Psychology 833-1

Advanced Cognitive Psychology
Spring 2004
Brackett Hall 122
T 5:15-8:00 PM

Revised March 23, 2004

Instructor Robert L. Campbell
Location Brackett Hall 410A
Office Hours M W F 2-4 pm
Phone (864) 656-4986
Email campber@clemson.edu
Web http://campber.people.clemson.edu/index.html

Textbook: John B. Best, Cognitive Psychology (5th edition). Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole-Wadsworth, 1998.

Course Description: The purpose of this course is to introduce you to human cognition: our ways of coming to know about the world and about one another. This course will concentrate on the classic topics in adult cognition: memory, attention, categorization, problem solving, reasoning, and decision making. Special attention will be paid to the relationship between logic and the psychology of reasoning, and to the relationship between linguistics and the psychology of language. The coverage of perception and of cognitive development will be limited. Most of the empirical literature of cognitive psychology has been shaped by conceptions of human knowledge as structures in the mind that correspond to structures in the environment; problems with those conceptions and alternatives to them will also be discussed.

Course Attendance, Tests, and Grading: Though it's wisest to attend all classes, I'm going to assume that responsible adults do not need an attendance policy. If I haven't arrived within 15 minutes of the scheduled time for a class, you are free to leave.

There will be two tests and a final exam. These will be take-home essay tests, due back in 3 days (except for the final, which is due back in 2). You are welcome to consult your notes, your textbook, and any other published sources while writing your answers, as long as you cite them. You should not discuss your answers with other students in Psych 833 before you turn them in.

In addition I will ask each of you to give an in-class presentation on a more specialized topic within cognitive psychology (applied topics are welcome). Presentations will begin on February 3 and continue through the end of the semester.

Your grade will be based on this formula:

TEST 1 25%
TEST 2 25%
IN CLASS PRESENTATION 20%
FINAL EXAM 30%

Cheating: Tests and exams in this course are meant to be your individual work. Providing information to others (or obtaining it from them) during a test constitutes cheating. If you decide to cheat, I will take action against you according to University policy.

Our Schedule

Date Topic Reading
Tuesday January 13 [Last day to add] History / What Is Cognition? Ch. 1
Tuesday January 20 [Wed. Jan 21 is Last day to drop without a W] Attention and Object Recognition Ch. 2
Tuesday January 27 More about Recognition / Memory as Storage Ch. 3
Tuesday February 3 Memory as Storage Ch. 3
Tuesday February 10 Memory as Recomputation and TEST 1 Ch. 4
Tuesday February 17 Symbolic and ConnectionistTreatments of Knowledge Ch. 5-6
Tuesday February 24 [Fri. Feb. 27 isLast day to drop without a final grade] Concepts and Categories Ch. 11
Tuesday March 2 Language Structure Ch. 7
Tuesday March 9 Speech and Reading/ Language Acquisition Ch. 8-9
Tuesday March 23 Visual and Spatial Imagery
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Tuesday March 30 Reasoning and Deciding and TEST 2 Ch. 10
Tuesday April 6 Reasoning and Deciding Ch. 10
Tuesday April 13 Problem Solving Ch. 12
Tuesday April 20 Problem Solving Ch. 12
Tuesday April 27
[Due Thu. April 29 at 4:30 pm]		 FINAL EXAM Everything

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