PSCH 352: Cognition and Memory (Summer 2005)

Instructor: Trina Kershaw, M.A.

Office: BSB 1021

Office Hours: Tuesday/Thursday 12:30-1:30 and by appointment

E-mail: tkersh1@uic.edu
Webpage: http://www2.uic.edu/~tkersh1

Course Webpage: http://www.uic.edu/classes/psych/psych352tk/

Teaching Assistants: Jordan Lippman and Greg Colflesh

Office: BSB 1029

Jordan's Office Hours: Thursday 12:30-1:30
Greg's Office Hours: Tuesday 12:30-1:30

Jordan's e-mail: jlippman@uic.edu
Greg's e-mail: colflesh@uic.edu

Course Day, Time, and Location: Tuesday and Thursday 10-12:30, LC E2

Prerequisite: PSCH 242

Course Goal: The goal of this course is to provide you with an overview of cognitive psychology.  This course will help you to understand the cognitive processes that shape our everyday lives, such as attention, memory, reasoning, language, and problem solving.  I will stress the importance of experimental evidence and the role of neurological processes in explaining cognition.  Brief assignments, experimental demonstrations, and guest lectures will be used to supplement lecture material.  In addition, readings in cognitive psychology will be used to focus on and discuss a particular aspect of most topics.

Course Notes: Outlines for each lecture will be provided on the Schedule, Assignments, Readings & Notes section of the course website at least a day before each lecture.

Reading Assignments: Readings will be provided in .pdf form on the Schedule, Assignments, Readings & Notes section of the course webpage.
You are expected to have read the assigned reading before class on the day we begin to discuss the material, as outlined below.  You will be required to turn in a reading worksheet for each reading at the beginning of class.  Quizzes will contain questions about the readings.

Course Requirements:

1. Reading Worksheets (6 pts. each).  You will turn in a reading worksheet for each of the 11 readings in the class.  Your lowest reading worksheet grade will be dropped.  If you miss a reading worksheet, that counts as your dropped grade.  See course schedule for due dates for reading worksheets. No late reading worksheets will be accepted.
           Click here to download the reading worksheet in Word (.rtf) format 
2. Quizzes (20 pts. each). There will be 6 quizzes.  Your lowest quiz grade will be dropped.  Quizzes will include multiple choice and short-answer questions, and will be based on material covered in the last few lectures.  The quiz given on finals day will not be cumulative, although themes in cognitive psychology tend to extend across many topics.  See course schedule for quiz dates. There will be no make-up quizzes.  In addition, quizzes will only be given out until the first quiz is turned in.  Quizzes will generally be given at the beginning of class; be on time.
   
3. Assignments (10 pts. each). There will be several short assignments.  One of the assignments, due by 5pm on Monday, June 6, is mandatory.  There will be 5 other available assignments; you will pick 3 to complete.  No late assignments will be accepted.
4. Participation.  I will not take attendance, but occasionally extra credit participation points will be awarded, for a maximum of 15 points.  These points are not included in the grading scheme.

Grading: What counts and for how much

Grading: Scale for end of term grades

 Additional Notes:
1. College Drop Policy.  Students may drop courses without penalty during the first five days of the semester (through Friday of week 1) using UIC Express or the Student Access System.  Between week 2 and Friday of week 5, undergraduates are entitled to a total of four optional late drops for the duration of their enrolment in LAS.  Optional late drops require an appointment with an LAS advisor (996-3366). 

2. Students with Disabilities.  Reasonable accommodations are available for students who have a documented disability.  Please notify the instructor during the first week of class of any accommodations needed for the course.  Late notification may cause the requested accommodations to be unavailable. Students with disabilities who require accommodations for access and participation in this course must be registered with the Office of Disability Services (ODS).  Please contact ODS at 312/413-2103(voice) or 312/413-0123 (TTY).

3. PSCH 396 Opportunities: PSCH 396, Directed Research, is a great course to take to get valuable research experience for graduate school or for jobs after you graduate.  Information about opportunities in particular cognitive psychology labs will be offered later in the semester.  Look in the particular divisions (under the overview section) to see listings of research interests and contact information for faculty.

4. Recommendation letters: If you received a good grade in this class, you might want a recommendation letter for graduate school, an internship, a scholarship, etc.  Here’s what I’ll need from you.