service is to be used for review, remedial work, special projects, and the like.  The location and schedule of hours during which this service will be available will be announced during the first two weeks of class, will usually be posted on the door to Room 317 in the Psychology Building, and will also be posted on the PSYC 102 webpage at the beginning of each semester.

 

On-line tutoring is also conducted during the ten hours each week when tutoring is available.  On-line tutoring is available through AOL Instant Messenger (AIM).  The PSYC 102 webpage contains a link and instructions for participating in on-line tutoring.  The on-line tutoring hours will also be announced in class, will usually be posted on the door to room 317, and will also be posted on the PSYC 102 webpage.  In order to participate in on-line tutoring, you will have to register to use AOL Instant Messenger and download it.  For more information about on-line tutoring, consult the PSYC 102 webpage or speak with your instructor.

 

Remember, one key to effective tutor use is to read early.  They are eager to give you help, but it’s hard to help everyone on the day before an exam.  If you read early you can beat the rush, and will help to dispel the loneliness that the tutors experience most of each semester.

 

 

Where Your Grades Come From (No, No, Not The Stork)

 

Your grade in this course will be determined from your performance on the following tasks:

 

         a.   Four departmental examinations of 50 multiple-choice items (50 points) each.  Fifty questions on each examination will be drawn from the textbook.  In the past, people have thought that these exams were very challenging (they often use other words, typically involving obscenities). In past classes as many as half of the students in the class have failed an exam. Thus, do not take the exams lightly – you will need to be super-prepared to even earn a C.  The questions taken from the textbook will be similar to questions on the practice Departmental Exams. Exam questions range from factual items assessing your recall of material to conceptual items assessing your understanding of material.  You can earn a maximum of 200 points from departmental exams.

 

b.      Simulation Quiz (16 points). The CENGAGE NOW website provides links to four assigned “simulated” experiments.  To ensure that you attend to the simulated experiments as you do them, four multiple-choice questions will be asked over each (16 questions total). These questions will appear on a Simulation Quiz administered near semester’s end. The quiz will be worth 16 points.

 

         c.   Eight lecture quizzes, each worth 10 points.  Lecture quizzes will cover material presented ONLY in class sessions.  The best way to prepare for these quizzes is to attend class, pay attention, take good notes, and review those notes frequently. Only your six best quiz performances will count toward your grade, so you can earn a maximum of 60 points from these lecture quizzes.

 

d.      Satisfactory completion of the practice Departmental Exams, each worth 5 points. There are four 50-question practice Departmental Exams, one for each of the four units of the course. Depending on future developments, these may be available via the CENGAGE NOW website; if not, they will be made available on the course website or via other appropriate methods. These practice Departmental Exams are graded “homework.”  They can (and should) be completed as an OPEN BOOK exam – look up answers in the book before responding.  5 points of credit will be received if you get more than 80% (40 items) on the practice test correct; 2 points will be earned if you get more than 70% (35 items) correct.  You get nothing if you get fewer than 35 items correct or if you do not complete an exam before its deadline (see syllabus). You can earn a maximum of 20 points from these take-home tests. 

 

e.      Completion of the course research requirement.  By completing the course research requirement, you will earn 24 points.  This can be done by earning 8 credits from research participation. As noted below, we strongly suggest that you complete this requirement via participation in research.  However, there is an option.  You can write 6 short papers (each based on an assigned article) to complete this requirement.  If you do not earn 8 credits or more, you will earn nothing.  If you do not adequately complete all 6 papers, you will get nothing. 

 

f.        Completion of additional research activities.  If you participate in research to complete the research requirement, each participation credit that you earn over 8 credits, up to a maximum of 16 credits, earns you 3 extra points.  Thus, if you accumulate 9 credits, you earn research 27 points; if you accumulate 10 credits, you earn 30 research points, etc.  Hence, you can earn up to 24 extra points by engaging in additional research-related activity. The same amount of extra credit can also be accumulated via completion of extra research papers. This is not an insignificant payback for doing extra credit:  If you examine the grading system (see below) you will note that by doing all the extra credit you may be able to improve the grade that you receive by one letter grade.

 

g.      Extra Credit Simulations (3 points).  In addition to the 4 required simulations, the website contains 3 additional simulations.  You will earn an extra point for each one that you complete.   The CENGAGE NOW website keeps records of your performance and each simulation’s completion (yes, “Big Brother” IS watching you!).    

 

Points will ONLY come from these seven sources. There will NOT be additional extra credit available. Do NOT ask for more extra credit – the answer will be “no.”   If you do ask, staff members may deduct 100 points from your point total (well, not really, but I hope that you get the point that you shouldn’t do this). 

 

Final letter grades for the course will be reported as follows:

 

A = 288 and up (90 - 100%)                    D = 192-223 (60 – 69.99%)

B = 256-287 (80 – 89.99%)           F = 191 and under (Below 60%)

C = 224-255 (70 – 79.99%)

 

It is extremely likely that the scale presented on the previous page will be the final grading scale used to assign grades in the course.  The PSYC 102 coordinator, as well as some staff members, believe that “curves” are an infected boil on the face of academics, and hence, grade-curving procedures will not be employed.  In fact, members of the teaching staff may deduct 100 points from your score if you so much as ask whether scores will be curved.  Well, not really – but you get the point.  In all likelihood, the grading scale depicted on the previous page WILL be the final point scale used to assign grades. 

 

You can determine approximately how you are doing at any given time during the semester by knowing how many of the 320 possible points have been awarded up to that time in your section, dividing the number of those points you have earned by the total number awarded up to that point in the semester, and multiplying by 100.  This will give you a percentage that you can then locate on the above scale. 

 

Remember that C is a grade that indicates average, acceptable performance in a class. Past experience with this class shows that after all the points are tabulated, the average grade in the class is, indeed, usually about a C.  Past experience also shows that only about 10 to 15% of students earn a grade of A; you should be proud if you earn such a grade. 

 

The major exception to the use of the scale is in cases of cheating.  If the course coordinator determines that you have cheated, you will fail the course, regardless of the number of points that you have accumulated.

Incompletes.  See the NIU Undergraduate Catalog for the guidelines governing the assignment of grades of incomplete. Those are the guidelines that will be used to assign a grade of incomplete to a student in PSYC 102.  The assignment of incompletes is the decision of the course Coordinator.  Generally, the Coordinator assigns incompletes only under extraordinarily compelling circumstances. Most typically, this occurs if a student is in good academic standing and has completed  all of the work required for the course, but an end-of-semester calamity prevents completion of Exam 4 or a make-up test.  Moreover, a grade of incomplete is assigned ONLY when the student has requested such a grade IN WRITING, PRIOR to their scheduled final exam period. 

 

 

A Testing Experience: Departmental Exams

 

Registration requirement.  Students MUST be officially registered for PSYC 102 by the time the first departmental examination is administered (see the course syllabus for the date of the first departmental examination).  Only those who are officially registered for their section, as indicated by the class roster provided by the Registration and Records office, will be allowed to take the first departmental examination in their section’s classroom. Students not listed on the official roster prior to the time of the first departmental examination will be asked by the instructor of the course to provide official confirmation of his or her enrollment in the course from the office of Registration and Records before being allowed to take the first departmental examination. One common mistake that people make is that they attend the wrong section.  Please, double-check your registration to be sure that you are attending the section for which you are registered. Otherwise, you may not be able to take the departmental exam. 

 

Dates and times. Examination dates are provided on your section Syllabus and on the class web page. However, to find your dates and times on the web page you need to know the SECTION NUMBER and NAME OF THE INSTRUCTOR for your section (see - we said you’d need it!). 

 

What you need.  For each Departmental Exam you will be asked to provide your own #2 pencils. You will also need to use your NIU student z-identification number, as well as your name, for identification on each test, so bring your student ID to the exam. Because it is not uncommon to have two or more persons enrolled in the course with identical names, be sure you know your NIU Z-identification number and enter it, your name, and your section number properly on your answer sheets. 

 

What if you are late?  Classroom doors will be closed 10 minutes after the start of the exam (e.g., 9:10 for a 9:00 exam). No student (that is NO student, not a single student, not even one, not even you) will be allowed to start an exam afterward.  This rule will be strictly enforced.  The entire staff has been instructed to do this (or they will answer to the coordinator).  Each staff member is the official timekeeper: Only his or her watch matters (NOT YOURS!) in making the determination of when to close the room.

 

Make-up Departmental Exams.  Many people have legitimate reasons for missing exams - but some do not.  The staff is never sure about whose excuses are legit and whose are not, and they worry a lot about being fair to everyone in the face of such uncertainty. 

 

Hence, this course is designed so that the staff need not be in the business of deciding whether your excuse for missing a test or a lecture quiz is a good one.  Instead, if you miss a regularly scheduled exam, for whatever reason, you are guaranteed one chance at taking the make-up administered during your assigned finals time.  If you miss the regularly scheduled simulation quiz, for whatever reason, you are guaranteed one chance at taking the make-up administered during your assigned finals time.

 

Those engaged in frequent non-academic extracurricular activities that involve extended periods away from NIU, please note:  Exams or simulation quizzes are NOT administered early.  Instead, the only dates on which exams and simulation quizzes are administered are the regularly scheduled exam date, or on the make-up date.  Those are your only two options.  If you will be traveling and will miss the regular exam or simulation quiz dates, and will also miss the make-up exam date, then perhaps you’d better seek another course to take this semester. 

 

No questions asked for missing an exam or simulation quiz - what’s the catch?  All make-up exams and simulation quizzes (and by all, we mean all - yours included) will be taken during the final exam period that is scheduled for your section.  This date and time will be listed in your Syllabus, will be noted on the PSYC 102 web page, and will be published on the University’s web site.  All you need to do is study for the make-up and show up at your regular classroom at the designated time.  The multiple-choice make-up exam will be waiting for you.  Just make sure that you ask for the correct departmental exam (corresponding to the one you missed – 1, 2, 3, or 4) or for the simulation quiz make up.

 

Try not to miss more than one departmental exam.  You can try to take two make-up departmental exams, but that will be hard.  We do not advise trying to take three or four make-up departmental exams (for one thing, you will not have enough time to finish them all in the final exam session).  If you missed that much of the course, it would be better to cut your losses and study for your other courses. But, if you insist on taking the make-up departmental exams, we’ll let you do so (but don’t be surprised if you fail them).

 

What happens of you miss the make-up exam session?  Most people can put their head between their legs and kiss their keister good-bye - you will be assigned a zero for the simulation quiz and/or exam(s) that you missed and your grade will be calculated and reported accordingly. However, on one of his good days (which never happen) the course Coordinator might be persuaded to let you take the make-up exam if you have a legitimate excuse (my car blew up; the plane that I was on crashed; etc.), supported by written documentation, for missing the make up exam.  Excuses such as “I forgot” or “I had to go on vacation” or “I had to go to a wedding” or “I was on the road with my sports team” are not legitimate.  Excuses such as “I had the Bubonic Plague” or “My car blew up as I was driving here” are legitimate.    

 

Missed Lecture Quizzes.  You will NOT have the opportunity to make-up missed lecture quizzes.  If you miss a lecture quiz, you will be assigned a grade of zero for that quiz.  However, only the best 6 out of 8 quiz scores count toward your lecture quiz total, so for most of you a missed-quiz score of zero will likely not count toward your grade.  However, a score of zero will count toward your grade for the third quiz (and beyond) that you miss.  The best advice?  Come to class.  Take all the lecture quizzes.  

 

 

 

 

 

EXPERIMENTAL WORK

 

 

Why Don’t We Do It in the Road? 

 

Most of the information presented in this course concerning the study of thought, behavior and emotion has been gathered using the scientific method as employed within the discipline of psychology.  One goal of the course is to increase your familiarity with such methods.  To help you to become more familiar with research methods, this course asks you to participate in the ongoing psychological research that we do here at NIU. 

 

This is not an experience to be taken lightly!  Faculty members, graduate students, and your fellow undergraduates are working very hard to conduct research.  It may mean a lot to them.  Thus, take this task very seriously!  Show up on time. Try to do what researchers ask you to do to the best of your ability.

        

In addition, learn something from each experiment. Your participation in experiments will provide you with a close-up look at several types of psychological research methods that are used to collect data, as well as the types of problems that can occur in collecting data. Remember, try to have fun and to learn something from each of the experiments in which you participate!

 

 

Post-Experiment Stuff: What’s it All About, Alfie?

 

After the experiment is over, we will try to facilitate learning by giving you information about the experiment. At the conclusion of each study, one of two things will happen. One of these might be that you will be given a "debriefing" which may include a summary of the hypotheses of the research and the rationale for its procedures. A second might be that you will be given a “learning point,” a description of a part of the procedure and how it was used. You may also get some suggestions for additional reading that you can pursue on your own if you are interested in the research topic pursued by the study.  A telephone number will be given to you if you would like further information about the research, if you have questions about the research that occur to you at a later time, or if you are interested in learning more about the research outcome.

 

 

We Do It Right! Ethics in Research Procedures

 

 The Department of Psychology tries to conduct all research work in accordance with the ethical principles and procedures established by the American Psychological Association and with the NIU Institutional Review Board’s policies and procedures pertaining to research involving use of humans.  These experiments may involve any of a variety of tasks, e.g., observing, judging, learning, taking psychological or psychophysiological tests, etc.  The specific task in each experiment will be explained by the individual investigator who will be a member of the Psychology Department faculty or an advanced student working under the supervision of a member of the faculty.

 

At the beginning of any experiment in which you participate, the experimenter must provide you with information about the methods, potential risks (if any), and benefits of the experiment.  If you agree to participate, you should sign an informed consent form (see Figure 1 for an example).  If you report for an experiment and find that its procedures violate your moral, religious, or ethical convictions, you have the right not to participate in that experiment. In fact, if you have such objections, we would STRONGLY PREFER that you do not participate.  Although you will not receive credit for sessions from which you withdraw, you can schedule other experiments in order to gain the required experiences and earn the participation points.  If you cannot or will not participate in any research at all, you can fulfill the course research requirement by reading research articles and writing papers.  This option is described in more detail later in this introduction. 

 

 

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Figure 1

                               

SAMPLE  INFORMED CONSENT STATEMENT

 

I have been informed that Experiment Number________________, entitled  _______________ involves research.  The general nature and purposes of the research are as follows.....  The procedures have been described to me and are as follows....  The expected duration of my participation in this experiment is approximately __________________and will be worth ______credits.   The extent to which confidentiality of the records identifying me as a research subject will be maintained is as follows....  Any questions about this research and/or about my rights as a research subject have been addressed and the name of the contact faculty member to whom further questions that arise at a later point should be addressed is provided below. 

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Once you sign the consent form, the experiment will begin.  All you have to do is to follow the instructions that the researchers give to you and perform the tasks set before you to the best of your ability. However, if at any time you have a problem with the research (certain questions dredge up bad memories and make you extremely upset, etc.), feel free to terminate your participation.  You won’t get credit (that only occurs for adequate completion of the study), but you won’t freak out either.

 

 

When it’s Over, Do I Get a Cigarette?  

 

When you have completed an experiment, the experimenter should give you a written receipt for your participation (see Figure 2).  This receipt is your ultimate proof that you have participated in the experiment.  Put your receipts in a safe place and keep them until the end of the semester.  If there are any discrepancies between your tally of the experimental participation points that you have earned and the Psychology Department’s tally of those points at the end of the semester, take your receipts to your instructor, who will make the necessary corrections in experimental participation points.

 

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Figure 2

SUBJECT PARTICIPATION CREDIT FORM

____________________ served in the following psychological experiment _____________.  The experiment was worth ________ credit points.

Signed (Experimenter) ____________________

Date _____________________________________

Section Number ___________________________

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Signing up to Participate in Research:  Doing it the Correct Way

 

At the time this introduction is being written, it is not certain which exact computer program will be used to sign up for experiments.  Thus, we can only give you a general guide to signing up. More detail will be provided by the instructional staff, and on the PSYC 102 class website.   

 

You will need to use the internet to navigate to the experiment sign-up website.

After you get there and sign in, you can navigate through the website to select the experiment that you want to be in.  There are often a lot of choices, so it should be easy to find sessions that fit your schedule.  Make sure that when you sign up for an experiment you provide the website with the information that it needs to identify you. This is likely to be your name, your Z-id, and your section number.   Because these lists are used to assign you credit for completing an experiment, it is important that you provide the website with the correct information.  It sometimes happens that a student will claim to have done a study, but will not be granted credit for it.  In our experience, the most frequent cause of this problem is that, when signing up, people provide the website with incorrect information. 

 

So PLEASE, take the time to double-check the information that you provide. 

 

 

Keep Records of When You Do It

 

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU WRITE DOWN, AND KEEP FOR YOUR RECORD, THE NAME OF THE EXPERIMENTER, THE EXPERIMENT NUMBER, AND THE DATE, ROOM NUMBER, AND TIME THE EXPERIMENT IS SCHEDULED. 

 

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU WRITE DOWN, AND KEEP FOR YOUR RECORD, THE NAME OF THE EXPERIMENTER, THE EXPERIMENT NUMBER, AND THE DATE, ROOM NUMBER, AND TIME THE EXPERIMENT IS SCHEDULED.

 

IT IS IMPERATIVE THAT YOU WRITE DOWN, AND KEEP FOR YOUR RECORD, THE NAME OF THE EXPERIMENTER, THE EXPERIMENT NUMBER, AND THE DATE, ROOM NUMBER, AND TIME THE EXPERIMENT IS SCHEDULED.

 

Did we say that often enough? 

 

Some experimenters will occasionally contact participants by telephone to schedule experiment times.  If an experimenter contacts you about participating in an experiment, also make sure THAT YOU WRITE DOWN, AND KEEP FOR YOUR RECORD, THE NAME OF THE EXPERIMENTER, THE EXPERIMENT NUMBER, AND THE DATE, ROOM NUMBER, AND TIME THE EXPERIMENT IS SCHEDULED. 

 

 

What Happens If I Make an Appointment and Can’t Show Up? 

 

If you are unable to keep an appointment, you should be able to “resign” from an experiment by going to experiment web site, signing in, and resigning from the study that you signed up for.  This should involve just deleting your name from the electronic sign up sheet, but exact details will be conveyed later. 

 

Alternatively, you can cancel your participation in an experiment by using the telephone to call the experimenter directly (leave a message if necessary).  The experimenter’s name and telephone number should be associated with the experiment that you sign up for; write this information down when you sign up.  Remember that the phone that you cal may be a phone shared by many.  Thus, when you cancel, you will need to tell the person on the other end of the phone (or the answering machine) the number and name of the experiment from which you are withdrawing. Having all the other experiment information available to convey over the phone (such as the experimenter’s name) will be useful, too. 

 

If you know that you cannot attend a session, cancellation is very important!  Cancellation gives others a chance to register for the study and it keeps the experimenters from twiddling their thumbs wondering when you will show up. 

 

It’s so important that we will penalize you 1 credit each time you schedule for a study, don’t show up, and fail to cancel. Note that this means that you will have to do extra research to meet the 8-credit minimum.  That is, if you earn 8 credits but miss a session, you will only have a total of 7 credits so you will get 0 points.  Cancel if you can’t show up!!!!! 

 

If you do cancel your appointment to participate in a given experiment, you can reschedule for a session of the same experiment at a later date.  

 

 

What Happens If I Make an Appointment and the Experimenter Doesn’t Show Up? 

 

Sometimes an experimenter has to cancel a session (they get sick and have emergencies, just like everyone else). When a cancellation happens well before an experiment that you have signed up for, a cancellation e-mail should be sent to you.  Thus, before you leave the comfort of your bed to go to an experiment, always check your e-mail for cancellations.

 

If you are at the room designated for the experiment and no one is there, please first double-check to make sure that you are in the correct place at the correct time.  PLEASE double-check to make sure that you are in the correct place at the correct time.  If you are in the right place, at the right time, and if you have no cancellation e-mail, then leave a note on the lab door indicating that you were there, the experiment that was supposed to be there, and the time at which the experiment was supposed to be conducted.

 

Then, contact your instructor and provide them with the “who what when and where details of the experiment.  They will convey such details to the Powers that Be in the Psychology Department.  The Powers that Be in the Psychology Department are very, very disturbed when someone does not show up to conduct their experiment.  Those powers like to place tardy experimenters in vats of boiling oil, although placing them on the rack or making them listen to old Barry Manilow songs can also be exquisite forms of torture.  Obviously, the Department takes such tardiness seriously, so please report such tardiness so the department can take appropriate corrective action.  However, before you try to report such tardiness, please double-check to make sure that you were in the right place, at the right time, on the right day. 

Payback Is Sweet:  Earning Credit for Participation in Research

 

 You earn credits for adequate participation in this research.  Note the word “adequate.”  Researchers can deny you credit (or rescind the credit slip given to you) if you intentionally don’t follow instructions, respond randomly, show up inebriated or in a drug-induced haze, disrupt sessions, or try to pull idiotic stunts like complete the first and last pages of a questionnaire but not the middle pages. 

 

You don’t get credit for simply showing up - you get credit for honestly trying.   You don’t get credit for simply showing up - you get credit for honestly trying.   

You don’t get credit for simply showing up - you get credit for honestly trying.   

 

Attempting to get credit for experiments without honestly trying is viewed as cheating and is subject to the cheating policy outlined earlier. 

 

Different experiments have different “credit” values.  These credit values are based on how long each experiment is expected to take.  Generally speaking, one credit is earned for each half-hour of your time that is taken up: A one credit experiment can be expected to take up to one-half of an hour; a two credit experiment can take up to an hour; a three credit experiment can take up to one and one-half hours, etc. 

 

Should you choose this option to fulfill the course research requirement (instead of doing papers) you need to accumulate 8 or more credits in department-approved research. Earning 8 credits gets you 24 points.

 

For extra credit, you get 3 additional points for each credit above 8 that you accumulate.  You can earn 8 credits of extra credit, so there are a maximum of 24 extra credit points (total possible research points = 48: 24 “regular” and 24 “extra credit”). 

 

 

Start Early and Do It Often

 

Across the course of the semester, we hope there will be as many experimental participation opportunities as you will want to experience.  However, the exact number and types of studies that are available at any given time is outside of the PSYC 102 staff’s control.  It has almost always been the case that, if people have been diligent in signing up, they can easily accumulate 8 credits.  However, it has sometimes happened that people have difficulty finding additional experiments to do – especially as the semester draws to a close.  Thus, it is strongly recommended that you start accumulating credits in the first half of the semester.  You need to do your best to earn your credits as early in the semester as you can so that you’ll know where you stand in terms of meeting the course research requirement.  There is no guarantee that there will be a sufficient number of participation hours available during the second half of the semester alone to enable students to satisfy the participation requirement if they do not begin participation early in the term. However, it is usually the case that studies that are being conducted will constantly change across the semester - some studies may only run for a couple of weeks.   So if you miss a given study, another typically comes on board soon after the original study ends.  Alternatively, if you have done everything you can at a given point in time, usually if you wait a week new studies get up and running.  The best advice is to check early and often and complete as many studies as you can, as early as you can (but remember to not exceed 16 net credits). 

 

 

When Will it End?  

 

Participation in experiments must be completed before the last regular class day of the semester (there will be no studies conducted in finals week). Remember, opportunities for participation will end on the last class day prior to finals week.  Get your experimental work done well before this deadline. 

 

 

Where Can I Check My Credit Status?  

 

You should keep careful track of your own credits!  However, the experiment record system that we will be using should keep close track of the number of credits that you have earned and whether you have any deductions.  Check those records often. If you can’t access that information, you should be able to get it from your PSYC 102 instructor (allow a day for them to get it).  PLEASE KEEP YOUR RECEIPTS AND CHECK YOUR RECORDS AGAINST OURS!  There are all kinds of reasons that the credit for an experiment that you earned might not show up on the computer (e.g., you provided an incorrect name, Z-id, or section number).  Your signed receipt is proof that you participated, and if you have that, you’ll get credit, no questions asked.  No receipt?  No credit (unless we can find your name as it wanders around the computer records for a given experiment).  Remember, WE WANT YOU TO GET THE CREDIT THAT YOU EARNED.  The best way to do that is to keep your receipts, keep close track of your credits, and tell your instructor immediately if there is a discrepancy. 

 

 

Hey, What About Me?  An Option For Those Who Can’t or Won’t Do It!

 

We fervently believe that understanding research is critical to understanding psychology.  We believe that the more you participate, the better you will understand - that’s why you are being asked to participate in research.  However, we know that people sometimes can’t participate.  This may occur for practical reasons (it takes three hours for you to drive here), religious reasons (your religion prohibits science), personal reasons (participation makes you feel manipulated and you just can’t stand that) or legal reasons (e.g. you are not 18 years of age or older and CANNOT legally provide your own informed consent).  

 

If you fall into one of these categories (or another one that we haven’t thought of), then we have an option for you.  You can write course papers based on readings that we will assign.  These readings will be “professional-level” readings that are research-focused; again, the whole point is to get you to do something that exposes you to psychological research.  We believe that from an educational perspective participating is better than doing, which is why we would prefer that you participate in research.  However, if you can’t or won’t, that’s cool – we can try to accomplish the same goals in an alternative way.  If you are interested in doing course papers instead of participating in research, you must speak with your instructor before the end of the fourth week of the semester and work out a timetable for completing the readings and turning in the papers.

 

We know that the underage thing can be a hassle. American Psychological Association guidelines suggest that to participate in psychological experiments without parental consent you must be at least eighteen years of age.  If you are under 18, the University’s Institutional Review Board requires parental consent for each experiment.  We have tried everything that we could think of to get around this, and have failed.  So if you can’t being your parents with you to each experiment so that they can provide consent each and every time, we’re afraid that you simply have to do the papers.  Are we bitter about this?  Yes, but we’re also ethical, and we try to do things right.  If you have complaints about this policy, we suggest that you contact the University’s Institutional Review Board and complain to them.  They won’t budge when we plead on your behalf. 

 

 

A Final Note About Ethics, Research Participation and Writing Research Papers

 

I want to again emphasize that we are asking you to participate in psychology research because that meets one of the main course goals:  By showing you research “up close and personal” and by asking you to do it, we hope that you will better come to understand and appreciate it.    Moreover, it is our belief that by asking you to participate in research, everybody wins!  You get exposure to research and get to learn about it in the “front lines,” and the Department’s graduate students, faculty, and staff get to conduct their research. 

 

However, from time to time students want to claim that they are being unfairly “used” by the experiments and/or the experimenters.  That is not the case!  If there were no experiment participation option, you would instead be writing research papers and doing more simulated experiments. We think that people often find the real experiments to be more educational and enjoyable than the research papers.  However, if you aren’t convinced by this reasoning and still think that you would feel unduly used by participating in the experiments, then DON’T DO THEM – in fact, if you feel this way, we DON’T WANT YOU TO DO THEM.  We behave ethically in this course, and that definitely includes not forcing people to engage in research in which they do not want to participate. 

 

However, paradoxically, as a part of the course we CAN ethically require you to do the simulated experiments and to write papers, so if you opt out of the real experiments, that’s what you will be required to do. If you have a couple of hours and enough beer, maybe we can explain why forcing you to do real experiments is considered unethical but forcing you to do the canned experiments and to write research papers is not considered to be unethical – but it has to be good beer…    

 

If you choose to write the papers to fulfill the research requirement, you must contact your course instructor by the end of week 4 of the semester to work out a schedule for submitting the papers.  Earlier notification is preferred.  If you complete the experiment requirement by engaging in research, but decide that you wish to write papers for extra credit, you must notify your instructor to work out a submission schedule.  In both cases, your instructor will NOT accept papers without prior notification that you will be doing the paper assignment. 

 

One general guideline to keep in mind is that class policy set by the course coordinator allows submission of only ONE paper per week per student.  This is intended to prompt people to spread their paper submissions out over the course of the semester, and to avoid a flood of papers submitted in week 15. 

 

It is also emphasized that papers must be written well to meet the requirement.  Papers that are poorly written will be rejected.  Our standards here are high - the crud that many students think is acceptable for submitted papers will routinely be rejected.  Thus, it would be good practice for you to use all the writing tools that you have at your disposal (spell checker, grammar checker), and even to take your papers to the campus Writing Center for a review, prior to submitting your papers.  

 

Of course, if you follow our recommendation and choose to gain research points by participating in research, then you don’t have to worry about any of this.  

Doing It With A Machine:  The Simulations (or “Canned Experiments”)

 

One more time:  one goal of this course is to get you to know, understand, and appreciate research in psychology. Being part of real research should help do that. However, a few things are missing from the real research experience.  Although you will get a debriefing from each study, often the debriefing will not go into the kind of detail that you might like (although you can talk to the experimenter and ask questions).  In addition, data take an awfully long time to code and analyze, so that students who participate will probably not know “how they did” – and researchers sometimes know that you want to know, and feel badly that they haven’t gotten along far enough in their data analyses to tell you. 

 

To aid your understating of research, we thought that it would be a good idea to use some simulations that could bring you a “complete” research experience.  Using this simulation software will be easy - all you need to do is to get on to the internet, navigate to the CENGAGE NOW website, click on the appropriate links, follow the instructions, and you’ll be ready to go. 

 

Before you do that, however, you’ll need to logon to the website – and the logon procedure will use the “secret code” provided with this textbook, as well as information about you and about the class.  We’ll give you more information about logon procedures in class.    

 

These simulations are “real” experiments in that they take you through some “classic” experiments in psychology.  Typically, there is a link to some preliminary material – click on the link to that material (often labeled something like “introduction”) so that the program can “set the stage” for your participation.  The introductory program might also ask you some questions about what you think the results of the experiment might be.  Next, there is a link to the experiment itself.

 

Before starting each simulation, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS CAREFULLY.  There is no need to rush through things, so take your time and be sure that you know what to do.  These things are designed to be done without supervision, so you should be able to figure things out.  If not, then leave the program and ask a teaching staff member. They can give you some direction.

 

The simulations all will take a while, and there are often many trials or trial blocks to complete, so make sure that you give yourself an hour or so to finish each simulation.  When the experimental task is over, the simulation will provide explanations of the program, will ask you to do intellectual things, such as indicate the independent variable and dependent variable in the research, and – best of all – will SHOW YOUR RESULTS TO YOU.     

 

As with all research, you need to do these simulations faithfully, honestly, and with effort.  If you do, you just may find out some things about how you think, judge, and remember.  Are you “logical?” Are you similar to others?  Do you differ from others?  Finding out will be part of the fun!

 

Now, you need to know that the computer will be tracking and recording your responses (that’s how it can summarize your results).  The computer should also automatically send a report to your PSYC 102 section instructor – that’s how we know that you completed the simulation.   BIG BROTHER IS WATCHING…..

 

We know that because you will be doing these on your own, there will be a temptation to not try very hard or to make foolish responses (e.g., respond randomly).  Please remember that you need to pay close attention to the task and to the explanations that are provided – this is material that WILL be covered on the simulation exams. 

 

By completing all the simulations effortfully and honestly, you may actually learn something about how you perceive, judge, remember, and think about the world around you - and if you learn these things, then we both have done our job.

 

 

THE END OF THE BEGINNING

 

 

We’d like to leave you with some final thoughts.  First, we know that it is often the case that students have a tough time making the adjustment from high school to the academic rigors of college.  We’re here to help you do that.  We have a large teaching staff and we split our course into small sections so that you can get to know your instructor.  We figure that you might be more likely to talk to one of us if the class size is 55 per section instead of 850 per section.

 

We invest a tremendous amount in this system.  After all, it would be a lot cheaper to pay for only two instructors (850 students each section) than for the 15 to 20 instructors that currently cover all our PSYC 102 sections.  We are willing to spend this kind of cash because we know that many of you will need help and we want to be available to help you.  Use us for help!  We’re here to help you!  We’ve put our money where our mouths are to do so (as they used to say in the old neighborhood, money talks and bullscat walks…or something like that). 

 

Now, remember that by “help” we mean that we are here to help you learn.  We recognize that you have the tough job of learning.  We will do what we can to make the class seem interesting and relevant to you so that you find the motivation to study enough to learn a lot.  However, you are the ones who have to put in the long hours of reading and studying and reviewing and practicing.  We can help - if you get confused, the staff can explain stuff to you. As psychologists, we know that learning is facilitated by understanding. We can help – we can organize review sessions and give you review sheets and talk to you for a long time about the wonders of psychology.  We can help – we can make practice exams and practice quizzes and psychology games available so that you can practice to your heart’s content.  However, as much as we want to help you, we know that the bottom line is you are the one who ultimately determines how much you learn – and usually you do that by studying, studying, and more studying.  That makes us a little scared and a makes us feel a bit powerless – so we are relying on you to allay these fears.  Start studying today!

 

Finally, consider one last point. For many of you, the college years are the very last time that you can devote huge chunks of time to learning new stuff.  Don’t waste this opportunity– especially when you can learn stuff as interesting and important and relevant as psychology.  After all, many of the world’s current ills are caused by peoples’ flawed thoughts, emotions and behaviors. People can’t get along. They make dumb investment decisions.  They treat employees in ways that do not facilitate corporate goals. They can’t remember stuff accurately.  They can’t control themselves and hurt themselves and the ones that they love, even when they don’t want to do so.  It is the science of psychology that offers the chance to figure out why these things happen; once the answers to the “why” questions are known, it is also the psychologists who can figure out how to fix these things.  Let’s go see how they are trying to go about doing both!