PSYC 3450 Experimental Psychology

1. PSYC 3450Experimental Psychology Course Instructor: Alla Chavarga Monday 9:05-10:45am

2. Course Syllabus • Syllabus handout • Your ONLY homework assignment! • Email me: alla.chavarga@gmail.com • Subject: Your Name PSYCH 3450 – Name of TA • Attendance • Course Format: Lecture & Lab • Required Textbook

3. CHAPTER 1Scientific Thinking in Psychology Why take this course? How do we come to know things? Science as a way of knowing Psychological Science vs. Pseudoscience Goals of Research

4. Why take this course? • Learn how to do research in Psychology • Process vs. content • Informed and critical consumption of information • Responsibility as a clinician • How to Get into Grad School 101

5. How do we come to know things? I know three things: Correlation does not prove causation. Authority Socrates has ten fingers. Reason (a priori) The sun will come up tomorrow. Experience (a priori) Empiricism

6. How do we come to know things? Empiricism – the process of learning things through direct observation or experience, and reflecting on those experiences. Sounds legit. What could be wrong about this method? Social Cognition Biases Belief perseverance – the tendency to hold on to a belief, even in the face of contradictory evidence. Confirmation Bias – tendency to seek out information only in support of belief, ignoring contradictory information. Availability heuristic – tendency to overestimate the frequency with which unusual or memorable events occur

7. Science as a way of knowing Scientific Method - the most reliable way to develop a belief; independent of pre-existing bias and opinion. Hypothesis  Experiment  Conclusion Assumptions • Determinism All events have causes. Statistical determinism. • Discoverability Through systematic observation, these causes can be found.

8. Science as a way of knowing Scientific methods are characterized by objectivity. Scientists need not be perfect; their results simply need be publicly verified and replicated. • Specific, detailed descriptions of method. Scientists are data-driven. Science produces tentative conclusions. Science asks answerable questions. Science develops theories that can be disproven.

9. Science as a way of knowing Some important concepts: • Hypothesis • Theory – a set of statements that summarize what is known about some phenomenon and propose working explanations for those phenomena. • Falsification

10. Psychological Science vs. Pseudoscience • Pseudoscience: any field of inquiry that appears to be scientific but is based on inadequate scientific methods and typically produces false conclusions. • May seem convincing! Anecdotal evidence; effort justification • Sidesteps disproof

11. The Goals of Research • Description • Prediction • Explanation • Application

12. Lab Prep • Typically, at the end of a lecture, we will do a mini-lecture consisting of the material to be presented in lab that very week. • Often times, you will be responsible for writing up the experiment you will perform in lab, so please pay special attention to the definitions and concepts presented.