Cognitive Psychology (85-211)

GENERAL INFORMATION
Instructor:

Charles Kemp
340T Baker Hall, ckemp@cmu.edu
Office Hour: Thursday 1:302:30 or by appointment

TA:

Jungaa Moon
455F Baker Hall, jmmoon@cmu.edu
Office Hour: Tuesday 12:00 1:00 or by appointment

Class Schedule:

Tuesday & Thursday 10:3011:50 in GHC 4401

Units:

9, which means that this course should occupy roughly 9 hours of

your time every week (including 3 hours in the lecture theatre)

Home Page:

http://www.cmu.edu/blackboard

Textbooks:

(1) Anderson, Cognitive Psychology and its implications, 7th Edition

(2) Francis and Neath, CogLab Online Version 2.0
Three copies of the Anderson book will be on reserve at the library.
The 6th edition of the Anderson book will not be supported, but you
should be able to get by with this edition if you already have it. All
page references will be to version 7, but it shouldnt be too difficult
for you to track down the relevant parts in version 6.
For CogLab all you need is a valid access code the manual is
available for free at
http://coglab.wadsworth.com/support/CogLabStudentManual.pdf

OVERVIEW AND OBJECTIVES

How does the mind work? This course will consider how people perceive, learn, think
and remember. Experimental findings and formal models will be discussed in each part of
the course.
After finishing the course you should be able to:
1. Evaluate prominent theories of perception, attention, memory, knowledge
representation, learning, language, problem solving, reasoning, and decision
making, and recall key experimental results that support these theories.
2. Characterize the great debates in cognitive psychology, lay out the arguments
presented by both sides, and defend your own positions on these matters.

3. Discuss the historical development of cognitive psychology.

4. Apply selected research findings to issues encountered in everyday life.

COURSE ORGANIZATION
Modules. The course is divided into two units: 1) History & Methods, Perception,
Attention & Memory; 2) Language, Reasoning, and Higher Cognition
Lectures and Reading. The lectures provide the core content of the course, introducing
key theories and research findings. The information covered in lectures is supplemented
by readings from the textbook, articles posted online, and articles included in the
homework assignments. An up-to-date list of the readings for each lecture will be posted
on Blackboard. Not all material in the readings will be covered in the lecture, and vice
versa, so it is important to keep up with both.
There will be a handout distributed at most lectures. Usually the handout is little more
than an outline, and you will need to make your own notes that go beyond the
information mentioned on the handout. Lecture slides and handouts will be available on
the website after each class.
CogLab Experiments. The CogLab experiments will give you the opportunity to try
some classic experiments in cognitive psychology for yourself. The online system will
store your responses, and summary data for the entire class will be discussed in lecture.
Homework assignments. Each assignment will focus on a central theme in cognitive
psychology. Readings for each assignment will be available from the course website.
Wiki. The Course Content page on the Blackboard site includes an interesting links
wiki. Please edit the wiki if you come across links or demos that youd like to share with
the class. Posting to the wiki is optional.

ASSESSMENT
Exams. There will be two in-class exams, one at the end of each unit. Each exam will
involve a mix of multiple choice and short-answer questions, covering material from
lectures and readings (both the textbook and homework readings) and the CogLab
experiments.
Homework. There will be 6 homework assignments, three in each unit. Each assignment
will include a series of short answer questions based on a reading that will be available
online. Homework assignments are due at the end of class on the dates mentioned on the
schedule. Late assignments will be accepted before noon on the following day and will
receive a penalty of 10%.

CogLab Experiments: 20 CogLab experiments have been assigned. Only 15

experiments will count towards your grade but you should aim to complete all of them,
and the exams will include questions about these experiments and what they show. The
online system will record which experiments you have completed, and simply making an
honest attempt at an experiment will earn you full credit you dont need to worry about
whether you are providing the right responses. Each experiment must be completed by
the date mentioned on the schedule, and late responses will not be accepted.
Final Grade. Exams are worth 250 points each, homework assignments are worth either
100 points (for your best 5 assignments) or 25 points (for your remaining assignment).
Your best 15 experiments are worth 10 points each. The maximum combined score is
1175, and absolute grades will be assigned as follows:
A: 90% (1058)
B: 80% (940)
C: 70% (823)
D: 60% (705)
R: Less than 60%
We will also compute a relative grade according to a curve. Your final grade will be the
maximum of the two grades (absolute and relative).
Research Requirement. The Department of Psychology has a research requirement for
all students enrolled in 200-level courses. To fulfill the requirement you can 1)
participate in 3 experiments before the last day of classes; or 2) read a research article and
answer a set of questions. Both options can be completed in around 3 hours. The
research requirement will be explained on the first day of class. If you do not fulfill the
research requirement, you will receive an incomplete in this course.

POLICIES
Quotes from the textbook/readings. Students occasionally answer homework questions
by identifying the most relevant section in the reading and quoting (with attribution) a
large chunk of text. Responding in this way does not qualify as plagiarism but is unlikely
to earn you a good grade. Your responses should reflect your own way of thinking about
the question as a rule of thumb, any direct quote that you choose to include should be at
most a few words long.
Turning in homework assignments. You can turn in homework assignments during
class, on the due date or before. You may also turn in homework before it is due to
Jungaas mailbox in Baker Hall 336D. In addition, once you have printed out your
written copy, you should upload your work to the Blackboard course website. If youre
having trouble submitting your file, try using a different browser before contacting us.
Your electronic submission will give us a permanent copy of your work, which we can
access if your work gets lost or damaged. Note that this electronic submission is a backup
only if you submit an electronic copy but not a hard copy, then your
assignment will not be graded.

Cover sheets will be distributed with each assignment, and your hard copy should include
a completed cover sheet. Since we will distribute your responses among a team of
graders, your submission should be printed single sided and your name should appear on
top of each page. There is a 5% penalty for failing to follow these guidelines.
Turning in experiments. Experiments should be completed online before midnight on
the date mentioned in the schedule.
Feedback and grading queries. We will provide answer keys for each homework
assignment. If you believe that an assignment has received a grade in error, you may
submit an appeal. Please write a cover letter explaining your concern and deliver it to
Jungaa along with the assignment in question. Appeals must be submitted within 72
hours after an assignment is returned. Note that assignments submitted for an appeal will
be regraded in their entirety. As a result, your grade may increase, but may also decrease.
Exams will not be returned but will be available for inspection in Jungaas office.
Cheating and plagiarism. You are responsible for knowing University policies on
cheating and plagiarism, as defined in the CMU student handbook. Unless explicitly told
otherwise, you can discuss homework and readings with others. However, the final
product has to be your own. Not just your own handwriting, but also your own way of
explaining and organizing the ideas. Note that plagiarism includes making superficial
changes (e.g., small additions, deletions, word substitutions, word order changes) to
existing material. The idea is the intellectual property, not the specific format. Cheating
and plagiarism will not be tolerated. If you are caught cheating or plagiarizing, you
may be assigned a failing grade in the class. If you have any questions or concerns
about whether your behavior could be interpreted as plagiarism, please contact the
Instructor or the TA before submitting the work!
Lecture notes. Copies of the slides will be provided on Blackboard after each lecture.
The notes are only an outline, and will not contain all of the information presented in the
lecture. For example, the lecture notes might pose a question, but you wont know the
answer if youre not in class to find out. Reading the notes is not an adequate substitute
for attending class!
Accommodation of disabilities. If you need accommodation for a disability, please see
the instructor within the first two weeks of semester.
Accommodation of religious creed. If completing an exam would in some way violate
your religious creed, please see the instructor within the first two weeks of semester.
If you are falling behind: If you run into difficulties of any kind, please come and talk to
me sooner rather than later. If you let me know about any issues as soon as they arise we
can almost always figure something out. If you wait until the end of the term, its much
harder to find a solution.

CONTACTING US
The courses Blackboard site is the primary place you can find course announcements,
lecture slides, and information about assignments. FAQs will be maintained for the
course in general and for each homework assignment.
For specific questions that are not answered on Blackboard, feel free to ask a question
during class, or you can speak to us directly during office hours. You can also e-mail us
to arrange a meeting outside of office hours. You can expect a reply within 72 hours,
something to keep in mind as deadlines approach.

SCHEDULE
The schedule and readings below may change. Please check the course website for
additional readings and for the most recent version of the schedule. All page numbers
refer to the 7th edition of the Anderson textbook.
Wk
1

Day
T
Th
Sun
T
Th
Sun
T
Th
Sun
T
Th
Sun

Date
8/28
8/30
9/2
9/4
9/6
9/9
9/11
9/13
9/16
9/18
9/20
9/23

T
Th
Sun

9/25
9/27
9/30

T
Th
Sun
T
Th
T

10/2
10/4
10/7
10/9
10/11
10/16

7
8

Topic
Introduction (p 15)
History of Cognitive Psychology (p 4 12)
COGLAB: Sternberg search, Memory span
Levels of analysis (see website for reading)
Methods for studying cognition / The Brain (p 12 27)
COGLAB: Receptive fields, Levels of processing
Low level vision (p 3242, 61)
High level vision (p 4251, 61)
COGLAB: Spatial cueing, Visual search
Visual attention (p 6981)
Auditory attention (p 6369)
COGLAB: Stroop effect, Mental rotation, Phonological
similarity effect
Central attention (p 8191)
Visual and verbal representations (p 92104)
COGLAB: Partial report, Serial position, Encoding
specificity
Working memory (p 146154)
Episodic memory (p 166172, 196205, 207208)
COGLAB: False memory, Lexical decision
Memory in the real world (p 172174, 192195)
Semantic memory (p 120127, 131136, 142144)
Unit 1 review. Please come with questions or thoughts
that youd like to discuss

Hwk
H1 out

H1 due
H2 out

H2 due

H3 out

H3 due

10

11

12

13
14
15

T
Th
Sun
T
Th
Sun
T
Th
Sun
T
Th
Sun
T
Th

10/16
10/18
10/21
10/23
10/25
10/28
10/30
11/1
11/4
11/6
11/8
11/11
11/13
11/15

Extra office hour from 5:006:00, location TBA

Exam 1
COGLAB: Wason selection task, Typical reasoning
Deductive reasoning (p 272289)
Inductive reasoning (p 289294, 300311)
COGLAB: Decision making, Risky decisions
Decision making (p 312320)
Problem solving (p 209239)
COGLAB: Prototypes
Concepts and categories (p 136138, 140142)
Learning
COGLAB: Statistical learning
Language* (p 322336)
Language learning (p 343357)

T
Th
T
Th
T

11/20
11/22
11/27
11/29
12/4

T
Th

12/4
12/6

No lecture: THANKSGIVING WEEK

No lecture: THANKSGIVING WEEK
Culture and Cognition (p 337342)
Social Cognition
Unit 2 review. Please come with questions or thoughts
that youd like to discuss
Extra office hour from 5:006:00, location TBA
Exam 2

H4 out

H4 due
H5 out

H5 due,
H6 out

H6 due

Instructions for getting started with CogLab

These instructions describe how students in the class 85-211 Cognitive Psychology for instructor Charles Kemp at Carnegie Mellon
University create their individual accounts. Students in other classes will follow similar directions, but the log-in IDs and passwords
will be different.
1. Open your Web browser and go to http://coglab.wadsworth.com/Information/studentscreate.shtml
2. Go to the bottom of the Web page. There should be three text fields and one button. If these are not visible, your Web browser
does not have Java enabled or has an out of date version of Java. Go to the CogLab Browser Check page for details.
3. In the top text field, enter the group ID: cmupsych12. In the second text field, enter the access password: mindprobe. In the third
text field, enter your registration code. The registration code could be in one of several formats. It may be on a sticker on the
inside front cover of your CogLab Student Manual. It may have been bundled with your textbook on a postcard. Or, you may
have purchased a registration code electronically (sometimes this is also called an e-Pin). Do not purchase used CogLab
registration codes! If the registration code has already been used, it will not work for you. Each valid registration code can be
used only once. After filling in all the text fields, click on the Submit information button.
4. Your Web browser will connect with the CogLab server to verify your information. If the information is correct, a new window
will appear. Make sure that the school name, instructor name, and class name are correct. If they are not, you may have
accidentally accessed a different group than your instructor intended. The field marked as 'Your log-in ID:' lists your assigned
log-in ID, which you will use to access your CogLab account and complete experiments. You cannot change this log-in ID.
5. Enter your first name, last (family) name, a password, and a security question and answer. For the security question and answer,
try to pick a topic that will be easy for you to know the answer but would be difficult for anyone else (e.g., the name of your first
pet).
6. Click on the Apply button. Your Web browser will again connect with the CogLab server to save your data and register your
account. If all of your information is valid, your account is ready to go! When your information is saved, your registration code
will be marked as being used.
7. When your data is saved, your Web browser will load a new window that lists all the properties of your CogLab account.
Especially important is the log-in ID and password. Print or save this Web page for your records. (Note: some pop-up blockers
will prevent this window from appearing. If you data does not appear, click the link below the text fields to view this page. Go to
the CogLab Browser Check page for details.)
8. To start doing experiments, point your Web browser to http://coglab.wadsworth.com. Select the experiment that you want to
perform by clicking on the link. Read the information and instructions carefully. At the bottom of the page are two text fields and
two buttons. Enter your log-in ID and password and then click on the Submit information button. After your log-in information is
verified, the Start experiment button can be selected. Click on the Start experiment button to open a new window where the
experiment will take place. You need to read the instructions before you can complete the experiment!
9. At the end of the experiment, the browser window will load a summary of your data for the experiment. When you see this
window, you are finished with the experiment.
10. You can access details about your account, and view averages from your group and around the world by directing your Web
browser to http://coglab.wadsworth.com/Information/studentsaccess.shtml.
If you have any problems, contact technical support at http://coglab.wadsworth.com/support/techsupport.html