PSY 305: Introduction to Cognitive Psychology

Fall 2006

Section 44715: MWF 2:00-3:00pm, WAG 101

Click here for a week by week class schedule.

Instructor

Who	Office	Office Hours	email
Art Markman	SEA 4.218	WED 12-2 or by appointment	markman@psy.utexas.edu

Teaching Assistant

Section	Who	Office	Office Hours	email
44715	Brian Glass	SEA 2.204A	Mondays 3-5

Prerequisite:

Psychology 301 with a grade of C or better. The Psychology Department reserves the right to drop students from the course if they do not meet the enrollment requirements.

Enrollment limitations

All students satisfying the prerequisites for this course are welcome.

Goals

This course will introduce you to research in cognitive psychology. Cognitive psychology is the study of how people perceive, act, communicate, and reason. It has formed a basis for research in many other areas of psychology. The course will focus on basic research issues in the area, and will also discuss some applications of this research.

Format of classes

This course will meet three times a week for one hour. The classes will have a standard lecture format with some discussion.

Assignments and examinations

Grading in this course is based on four (non-cumulative) exams. These exams will occur at natural breaks in the material. Each exam will count 25% toward your final grade.

Policy on missed exams

No make-up exams will be given. If one exam is missed, then with a note from a doctor or a dean, the other three exams will be used to determine your final grade. In the absence of a note from a doctor or a dean, or if more than one exam is missed, then the missed exams will be entered as a 0 in the computation of your final grade.

Policy on extra credit

I am always on the lookout for good cartoons to use as examples in class. One point toward your final grade will be awarded to any student who brings a cartoon that is relevant to a point discussed in class along with a paragraph describing why it is relevant. Credit for a particular cartoon will be given only to the first student bringing in that cartoon.

Policy on independent of work and plagiarism

You are expected to do all exams individually. If any student is caught cheating on an exam either by copying from someone else or by using outside material, they will be given an F in the course and the matter will be turned over to the appropriate deans.

Policy on students with disabilities.

We will make every effort to accommodate students with disabilities. Students with disabilities must present documentation of their disability from the Office of the Dean of Students--Services for Students with Disabilities as early in the semester as possible in order to facilitate any necessary accommodations. No accommodations will be made for students who do not have documentation from the Dean of Students office.

Textbook

Medin, D.L., Ross, B.H., & Markman, A.B. (2005). Cognitive Psychology (4th ed.). New York: John Wiley and Sons.[MRM]

This textbook is a new edition. If you have any comments on the book that you think will help make subsequent editions more useful for students, please fill out the form here.

The Question Corner

Throughout the semester, when questions come up in class, or people email the instructor of one of the TAs, the question and its answer will be posted to the Question Corner. This webpage will serve as a resource. If you have a question, please check the question corner first. It can be reached from the link at the top of the syllabus, or from here. If you have a question you'd like to ask, please fill out the form here.

Week by week class schedule

Please note: PDF links point pdf files for the powerpoint lecture notes, done 3 to a page. I recommend downloading these a couple of days before the lecture. Bring them to class and use them to take notes so you do not have to write down what I'm saying. Don't download them more than a week or so in advance in case I make any last-minute changes.

Date	Topic	Readings	PDF
August 30	Course overview
September 1	What is cognitive psychology?	MRM Chapter 1	PDF
September 4	No Class: Labor Day
September 6	Collecting data		PDF
September 8	Simple learning and conditioning	MRM Chapter 2	PDF
September 11	Constraints on perception	MRM Chapter 3	PDF
September 13	Mid-level vision This lecture continues the powerpoint presentation from last class.
September 15	High-level vision and object recognition		PDF
September 18	What is attention?	MRM Chapter 4	PDF
September 20	Perceptual attention		PDF
September 22	High-level attention		PDF
September 25	*First Exam*
September 27	Short Term Memory	MRM Chapter 5	PDF
September 29	Long term memory		PDF
October 2	No Class: Yom Kippur
October 4	Forgetting and models of memory	MRM pp. 229-240	PDF
October 6	Memory Systems: Episodic and semantic memory	MRM Chapter 6	PDF
October 9	Memory Systems: Procedural, Declarative, Implicit, and Explicit memory		PDF
October 11	Memory Systems wrapup		PDF
October 13	Schemas and schema-based memory	MRM Chapter 7	PDF
October 16	Metamemory, flashbulb memory, and eyewitness memory.		PDF
October 18	Representation and mental maps	MRM Chapter 8	PDF
October 20	Mental imagery		PDF
October 23	Second Exam
October 25	Language and communication	MRM Chapter 9	PDF
October 27	The sounds and words of language		PDF
October 30	The syntax of language		PDF
November 1	What are categories?	MRM Chapter 10	PDF
November 3	Category structures		PDF
November 6	Uses of categories		PDF
November 8	Logical reasoning	MRM Chapter 11	PDF
November 10	Analogy and similarity		PDF
November 13	Mental Models and Scientific Reasoning		PDF
November 15	Third Exam
November 17	No Class: Psychonomics
November 20	Problem solving	MRM Chapter 12	PDF
November 22	No Class: Thanksgiving
November 24	No Class: Thanksgiving
November 27	Problem solving		PDF
November 29	Problem Solving		PDF
December 1	Expertise	MRM Chapter 13	PDF
December 4	Rational approaches to decision making	MRM Chapter 14	PDF
December 6	Behavioral approaches to decision making		PDF
December 8	Judgment heuristics		PDF

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