PSYC 001 Winter 2019 Syllabus (15) 01-04-19 PDF

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PSYC 001 INTRODUCTORY PSYCHOLOGY: BRAIN, MIND, BEHAVIOR WINTER 2019 SYLLABUS (As of January 3, 2019, Subject to change.) MEETING PLACE AND TIMES University Lecture Hall 1000 08:10-09:30 Tuesday and Thursday INSTRUCTOR David A. Rosenbaum, Ph.D. Distinguished Professor of Psychology Office: PSYC 1135 Office Hours: Tuesday 11:00-12:00 or by appointment Email: [email protected] TEACHING ASSISTANTS Michelle Calderwood UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Friday 8am-9am or by appointment Location: Life Science 1526 Section numbers: 21, 22, 23 Times: Monday 8am, 9am, 10am Room: Psychology 2102 Marcus Cappiello UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesdays 1:00-2:00pm or by appointment Location: PSYC1138 Section numbers: 30, 31, 32 Times: Mondays 5-8pm Room: PSYC2102 Jonathan Clark UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Fridays 11:00-12:00pm or by appointment Location: PSYC 1136 Section numbers: 39, 40, 41 Times: Fridays 2-5pm Room: PSYC 2102 Kathleen Conner UCR email: [email protected] PSYC 001 Winter 2019 Syllabus, Page 1 of 11

Office Hours: Monday 1:00- 2:00 or by appointment Location: PSYC 1136 Section numbers: 36, 37, 38 Times: 11:10-12:00, 12:10-1:00, 1:10-2:00 Room: PSYC 2102 Lily Garcia UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Fridays 11am-12pm Location: Psyc 1311 Section numbers: 33, 34, 35 Times: 8:10-9:00, 9:10-10:00, 10:10-11:00 Room: PSYC 2102 Anna Nguyen UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Mondays 10-11am Location: PSYC 1136 Section numbers: 24, 25, 26 Times: Mondays 11:10-12:00pm, 12:10-1:00pm, 1:10-2:00pm Room: PSYC 2102 Pamela Sheffler UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Thursday 10:00-11:00 or by appointment Location: Olmsted A309 Section numbers: 27, 28, 29 Times: Monday 2:10-3, 3:10-4, 4:10-5 Room: PSYC 2102 Behzad Zareian UCR email: [email protected] Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-3:00 PM or by appointment Location: PSYC 1136 Section numbers: 42, 43, 44 Times: Fridays 11-2pm Room: PSYC 2102

OVERVIEW OF AIMS The most important aim of this course is to help you develop your confidence in using evidence-based reasoning about issues related to the brain, mind, and behavior. To achieve this aim, we will want you to learn about the brain, mind, and behavior by attending lectures, reading, and interacting extensively with your peers.

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OVERVIEW OF ACTIVITIES AND BASIS FOR GRADING The course will be organized around lectures and lecture-based exams (60% of your grade) and discussion sections (20% of your grade), which will come together in the Final (20% of your grade). Lecture and Lecture-based Exams (300 possible points or 60% of your grade) The lectures will be given in three 3-week sections. Each 3-week section will have six lectures (three Tuesday-Thursday sequences); see the flowchart below. In each of the first five lectures per section, you will be asked to take an ungraded practice exam on material that has not yet been covered in the course. This may sound a little odd, but it has an interesting logic. It helps you know what to listen for in the lectures and helps you realize how much you’ll learn as go along. It turns out, as recently psychological research has shown, that students do better on test questions they have had practice on before. This “testing effect,” as it’s called, has gotten a lot of recent attention by psychologists and seems to be very helpful; hopefully, you’ll find it so. Each practice exam will have five questions, and each of the five question will have four choices per question, with just one correct answer per question. You won’t have to turn in your practice exams; they’re just for your information. You’ll be able to get the practice exam in class via your laptop or other electronic device, or on paper if you need it. At the start of the next class, the correct answers to the practice quiz will be shown and will also be put on the class Google Drive where lectures and other materials will be available as well). The URL for the class Google Drive is https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1oF_FniB0Py86_d92err4nIJKLhXbRL1C? usp=sharing In the sixth meeting of each 3-week section (so on the third Thursday of that section), you will have an actual, graded exam. Each exam will have 25 questions (with 4 choices per question and just one correct answer per question, worth 4 points each). Twenty of the 25 questions will be ones you saw before in the practice exams, so if you remember the answers to those questions, you’ll be guaranteed a score of 20/25 or 80%. There will also be five new questions based on the lectures. The maximum score for each of the exams will be 100, so the maximum score you can get for all three exams is 300. The mechanics of the events in a typical 3-week lecture cycle are shown below. The flowchart also displays how feedback will be given about the Discussion section questions, which are described in the next section. Note that the information conveyed on the third Wednesday and on Saturday is via the class Google Drive, which will also be used to give answers to the practice tests, as well as PowerPoints or PDFs of the lectures, the syllabus, and other items of interest. (If the flowchart below does not show up in a Word document, try using the PDF version.)

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Discussion Section Participation (100 possible points or 20% of your grade) An integral part of this course will be your participation in discussion sections. At the start of each discussion section, the TA will take attendance and offer opening remarks. Then you will work with other students in small groups (typically 5 students randomly assigned to each group per session), answering discussion questions focused on the reading for that week. The questions will come from the instructor and will be given to you when the discussion section starts or beforehand. One student will serve as the secretary for the group. That student will send the group’s answers, along with all the group members’ names, to the TA at the end of the meeting via iLearn (not to the Google Drive, to which only the professor and TAs can add or remove material). It is advised that your group not leave the room until you confirm that your TA has received your answers. The submissions by the groups will be checked by the TA and will be judged satisfactory or unsatisfactory for the group as a whole based on whether the group seems to have made an honest effort to answer the questions to the best of their ability within the time available. In terms of points, you will get 5 points for attending (signing in at) a discussion section, and 6 points for being in a group that submits an acceptable set of answers to the questions for the discussion section. Because you will have 9 discussion-section meetings, the maximum points you can get for attending and answering questions in the discussion sections will be 99 points. However, 1 extra point will be given to you for being a Highlander, so the maximum number of points you can get for Discussion section participation will be 100 points. Final Exam (100 possible points or 20% of your grade) The final exam will be a cumulative exam with 50 questions, each with 4 choices per question and just one correct answer per question, worth 2 points each. The questions will PSYC 001 Winter 2019 Syllabus, Page 4 of 11

be based on the lectures as well as the discussion-section questions. Note that the final will be the first time you will be tested, in multiple-choice format, on material covered in the discussion section questions. The maximum score for the final will be 100. Materials And Arrival Times Needed For Exams And The Final Bring a scantron form and two sharpened #2 pencils to each exam. The scantron form you will need for all exams is F-289-PAR-L (a red half sheet). You will be responsible for bringing your own materials. If you come to an exam without a scantron form, you will not be able to take the exam. The TAs will not have scantron forms or pencils to lend you on the day of an exam. You must arrive within the first 5 minutes of an exam. The reason is that no student can take an exam after another student has left the room. There are, believe it or not, some students who take exams in 5 minutes or less. Be advised, then, that you must be in the classroom in the first 5 minutes of an exam. Missed Discussion Sections If you miss a discussion section, you will be able to make it up in any of the following ways. One is by attending another discussion section in the same week, preferably taught by your TA or, if your TA and another TA agree, at a discussion section led by the other TA. In either case, you must attend the other discussion section in the same week as the one in which you missed your section. The idea is for you to participate in the same topic of conversation, just with another group of students and ideally, but not necessarily, with your own TA. The other way you can make up a missed discussion section is to write your own discussion questions and answers for the material covered in the discussion section you missed. In that case, you will be expected to generate as many questions and answers as were in the set provided by the instructor/TAs. To the extent possible, the questions and answers you produce should be similar in style and depth to those provided by the instructor/TAs. If you pursue the writing option, then in order to get attendance credit, you will be need to meet with your TA during his or her office hours or at a mutually agreed time so your TA can review your submitted questions and answers. If you pursue the writing option, you must do so before the final exam. Missed Exams If you miss an exam, you will not have to provide an excuse note to the instructor or TA. We will trust that you had some good reason for missing an exam. We will not question your reason. If you miss an exam or if you will miss the final, you will be able to take a written essay exam instead. The essay exam for a given missed exam (or for the final) will be given during the office hours of a TA (preferably yours) or at a time of mutual convenience for you and the TA (preferably your TA). The essay exam questions will have to be answered closed book/closed computer (i.e., without notes). All essay exams will have to be completed before the final.

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GRADING Grading will based on how many points you get relative to the total number of points you can possibly get for the entire course (500), The relevant values are shown below. Each row gives the percent you would need or the total points you would need to get the grade shown in that row. % 97 94 91 88 85 82 79 76 73 70 67 64...