Two answers: I am a cognitive person but I replicate a lot of social studies. Students find them more intuitively appealing.
Second, I have done projects as you mentioned and I think you almost answered your own question (Ok, I haven't done the gun thing, but I have done bystander intervention for a student who stumbles and falls--you do need a good actor--preferably a girl for that one). I try to locate the source article, such as Asch's 1946 article on impression formation, and then guide the students to take it from there. Also, instead of eprime or other costly and difficult-to-learn-to-use software you can use freely available software. You can go to psychexps.olemiss.edu and check out all they have. Some of the studies might appeal across a wide range of students. Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 tay...@sandiego.edu ---- Original message ---- >Date: Sat, 22 Aug 2009 16:28:45 -0400 >From: "Mark A. Casteel" <ma...@psu.edu> >Subject: [tips] Question about research project in cognitive psych >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <tips@acsun.frostburg.edu> > >Every year, I have my students replicate a classic study in the field >in small groups of 2-3 students. Every year, I'm ecstatic with the >amount of information they learn (as well as the experience of >presenting their research to the campus community) but I also wish I >could have them do research that would be more intrinsically >appealing to most. We don't offer a psych major at my institution, so >few of these students will pursue either cognitive or experimental psych. > >I've often wondered if anyone has had students try to research topics >like (1) the negative effects of texting while performing other >activities or (2) the influence of the presence/absence of a gun on >memory for a simulated crime, without requiring working with >experimental software like E-prime or PsyScope. In other words, has >anyone thought of a fairly easy way that students could research a >topic like this, and collect data that would be both meaningful and >(to their way of thinking) more interesting? If I could provide >guidance with something like this, so the students don't waste the >entire semester simply coming up with a workable protocol, that would >be fabulous. > >Any comments are welcome, including ideas for other topical issues. Thanks! > >Mark > > >********************************* >Mark A. Casteel, Ph.D. >Associate Professor of Psychology >Penn State York >1031 Edgecomb Ave. >York, PA 17403 >(717) 771-4028 >********************************* > > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly (bsouthe...@frostburg.edu)
