PSY22, Advanced Experimental Psychology
Fall 2008, Monday and Wednesday, 5:45-7:55
Office hours Monday and Wednesday, 12-1 or by appointment, Life Sciences 152-C
Email: Nancy.Frye@liu.edu

Text and readings     Writing, grammar, and APA style     Policies and Expectations     Grades     Calendar

Texts
There are three required texts for this class:

- Corey, J.R., & Lachter, G.D. (2004). Practicing Experimental Psychology. Long Beach, NY: Whittier
- Pyrczak, F., & Bruce, R.R. (2005). Writing Empirical Research Reports (5th ed.). CA: Pyrczak Publishing.
- Perrin, R. (2007). Pocket Guide to APA Style (2nd ed.). New York: Houghton Mifflin Company.

Additionally, you will be reading empirical journal articles. Click here and here for tips on reading journal articles.

You will be writing two complete research papers in this course. For those papers, and for the drafts of sub-sections of those papers, it is expected that you will use APA style. A review of APA style can be found here, and a sample student paper can be found here. Additionally, be sure to review your Perrin book.

Policies and Expectations
The goal of this class is for you to apply the ideas and information you learned in psy21. This will be done through two projects. One is a research project that will be done by the entire class. The other is a research project that you will design, carry out, and write up. Thus, at the end of the class, you will have helped to conduct one research study, and written the results of that study up in an APA style paper. You will also have designed, conducted, and written up a study on a topic of interest to you.

Based on your experience in PSY21, you know that there is quite a bit that is involved in designing and conducting studies, as well as writing reports of those studies. Some of the steps involved take little time, and others are quite involved and take quite a bit of time. Read ahead on the syllabus, so you know what deadlines are coming up and are not surprised. Even if we are not talking about something in class, I still expect you to be thinking about and working on it.

It is expected that you will attend every class. Should something occur that is beyond your control and you are forced to miss class, it is expected that you will find out what material and information you missed in that class from a classmate. Additionally, if you are forced to miss class, it is expected that you will nonetheless turn in the assignments that are due. Unless there are extraordinary circumstances involved, 10% of the possible points for an assignment will be deducted for late assignments, and an additionall 10% of the points will be deducted for each 24 hour period that the assignment is late.

Unless otherwise specified, please email me copies of your assignments before the class at which they are due. In your email, be sure to include your name, what class the assignment is for, what the assignment is, and what attachments I should find with the email. Any time you use a journal article, please also email me a copy of that article. If you have used a journal article that you got in hard copy, and is not available online, note this in your email to me with your assignment, and turn in the hard copy of the article on the date the assignment is due. Just in case something should go wrong with the delivery of your email, be sure that your email program is set to save copies of sent emails. This is not always the default option on email. However, if I do not receive your first email, you'll be able to forward me the email from your sent folder, so I can see that you did send it on time.

Provided that you get them to me at least 48 hours before an assignment is due (and ask politely!), I will look over drafts of your assignments. Send me an email, with a draft of the assignment attached. Let me know in the subject line that the email concerns a draft that you are asking me to look over.

Grades
Your grade will be based on the percentage of possible points you earn across the semester. Specifically, your grade will be based on the percentage of the possible points you earn on each assignment below:

Assignment	Possible points
Two relevant research articles, class topic	10
Two additional relevant research articles, class topic	10
Key ingredients for a lit review	10
Articles with a specific way to measure or manipulate variables	5
Answer to questions about measures	5
Pilot test class materials	5
Answer to questions concerning Corey & Lachter chapter 5	10
Rough draft lit review, class project	5
General idea presentation	5
Rough draft methods, class project	5
Possible hypothesis presentation	5
Rough draft results section, class topic	5
Questions related to Pyrczak & Bruce chapter 11	10
Presentation, lit review	5
Possible measures for your topic	5
Pilot test, your topic	5
Rough draft discussion section, class topic	5
Rough draft lit review, own topic	5
Rough draft consent and measures	5
Paper on ethics of your study	10
Rough draft methods, own topic	5
Analysis determination	5
Paper on class topic	100
Rough draft results and discussion, own topic	5
Presentation, own topic	25
Paper on own topic	100
General attendance	30
Total possible points	400

If you have given me a 4-digit id, you can check your grade by going to this site. If you have not yet given me an id, but would like to check your grade, email me with a four digit number (any number that you will easily remember), your name, and what class this is for.

Wed, Nov 26

Date	Topic	Assignment due
Wed, Sept 3	Overview of course, and discussion of class project
Mon, Sept 8	Discussion of class research project	Bring in two relevant research articles
Wed, Sept 10	Finalizing hypotheses	Bring in two additional relevant research articles
Mon, Sept 15	Tackling the literature review	Review information from PSY21 about parts of literature reviews. Read Pyrczak and Bruce chapter 6. In class, you will work in groups, sharing information and findings from, and citations of, relevant articles
Wed, Sept 17	Ingredients of the literature review	Bring to class the key ingredients for a lit review. In class, we'll be using these to create an outline of the literature review.
Mon, Sept 22	Measures and materials, class project	Bring in articles with a specific way to measure or manipulate each variable Review Corey & Lachter, pages 36-39, 59-61, and chapters 4 and 6 and answer these questions
Wed, Sept 24	Finalize measures, class topic; brainstorm, own topic	Pilot test measures for class topic Here are the materials. Those of you who typed up pre-existing measures, be sure to give me the full APA style citation of the article they're from Review Corey and Lachter chapter 5 and answer these questions Read over this site Rought draft lit review, class topic Come in with ideas to discuss for your own research project
Mon, Sept 29	No classes - Rosh Hashanah
Wed, Oct 1	No classes - Rosh Hashanah
Mon, Oct 6	Possible topics for own project	Presentations on general ideas
Wed, Oct 8	No classes - Yom Kippur
Mon, Oct 13	Narrowing your topic	Bring in two findings from previous research, for your own topic Rough draft methods section, class project
Wed, Oct 15	Narrowed topics	Presentations, own topic possible hypothesis
Mon, Oct 20	Analyses, class project Meet in library, room 229	Bring in data from 8 participants
Wed, Oct 22	More analyses Meet in library, room 229	Fill in numbers for methods section
Mon, Oct 27	Finish analyses Meet in library, room 229	Begin rough drafts of results section
Wed, Oct 29	Discussion sections	Rough draft results section, class topic Read chapter 11 in Pyrczak and Bruce, and answer these questions
Mon, Nov 3	Literature review presentations, own topic	Presentations
Wed, Nov 5	Methods, own topic	Bring in possible measures/manipulations for your own topic, as well as a determination of what type of study you are conducting
Mon, Nov 10	Pilot testing, own project	Bring in all the materials you need to pilot test your study Rough draft discussion section, class project
Wed, Nov 12	Work on own study	Bring in two copies of the rought draft of your own literature review Rough draft of consent form and measures due Brief paper on how your study meets ethical guidelines due
Mon, Nov 17	Discuss methods	Bring in three copies of your methods draft for your own project Read over this site and this site and edit your class paper
Wed, Nov 19	Discussion of analyses	Visit this site and determine which analysis you need to do to test your hypothesis. Write a list of all the analyses you need to do for your project. Be sure to include analyses such as internal reliability, and descriptive statistics of participants' demographic characteristics! Final paper on class project due
Mon, Nov 24	Data entry for own project	Bring in data for own project Look over this site to review entering data in SPSS Look over this site to review creating scale scores Look over this site for tips on conducting analyses Meet in library, room 229
No class
Mon, Dec 1	More data analysis, own project Meet in library, room 229
Wed, Dec 3	Finish data analysis, own project Meet in library, room 229
Mon, Dec 8	Review of results and discussion drafts	Bring in three copies of results and discussion draft for your project
Wed, Dec 10	Presentations	Read over this site and this site and edit your paper on your own topic
Mon, Dec 15	More presentations	Paper on own topic due
Wed, Dec 17	Make up day, if needed