Experimental Psychology Laboratory
Spring, 2011
Professor T. Fikes Professor B. Smith
Office: Winter Hall, WH338 Office: Winter Hall, WH334
Phone: 565-6115 Phone: 565-6113
Email: fikes@westmont.edu Email: bsmith@westmont.edu
Office hours: T & TH from 9:00 Office hours: T & TH, 9:00 a.m. to
a.m. to 11:30 a.m., or by appt. 11:30 a.m., or by appt.
URL:
http://homepage.westmont.edu/bsmith
Required Readings
Texts:
Pelham ??Mazur, J. E. (2006). Learning and behavior (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice-Hall.
Mazur, J. E. (2006). SPSS Explained. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice-Hall.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American psychological association (6th
ed.). Washington, DC: Author. (Make sure you have the 2nd printing.)
Articles:
Pelham ??Mazur, J. E. (2006). Learning and behavior (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice-Hall.
Mazur, J. E. (2006). SPSS Explained. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson, Prentice-Hall.
American Psychological Association (2010). Publication manual of the American psychological association (6th
ed.). Washington, DC: Author. (Make sure you have the 2 nd printing.)
Goals of Experimental Psychology Laboratory:
There are particular goals for this course that happen to overlap somewhat with goals that the College has (the
standards of excellence and their corresponding learning outcomes). The College goals are broader and have been
determined to be important to the education of all students. These standards are Christian orientation, diversity,
critical-interdisciplinary thinking, written & oral communication, active societal & intellectual engagement, and
research & technology. The particular goals of this laboratory, along with the institutional standards, are listed below.
At the completion of this course, students should be able to:
1. experimental design
2. understand the genre of scientific writing so that they can comprehend psychological journal articles (research &
technology),
3. statistical analysis and interpretation of results
4. SPSS
5. evaluate experimental designs, procedures, results, and theoretical conclusions analytically (critical-
interdisciplinary thinking),
6. find and select appropriate articles, using electronic data bases, that will serve as the foundation for writing
assignments in the course (research & technology),
7. use the text, class discussion, and reflection to continue their integration of psychological, scientific, and scriptural
truths (Christian orientation; active societal & intellectual engagement), and
8. demonstrate improvement in using APA formatting and editorial styles to produce clear and cogent lab reports,
without plagiarizing (written & oral communication; research & technology; Christian orientation).
Course Requirements:
Readings
Read the appropriate sections of your text and assigned articles before you come to lab, so that you are prepared to
write and think about the material. In addition, if you have questions about a theory or lab procedure, you can then
ask at the appropriate time (e.g., before beginning the procedure).
Lab Work
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Participation & Attendance are required for three reasons. First, the lab serves as a way to illustrate some classic
studies in psychology as well as a means to acquaint you with some of the methods used in psychological research.
Second, the labs provide additional practice in thinking scientifically about behavior. Third, we have a relatively
small number of people in the lab. Ideally, I want to use your data from each lab to illustrate results. If you miss lab,
less data are available, so your participation is important for your classmates' learning as well as your own.
Lab begins promptly at 1:15 or 3:15 p.m., depending on the section in which you are enrolled. In order to participate
in the day's lab exercise and earn attendance points, you must be present by that time--no later.
Lab Assignments. The Excel workshop assignment is designed to review and extend your knowledge of data entry,
calculation, and graphing in Excel. A print-out of your work showing the frequency table(s) that you created and a
bar graph and line graph should be turned in for credit.
The PsycInfo assignments have a number of purposes. The first assignment provides an opportunity to practice
search strategies, including sending a list of references to yourself and noting the search terms that you have used.
The second assignment provides practice in writing an APA-style reference list, using references that you probably
will be using, so if this assignment is done well, then the reference section of your lab report is close to completion.
Finally, it is hoped that these assignments will give you a jump-start on requesting and receiving journal articles
through ILL, so your introductions are a strong review of the literature.
In order to complete the PsycInfo assignments well, you will participate in a required session of bibliographic
instruction that’s been tailored for this course. You will learn how to search efficiently and effectively in PsycInfo for
the research in which you’re interested. Details about this session will follow.
Assignments are generally due the week following completion of the lab. Late assignments lose 2 points every class
period they are late.
Laboratory "Reports" will be written in APA style with a Title Page, one complete section of a lab report as noted in
the assignment schedule, a graph or table of the results (as assigned in lab), a list of references cited, an author note,
and a comprehensible outline (bullet points) of the remaining sections of the lab report. Your grasp of the material
and ability to communicate your understanding clearly and concisely, with the appropriate voice will comprise about
50% of the grade, and your knowledge of APA format will make up the remainder of the grade. All graphs and tables
must be computer-generated and formatted in APA style. All lab reports must be submitted electronically as well as
in print. In addition, turn in all previous lab reports and score sheets with the current one.
You will need to find, read, and cite sources for the introductions of the lab reports. You must find at least 7 related
articles by searching the last 5-40 years of the Psychological Abstracts. You may not be able to find appropriate
research reports in our library, so do your research early and order your articles through interlibrary loan
immediately. If you have a question about whether a research article is appropriate to use, please ask!
Lab reports are usually due two weeks after the lab discussion. Three (3) points per class period will be lost when
they're handed in late.
Note Bene: All computer and written assignments must be completed independently--no collaborating; that is, no
"working together." You may discuss what should be included in a particular section of a lab report before any
writing, data entry or analysis is done, but the final product must obviously and clearly be the work of one person.
Each person must create his or her own computer data files, charts (graphs) and tables, word processing files, and
print out and turn in his or her own creations.
Students who are involved in "working together," who receive "help" from other sources when it is not appropriate,
or who plagiarize, can earn penalties that range from an F on the assignment to an F in the course, at the instructor's
discretion. Additional penalties may include suspension or expulsion from the college.
Plagiarism. To plagiarize is to present someone else's work—his or her words, line of thought, or organizational
structure—as his or her work. Another person's "work" can take many forms: printed or electronic copies of
computer programs, musical compositions, drawings, paintings, oral presentations, papers, essays, articles or
chapters, statistical data, tables or figures, etc. In short, if any information that can be considered the intellectual
property of another is used without acknowledging the original source properly, this is plagiarism.
Please familiarize yourself with the entire Westmont College Plagiarism Policy. This document defines different
levels of plagiarism and the penalties for each. It also contains very helpful information on strategies for avoiding
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plagiarism. It cannot be overemphasized that plagiarism is an insidious and disruptive form of academic dishonesty.
It violates relationships with known classmates and professors, and it violates the legal rights of people you may
never meet.
First and second instances of minimal plagiarism (in a student's career at Westmont) will result in Fs on the
assignments until they are redone satisfactorily. The maximum grade on the first rewritten assignment is one letter
grade lower (e.g., B+ to C+) than it otherwise would have earned. The maximum grade on the second rewritten
assignment is two letter grades lower (e.g., B+ to D+) than it otherwise would have been. The third instance of
minimal plagiarism will be considered substantial plagiarism and the consequences for substantial plagiarism, as
described in the Westmont College Plagiarism Policy, will be applied.
In all cases of plagiarism, a report will be submitted to the Provost's Office documenting the incident.
Grades will be based on the following point breakdown:
Task Points Per Item Points Possible
Attendance 5 ~120
Excel Workshop Assignment 10 10
PsycInfo Assignment I 10 10
Lab Reports ~25 100
Total: ~240
For now, a straight scale will be used to calculate grades. This may change later in the semester, however. Straight
scale percentages and points are as follows:
Grade Percent Grade Percent
A- to A 90+ C- to C+ 70-79
B- to B+ 80-89 D- to D+ 60-69
Laboratory Assignments and Lab Report Due Dates
Date Lab Preparation and Activities Assignments
Jan 13 Introduction to Laboratory Procedures
20 Excel Workshop Excel Assignment: Turn in worksheet, bar
graph and line graph with appropriate titles
and labels
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Feb 3
10 PsycInfo Assignment I: Email to self and
bschultz list of articles and search terms used
(20-40); Email bschultz a MSWord document
containing APA style reference list of articles
requested from ILL (10-20)
17
24
Mar 3 Lab Report:
Focus on Method
10
17 Spring Break
24 Lab Report:
Focus on Results
31
Apr 7
14
21
28
26 Lab Report:
Focus on Introduction
28
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Date Method Statistics APA Formatting Article Reading Text Reading