PSYC270 Experimental Psychology
Department of Social & Behavioral Science: Psychology
- I. Course Number and Title
- PSYC270 Experimental Psychology
- II. Number of Credits
- 4 credits
- III. Number of Instructional Minutes
- 2250 (lecture) 1800 (laboratory)
- IV. Prerequisites
- PSYC215 or
- Corequisites
- PSYC215
- V. Other Pertinent Information
- None
- VI. Catalog Course Description
- This course introduces the student to the basic principles of experimental design through a description of experimental investigations in various subject areas such as perception, learning, memory, and social psychology. It also focuses on the skill of scientific report writing and includes scheduled laboratory experiences.
- VII. Required Course Content and Direction
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Course Learning Goals
Students will:- explain the experimental strategy in scientific investigation;
- read and effectively summarize research reports in the psychological journals;
- write reports of experiments using the stylistic conventions of the American Psychological Association; and
- use library resources, including electronic online resources, for an efficient review of the psychological research literature.
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Planned Sequence of Topics and/or Learning Activities
The following topics are presented:- the scientific method
- using electronic databases to find scholarly journals
- how to perform ethical research
- using the scientific method to study behavior
- identifying variables and validity in research
- how to observe behavior
- how to construct surveys
- conducting simple experiments
- conducting complex experiments
- understanding research results: Descriptive statistics
- Understanding research results: Inferential statistics
- generalizing the results
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Assessment Methods for Course Learning Goals
Exams, quizzes, class and online participation, experiments, and/or projects as specified in the individual instructor's course syllabus are utilized. Use of lecture/discussion is at the individual instructor's discretion for the classroom portion of the course. The laboratory portion of the course demonstrates the use of the computer for managing experiments, collecting and analyzing data, and conducting reviews of the psychological literature. The student implements, analyzes and reports an experiment of the student's design. -
Reference, Resource, or Learning Materials to be used by Student:
Text as indicated in instructor's syllabus. Students use educational resources as specified in the individual instructor's syllabus. Software for managing experiments is used in the laboratory portion of the course. PsychArticles or a similar bibliographical tool is used to teach online research skills.
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Review/Approval Date - 11/98; Core Goals/Objectives added 5/03; Revised 4/2010; New Core 8/2015