Cognitive Psychology I 2500-EN-O-09-n
The course will cover major areas of cognitive psychology including its historical foundations, basics of neurocognition, perception, attention, knowledge, imagery, language, problem solving, decision making and motor cognition. The course will mostly have the lecture format with the majority of input coming from the lecturer, slides, and the coursebook. However, student’s active participation is encouraged through questions during the class and activity in the course online forum. The course will present only the most fundamental theories and research findings within cognitive psychology, however, students we will take a more focused view on three issues: the status of consciousness in cognitive science, the structure of concepts, and one of their own choice. They will read a discussion, review, and research paper and present their reflections on these papers in the form of a short essay. We will pay special attention to clarifying the links between theory and empirical data to raise our ability to critically evaluate scientific claims about the mental phenomena.
Type of course
Learning outcomes
1. To gain an overview of the major areas of study in cognitive psychology, including their research methods.
2. To think critically about psychological theories and the connection between data and theory.
3. To evaluate the real-world implications of cognitive psychology.
Assessment criteria
Exams: 60 points
The exams will consist of a combination of multiple-choice and open
questions:
Midterm exam - 5 open ended questions - 10 points, and 20 multiple-choice questions - 20 points (a total of 30 points) will cover introduction to cognitive psychology, brain, research
methods in cognitive psychology, perception and attention
Final Exam - 5 open ended questions - 10 points, and 20 multiple choice questions - 20 points (a total of 30 points) will cover the remaining topics.
Tests will be designed to assess your understanding of the concepts, principles, theories, and empirical findings in cognitive psychology.
Writing assignments and discussion: 20 points
There will be four short (500-700 words) written assignments; you can obtain up to 5 points for each of them.
Questions: 20 points
To give you a rough idea on how the responses to questions will be graded, a correct response to the question that is the length of a short abstract (about 100 words), written in your own words (not a direct quotation) counts as 1 point. When to respond to the questions? The responses will receive a bonus if provided before the corresponding class. This is to incentivize reading the coursebook before the class. If you post the response after the class, the score will be reduced. This is to promote systematic learning. Responding to the questions gives you a chance to develop scientific writing skills. One of the key aspects of scientific writing is recognizing sources, that is, providing references to the sources you rely on in making an argument. If you make a direct citation you need to signal this by using quotation marks. You need to provide an unambiguous description of the sources for each post, e.g. a link or author(s) surname(s) and date of publication, unless the post only contains your own opinion, description or question. Posts without the proper use of references will not be graded.
Quizzes
After each class a short quiz (5-10 multiple-choice questions per quiz) will be provided via COME platform. In order to pass the course, you need to take all the quizzes.
Grades
The final grade depends on the number of points obtained throughout the semester. 40% of all points can be obtained by submitting questions and writing assignments. Exams (midterm
and final) cover 60% of all points.
Grade Grade Points out of 100
Outstanding 5! 95-100
Excellent 5.0 90-94
Very good 4.5 80-89
Good 4.0 70-79
Satisfactory 3.5 60-69
Sufficient 3.0 50-59
Fail 2.0 below 50
No more than 2 unexcused absences are allowed. No more than 4 absences overall are allowed
Students must respect the principles of academic integrity. Cheating and plagiarism (including copying work from other students, internet or other sources) are serious violations that are punishable and instructors are required to report all cases to the administration.
Additional information
Information on level of this course, year of study and semester when the course unit is delivered, types and amount of class hours - can be found in course structure diagrams of apropriate study programmes. This course is related to the following study programmes:
Additional information (registration calendar, class conductors, localization and schedules of classes), might be available in the USOSweb system: