Tentative Lecture & Lab Schedule
Psychology 200 “Experimental Methods”
Fall, 2009
(Updated: 9/9/09)
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Homework |
|
1 |
9/7 |
1 |
Hand
out & discuss syllabus. Attention: Final experiment
is due 11/23. |
Chapter
1 |
|
9/8 |
LAB 1 |
Film:
SAF: Beyond Science. Discuss creating falsifiable questions
and testable hypotheses. Identify lack of parsimony in explanations assuming extraordinary
claims. What makes some explanations extraordinary and others ordinary?
|
||
|
9/9 |
2 |
Discussion: What types of explanations exist and how can we test them? |
Chapter
2 |
|
|
9/11 |
3 |
Explain
about IRB and IACUC to protect subjects. Show examples of our protocols. Informed
consent. |
Chapter 3 for Mon |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
2 |
9/14 |
4 |
Introduce field studies and survey research. |
Review 1-3 Study for Quiz 1 |
|
9/15 |
LAB 2 |
Student-organized
review session about descriptive statistics. Surveying student opinion. Design survey on student attitudes and experiences. Give handouts: Pitfalls and Lab1. Organize strategy to survey students to answer question. |
Carry out survey, analyze
results, and present results next week. |
|
|
9/16 |
5 |
Quiz 1 (covering chap 1-3). Constructing surveys: Measuring responses; scales of measurement; content analysis. Give GRE questions about Validity/Reliability. Note: Some GRE questions about design will be on 1st Exam, but not about validity/reliability, covered in Exam 2. Chapter 4.pdf |
½ Chap 4 |
|
|
9/18 |
6 |
Sampling: Probability vs. non-probability. Finish Non-Experimental Approaches.PPT. |
|
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
3 |
9/21 |
7 |
Handout: Correlation coefficients |
½
|
|
9/22 |
LAB 3 |
Student-organized
review session about descriptive statistics. Students present their survey results. Play Find the flaw |
||
|
9/23 |
8 |
Lecture: causal modeling from correlational designs: cross-lagged panel design. Quasi-experimental designs; ex-post facto study, pretest/posttest designs; PowerPoint-based lecture: Designs.ppt. |
Finish Chap 5 |
|
|
9/25 |
9 |
H1 - H0; Statistics show confidence. Chapter 6.pdf |
Chap 6 Begin to study for Exam! |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
4 |
9/28 |
10 |
Loyd Morgan's canon (handout). Review. Practice Questions for first exam.ppt |
Review
Study for Exam! |
|
9/29 |
LAB 4 |
Student-organized
review session about statistics.
3
problems: Identify the IV, DV, confounding variables, and propose a method to
“unconfound” the experiment. Then design a real experiment that tells you
something about human preference or human nature of Wofford students. |
||
|
9/30 |
11 |
Exam 1 (Chap 1-6) |
pp. 184-200 in Chapter 7 |
|
|
10/2 |
12 |
Begin PowerPoint-based lecture: Operational definitions, reliability, and validity.ppt. GRE questions about validity. Chapter 7.pdf |
Finish Chap 7 |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
5 |
10/5 |
13 |
More about reliability and validity. Threats to internal validity. The Pygmalion effect. Controlling extraneous variables: physical, social, personality, and context variables. Chapter 8.pdf |
Chap 8 |
|
10/6 |
LAB 5 |
Student-organized
review session about statistics. Experimental Design Lab. Divide into groups and design experiments taken from PowerPoint (Lab-Creating Quasi-Experimental Designs.ppt) |
||
|
10/7 |
14 |
Single- and double-blind designs. Placebos.
Review
Chapters 4 - 8 for Quiz
|
Review Chap 4-8 for Quiz |
|
|
10/9 |
15 |
Quiz # 2 (covering Chap 4-8). Chapter 9.pdf. Explain between-subjects designs. Review between-group designs with one IV with two levels and more. How many subjects are enough? Emphasize appropriate statistical tests. PowerPoint-based lecture: The Independent Variable. Random Assignment vs Random Selection.ppt. |
½ Chapter 9 | |
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
6 |
10/12 |
16 |
PowerPoint-based lecture: Matched-group designs (implications of Bernoulli’s law of large numbers for sampling; matched-groups designs). Assign Block randomization in matched-groups homework problem, due Wednesday. |
Finish Chap 9 |
|
10/13 |
LAB 6 |
Student-organized
review session about statistics. Intro to factorial designs. Design Identification (using PowerPoint). Identification of IVs, SVs, number of levels of each, factorial designs. Explain main effects and interactions. Show how to calculate number of interactions with Binomial coefficient. |
||
|
10/14 |
17 |
Discuss Matched-groups solution. PowerPoint-based lecture: Convergence - not breakthrough.ppt. Chapter 10.pdf |
Chap 10 |
|
|
10/16 |
18 |
Continued intro to factorial designs. Re-explain main effects and interactions. Explain Figures 10.7-10.10 PowerPoint Example: Factorial Design.ppt. Chapter 11.pdf. Homework: Main effects and Interactions |
|
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
7 |
10/19 |
19 |
Introduce
within-subject designs. Comparisons between conditions – act like perfectly
matched groups. Order-effect problem – types of order effects (Progressive
error versus carry-over effects).
Controlling extraneous variables: |
Chapter 12 |
|
10/20 |
LAB 7 |
Student-organized
review session about statistics. Design experiments using various within-subject designs -- Review all material for next exam, especially factorial design material. Practice all calculations. Learn to DO EVERYTHING! |
|
|
|
10/21 |
20 |
Intro to small N within-subject designs. Problem with “learning curves.” ABA designs. ABBA designs. Multiple-baseline designs Fig 12.5. Free operant versus discrete-trials designs. PowerPoint lecture/questions: Chapters 10 & 11.ppt. |
|
|
|
10/23 |
|
Fall Academic Holiday – no class |
Study 7-12 for EXAM! |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
8 |
||||
|
10/26 |
21 |
Review session for Exam #2PowerPoint: Sample GRE Questions for 2nd exam.pdf |
Study 7-12 for EXAM! |
|
|
10/27 |
LAB 8 |
Discuss peer-review process and assign their main experiment, due 11/23. Begin your experiment now! Each experiment will have two peer reviewers. Typed reviews and manuscript will be delivered to Assoc. Editor (performed by the same student pairs) on Wednesday (12/2). Associate Editor (pair) will prepare new typed review with authoritative recommendations for Fri (12/4). On Fri, authors receive their manuscripts, peer-reviews, and detailed comments from Assoc. Editor. Authors will revise the manuscript and resubmit it with a letter to the editor (Dr. Reid) on Monday 12/7 outlining all changes and justifications. |
|
|
|
10/28 |
22 |
Exam # 2. (Covers Chap 7-12: Part 2 of text) Chapter 13.pdf |
½ Chapter 13 | |
|
10/30 |
23 |
Descriptive Statistics Question. ppt.
PowerPoint lecture: Statistical Inference.ppt. Why we need statistics.
Overview of inferential statistics. |
Finish Chap 13 |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
9 |
11/2 |
24 |
Continue
overview of inferential statistics. Review material from Math 140.
Reminder: final experiment
is due 11/23 |
1st 1/3 Chapter 14 |
|
11/3 |
LAB 9 |
Intro to statistics: basic concepts. Students review and present
statistical concepts to the others. Relate material to Math 140 box models.
Degrees of freedom. Differences between sample and population. |
||
|
11/4 |
25 |
Hypothesis testing and critical regions. Discuss probabilities of Type 1 and Type 2 errors (Table 12-1). Judicial example. Nuclear war example. Parametric versus non-parametric tests depend upon levels of measurement. Review degrees of freedom. Review power. |
2nd 1/3 Chapter 14 |
|
|
11/6 |
26 |
Which test do I use? Discuss Chi square test. Review critical value. Discuss
the nature of “distributions.” Examples:
Comparison of distributions.ppt.
Discuss t-test for independent groups. |
Finish and review Chap 14 |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
10 |
11/9 |
27 |
Discuss
t-test for matched groups. Emphasize difference in degrees of freedom between
independent groups and matched groups.
Compare t-test with
Z-test. Begin PowerPoint lecture with
handouts: Analysis of variance.ppt |
Homework: |
|
11/10 |
LAB 10 |
Central limit theorem & data analysis. Have students pick
five poker chips, sum the values. Plot the frequency histogram of the raw
scores (sums). Some values will not be possible. Normally distributed?
Demonstrate the value of central limit theorem and as an introduction
to Excel. Then, do experiment: condition one is already completed. Have
students pick five chips again. Did they sample from a different population?
Do a t-test to see. Plot the two frequency distributions. Ranges equal?
If there was a significant difference, explain how we know. Why does this
experiment allow us to know if we made a Type 2 error or not, unlike normal
experiments? |
Statistics project |
|
|
11/11 |
28 |
Review all basic statistical concepts used in experimental methods. PowerPoint: Shapes of Distributions.ppt. Describe final experiments more. Reminder: final experiment is due 11/23! |
|
|
|
11/13 |
29 |
Meaning of
“statistically significant.” PowerPoint:
Interpreting your Results.ppt
– power and statistical significance) |
Study for Quiz #3. |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
11 |
11/16 |
30 |
Quiz # 3 (covering Chap 13-14). Chapter 15.pdf |
Chapter 15 |
|
11/17 |
LAB 11 |
Statistics lab in the Computer Center. Copy the file “Statistics lab for 200.xcl” to each student’s disk. Students work in pairs at a computer. The directions are printed in the file. Each group will carry out three statistical tests (t-test for indep. groups, t-test for matched groups, and chi square) on the two columns of data in the file. A great lab for teaching how to use computers for statistical analysis and for understanding how to interpret the printouts. Since the three tests will produce different p values, it leads to an excellent discussion in class about the nature of the tests. |
Review
APA style, Chap 16 |
|
| 11/18 |
31 |
Submitting
your results to peer-review: The peer-review process and APA style: PowerPoint:
APA
Style.ppt. Assign and describe required experiment – students work in
pairs. Manuscript must be in APA style to be submitted for peer review. (due 11/23: Monday). |
Chapter 16 Complete Final Experiment
|
|
|
11/20 |
32 |
Discuss the statistical tests
done in lab. Why did they produce different values of p? The different
assumptions and purposes of statistical tests. Explain two uses of chi-square: comparing
obtained versus expected using contingency tables, and as goodness-of fit
tests in hypothesis testing. Remind students about experiment – (Due on Monday!). |
Complete the writing of
experiment |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
12 |
11/23 |
33 |
Experiment due – written in APA style. Receive manuscripts. Distribute
to blind reviewers. Show how to carry out a peer review. Your typed
peer-review will be due the Wednesday after Thanksgiving (turn in two copies,
one w/ name for Dr. Reid) |
Carry
out peer review of experiments. |
|
11/24 |
LAB |
No
lab due to Thanksgiving Vacation |
||
|
11/25 |
|
Thanksgiving
Vacation
|
Eat lots |
|
|
11/27 |
|
Thanksgiving
Vacation |
Eat lots |
|
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
13 |
11/30 |
34 |
Details
of one-way ANOVA. Details of two-way ANOVA. |
Review ANOVA. Finish peer review of experiments. |
|
12/1 |
LAB |
ANOVA
Lab |
||
|
12/2 |
35 |
First
peer-reviews due.
Explain Assoc. Editor’s role: receives paper, two reviews, and completes own
typed review. Defines changes that must be made. |
Complete
the Assoc. Editor’s review. |
|
|
12/4 |
36 |
Associate Editor’s reviews due.
Return all reviews and original copies to authors. Explain rewriting / resubmission process, along with letter to Editor identifying changes made, suggestions followed, and those not followed. |
Prepare final revision of your paper and letter to Journal Editor. | |
|
Week |
Date |
Class |
Tentative Class Plans |
Assignment |
|
14 |
12/7 |
37 |
Final Revision Due. Letter to Editor due. Review
logic of GRE questions about inferential statistics.
|
Study
for Final exam like your life depended on it! |
|
12/8 |
LAB 13 |
Review
for COMPREHENSIVE FINAL EXAM |
||
|
12/9 |
38 |
Review for final exam. Student-driven. GRE questions? |
Study
harder! You’ve waited too long! |
|
|
12/11 |
39 |
Review for final exam. Student-driven. |
Study for final exam. |
|
|
|
12/15 |
40 |
Tuesday - Final Exam: 9:00-12:00 |
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