Cognition and Perception (PSYC 351)
Spring 2008
MWF 11:30am-12:35pm, BGC M229

Instructor:     Dr. Raymond Phinney
Office:          M253, Billy Graham Center
Office Hours:        M,W, F 3:10-4:30, T, Th 1:30-3:00 or by appointment
                   Please sign up 24hrs in advance for office hours.
Office Phone: 752-5159
Email:          Raymond.E.Phinney@wheaton.edu
Required Texts:      Sternberg, Cognitive Psychology, 4th Ed. (2003), Wadsworth, Belmont, CA.                            Coglab Online

Goals of the course: The goal of this course is to familiarize each student with the history, concepts and general theories that encompass the fields of cognitive psychology and perceptual experience. We will review the historical development of cognition and perception emphasizing its philosophical and experimental roots. Students who learn the material should have a basic understanding of the theories and research on the mechanisms involved in human thought processes and conscious experience. Topics will include cognitive neuroscience, attention, perception, memory, knowledge representation, language, problem solving, reasoning, and intelligence. Knowledge of these issues will aid you in your future classes or research in social sciences, in psychology applications such as counseling or private industry (e.g. human factors), and life in general (understanding how people think).

Course grades: Final grades will be determined from performance on three exams, a paper, and a laboratory portfolio. Three exams will be given throughout the semester worth 100 points each. Question formats may include multiple choice, short answer, fill in the blank, take home, and essay questions. One paper worth 50 points will be due during the semester on the integration of Christian Faith with a cognitive psychology topic. Details will be provided at a later date. Throughout the semester you will complete a number of laboratory experiments online using the Coglab website account packaged with your textbooks. A lab portfolio concerning individual and group results of experiments and some questions pertaining to those experiments will be due on the last day of class. The lab portfolio plus timely participation in all Coglab experiments (I can check which labs you have completed at what time online) is worth 50 points. Please have the labs finished before class time on the day they are noted in the tentative schedule of topics. 

Policy Regarding Make-up Exams or a late paper:  Make-up exams will only be given by pre-arrangement as a result of illness (verified by the health service) or death in the family. English translation: if you wake up sick the day of the test, leave me a voice mail and/or an email (since they are timed and dated) before the exam time, then go to student health. Bring the student health verification to the next class period. If you have a death in the family, contact me (voice mail or email) before you leave town and before the exam period. Coming to class or my office afterward with an excuse will not allow you a make-up exam. Make-up exams will be of approximately the same format and number of questions, but different from the regularly scheduled exam.

       Similar guidelines for pre-approval will be used for a late paper. Papers turned in late without pre-approval from me will lose one letter grade per day.   Extra credit papers may not be turned in late.

Extra Credit:  Up to ten points extra credit will be given for a typed review (2-3 pages) of an article from a peer reviewed cognitive psychology journal. The exact format will be detailed towards the end of the semester. Only one review may be submitted for a maximum of 10 extra credit points for the semester. This may be handed in no later than the last day of lecture (May 2). Additional opportunities for extra credit (i.e. participation in a psychology department experiment, attending a colloquium) may be available and will be announced in class.

Class Attendance, Participation and Out-of-Class Responsibilities: Enrolling for this course means making a good faith commitment to attend and participate. Please do so. Ask lots of questions in class, during my office hours, or via email (my favorite is in class, so everyone can benefit from the discussion). Also, I encourage you to form study groups and work with one another to prepare for tests. Your colleagues are bright and caring and will add much to your education. It is the student's responsibility to read assigned text before attending the lecture, to be aware of additional information that is covered in the lectures but not found in the book, and to be aware of changes to the syllabus that are announced in class. 

Academic Dishonesty: Plagiarism and Cheating:  Cheating on exams, plagiarizing papers, or using another’s thoughts to write them, defeat the purposes of those works and will not be tolerated. This policy can be found in the Psychology Department's Student Handbook which defines plagiarism as the "theft of paragraphs, sentences, phrases or ideas without giving proper credit to the person who originated them" (p. 7). In this course, cheating – that is, representing others' work as your own – is most often committed in the copying of assignments or exam answers.  In addition, academic dishonesty may also be committed by sharing this information with another (i.e. allowing a classmate to copy your assignments, etc). Any student found to have committed academic dishonesty will receive a failing grade of zero (0) for the assignment/exam and may be subject to additional discipline based on the severity of the offense. See also the section on Academic Integrity contained in the current Wheaton College Catalog. 

Struggles with class material: If you get a poor grade on one or more tests or assignments, or you feel that you do not understand the material, please contact me. I encourage you all to ask questions during lecture and during exam reviews in class, see me after class (I will be available most days after class), come to my office hours, email me, or phone me at the office. You may also arrange (in person, via email, or over the phone) to meet with me at a different time than my regular office hours. If you are thinking about speaking with me but keep avoiding it, that’s a sure sign you should come see me! If there is a problem, the sooner it gets acknowledged, the sooner and better we can address it. If there’s not a problem, better to find that out sooner too!

Grading Scale: The grade scale below is the approximate scale used for letter grade assignments. Any adjustment to the grading scale will reduce the cutoff points for grades.

Number of Points (400 total)	Grade
93% = 372	A
90% = 360	A-
87% = 348	B+
83% = 332	B
80% = 320	B-
77% = 308	C+
73% = 292	C
70% = 280	C-
60% = 240	D
50% = 200	F

Tentative Schedule of Topics (as of 18 March 2008)

Tentative Date		Topic	Reading(s)	Coglab
Jan	14	Introduction
	16	History	Sternberg Ch 1
	18	Nervous System/Cognitive Neuroscience	Sternberg Ch 2	Brain Asymmetry
	21	Martin Luther King Day – No Class
	23
	25
	28	Attention/Consciousness	Sternberg Ch. 3	Attentional Blink
	30			Stroop Effect
Feb	1
	4	Perception	Sternberg Ch. 4	Spatial Cueing
	6			Apparent Motion, Muller-Lyer Illusion
	8			Signal Detection
	11			Visual Search
	13	EXAM 1
	15	Integration– lecture/discussion on paper	Sternberg Ch. 5	Partial Report, Memory Span
	18	Presidents Day - No Class
	20	Memory Models		Encoding Specificity
	22
	25	Memory Processes	Sternberg Ch. 6	False Memory, Serial Position
	27			Von Restorff Effect
	29
Mar	3
	5	Knowledge Representation	Sternberg Ch. 7	Mental Rotation
	7
	10	Spring Break – No Class
	12	Spring Break – No Class
	14	Spring Break – No Class
	17
	19	Knowledge Organization	Sternberg Ch. 8	Prototypes
	21	Good Friday: No classes
	24			TOPIC APPROVAL
	26
	28	EXAM 2
	31	Language	Sternberg Ch. 9	Categorical Perception:Identification & Discrimination
Apr	2
	4
	7	Language II	Sternberg Ch. 10	Annotated Refs DueLexical Decisions
	9
	11
	14	Problem Solving	Sternberg Ch. 11
	16
	18
	21	Decision-Making and Reasoning	Sternberg Ch. 12	Integration Paper DueMonty Hall, Risky Decisions, Typical Reasoning
	23
	25
	28	Human and Artificial Intelligence	Sternberg Ch. 13
May	2			Coglab Portfolios & Extra Credit Due
	7	Wed- 1:30-3:30 FINAL  (EXAM #3)
* Note that this schedule is tentative and may change based on our progress through the topics covered during the semester.