Hi Shane: Sorry, this is a bit late; I set it aside until I bought a new keyboard sop I could give a longer reply and then forgot about it.
I use canned experiments for the lecture section because I just want some hands- on feel for the tasks we are talking about--usually just reading about tasks that are used for drawing inferences can leave things pretty amorphous and abstract. In the lab component however we start with canned experiments or even more primitive replications of classics and work from there to original studies. Depending on what the students' sophistication with technology might be they can go beyond that. Mostly the best most of them can do without a special course in technology (heck, even I need one!) is using power point to present stimuli and then measure accuracy of response. Response time assessmentis not feasible in this environment. In that sense, if a canned experiment has any ability to be tinkered with, then it is better if RT can be assessed. On the other hand, we can get some crude RT measures by just counting in seconds how long a series of trials takes....for what it's worth this works well enough often enough. But there is nothing wrong with primitive measures as long as students are getting a sense of the underlying theory. So for what I want them to learn-- which is the underlying theory--they don't need the bells and whistles. Annette Quoting Shane Pitts <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>: > Tipsters, > > I am in the process of developing a lab component of my cognitive psych > course > and am seeking your advice. I looked in the TIPS archives and on-line without > > much luck. What I did find wasn't specific to be of much assistance. I'll > appreciate any advice I can get on the lab course. For example, do you use > "canned" experiments as in CogLab or something else? Do your students > complete > original experiments?, etc... I'll later post the results if you respond to > me > directly. Thanks a million! > > shane pitts > > Shane Pitts, Ph.D. > Assistant Professor of Cognitive Psychology > Birmingham Southern College > 900 Arkadelphia Road > Box 549037 > Birmingham, AL 35254 > Phone: 205.226.7747 > Fax: 205.226.4847 > http://panther.bsc.edu/~spitts > > The aim of science is not to open the door to everlasting wisdom, > but to set a limit on everlasting error. -Bertolt Brecht > > Skepticism is the agent of reason against organized irrationality > --and is therefore one of the keys to human society and civic decency > --Stephen Jay Gould > > > --- > You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph. D. Department of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 [EMAIL PROTECTED] --- You are currently subscribed to tips as: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe send a blank email to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
