Library: PY 3410 Cognitive Psychology (Prof. Benau): Assignment

Midterm and Final Essay Assignment for PY 3410

Prof. Benau, Fall 2020

The goal of these papers is to have you examine more up to date literature than may be presented in the book. It is also an opportunity for you to examine how this information may be relevant to you or your field of interest. Moreover, it is a way to take a closer look at a topic you find interesting to see how it is studied and to learn more about the topic.

The midterm and final essays will have the same options for prompts, but with two different length requirements. You can use one prompt for the midterm and another for the final, if you wish. The central aspect of both prompts is that, ultimately, the topic is your choice based on a topic you find interesting. Due dates are on the syllabus and/or in BlackBoard. You can hand them in any time until the due date. I grade them in the order in which they arrive.

Midterm: 3-5 pages, three peer-reviewed studies (described below)

Final: 5-7 pages, five peer-reviewed studies (described below)

The prompts

Based on one of the topics from the syllabus, choose one:

To provide an update on basic research pertaining to this topic. Identify, read, and present, and synthesize the findings from (three or five, depending on if it’s the midterm or final) papers that have been published in the last 10 or so years. Thus, what research has come out since around 2010 investigating this topic. It is encouraged that you think a bit integratively: for example, how is working memory mapped in the brain.

To provide an integration of this topic into a field outside of psychology that is of interest to you. That is, provide an update on applied research pertaining to your topic. For example, how are the topics in cognitive psychology used in: law, medicine, education, business, architecture, etc. (sky’s the limit). Alternatively, how does cognitive psychology use these topics to further our understanding of brain and mind? For this paper, choose one outside topic (e.g., all three-five papers should be about business, if that’s your chosen topic; not one paper on business and one on architecture and one on law). Papers should still be published within the past 10 or so years. However, some papers may be a bit older.

Examine the topic through a cultural (e.g., countries, regions), environmental (e.g., parenting, neighborhoods), and/or developmental perspective. Also possible to examine through time (has the phenomenon changed from 1930 to today?) Is your topic of choice a Western development? Do people in less industrialized countries exhibit the phenomenon of interest? What does the phenomenon present as with children vs. undergraduates vs. older adults? How does socioeconomic status, race/ethnicity, religion, gender/sex, sexuality, influence the topic (or does it)? What about regional differences within North America (e.g., rural vs. urban). This topic is not as in vogue as it once was, and, as such, one or two older papers can be used. Consult with Dr. Benau if

You can choose the same prompt for your midterm and final, but the topic must be different (e.g., attention for your midterm, but conceptual knowledge for your final).

Topics should be as specific as possible to make your job easier (e.g., “the influence of socioeconomic status on performance in creativity tasks;” “the representativeness heuristic in political decision making;” “video games influence on memory function in older adults”). You are welcome to run your topic by Dr. Benau, but you do not have to. I am also happy to help you come up with a topic if you provide enough time to do so.

I will accept either a “research paper” or a “review paper.” A research paper is one in which you approach your literature search with a hypothesis: “There is literature to suggest that video games negatively impact working memory capacity.” In this format, you would seek out papers that address your topic and present work that supports or refutes your hypothesis. A review paper does not have a hypothesis and is simply a synthesis of 3 (or more) articles. I more strongly recommend the second option, a review paper, wherein you simply present 3+ articles on a topic, such as “working memory and video games.”

Key elements to this paper.

There is no set format for this paper if everything is presented in a reasonable manner. One possible format would be:

1. Introduction paragraph(s)

-In general, the first paragraph or two should present the topic you are going to discuss and a statement of the “problem” or the query. In the topic “working memory and video games,” you would define what is working memory, what are video games, broadly, and why it’s important to understand their mutual influence. Cite sources as needed.

2.Summarize the articles independently.

-The next paragraphs can be accomplished as simply as summarizing the key points of each article (can be as easy as one article per paragraph). Who was studied? Where? For how long? What were the measures? What was the dependent and independent variable? What were the results? What do the results mean? For example, one paragraph can summarize the methods, and one paragraph can summarize the findings and conclusion of the article.

3.Synthesize, critique (politely), and conclude.

-There should also be a synthesis of the papers. Take a step back and look at the results, digest them, and tell a story about the findings. Do all three papers find similar things across three different methods or are the findings all over the place? Provide a synthesis: “across three studies, it was found that individuals with higher working memory capacity engaged in fewer MMORPGs. One study found this with X (citation), one study found this with Y (citation). The third study (citation) found this with Z.” Of course, tailor this to the findings you find. You can also (politely) critique the studies and offer thoughts on future directions, “Although all three studies found this pattern, they each recruited samples with fewer than 20 participants, each of which were professional gamers and were disproportionately male and young (under 20 years old). Future studies should recruit a more diverse sample representative of the broader gaming community.”

Articles:

The goal of this paper is to read more about cognitive psychology and how it is applied contemporarily and/or “in real life.” The articles you include must be studies that are peer-reviewed. They should not be review papers (though I encourage you to read them to get your bearings, if you find one). They can be meta-analyses (a review where the authors took the effect sizes of multiple papers and analyzed to see the average effect size across studies). Try to limit meta-analyses to one for the midterm, two for the final. Thus, acceptable articles are:

•Peer reviewed and come from reputable peer-reviewed journals or periodicals

•Not book chapters

•Not popular media (Atlantic, Salon, Buzzfeed)

•Certainly not Wikipedia.

There are several means by which to find articles.

Usually, a good place to start is Google Scholar. (scholar.google.com; for help, see: https://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html).

The library’s website is also helpful to start: https://libguides.oldwestbury.edu

More information on how to find a peer-reviewed article is on BlackBoard.

Nitty Gritty:

Spelling and grammar count.

Double spaced, spell-checked, 1 inch (normal) margins, Times New Roman 12. No cover page needed.

Citations and writing format should be APA style are required for full credit. Please either consult the APA manual (7^th edition) or any of a number of resources available online:

https://libguides.oldwestbury.edu/ld.php?content_id=30130326

https://owl.purdue.edu/owl/research_and_citation/apa_style/apa_formatting_and_style_guide/general_format.html

https://apastyle.apa.org/

Rubric (see BlackBoard for more details):

•5 pts.: Three (for the midterm) or five (for the final) peer reviewed articles ≤ 10 years old (unless as specified, there are no other ones available,).

•5 pts: Grammar, spelling, punctuation, etc. are flawless or near flawless.

•10 pts: Topic is relevant, doable, and researched. Assignment is taken seriously.

•10 pts: Findings are presented appropriately, and sufficient information is presented. An educated reader would understand what the topic is, what the findings were, etc.

•10 pts: A synthesis is provided. Limitations and future directions are also provided.