I don't know. 2 x 2 factorial designs seem like kindergarten to me but many students have a hard time with them.
Annette Annette Kujawski Taylor, Ph.D. Professor of Psychology University of San Diego 5998 Alcala Park San Diego, CA 92110 619-260-4006 [EMAIL PROTECTED] ---- Original message ---- >Date: Thu, 28 Aug 2008 20:08:50 -0400 >From: Ken Steele <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> >Subject: Re: [tips] why psychology is hard >To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> > >Michael Smith wrote: >> >> >> I don't think Psychology is hard (meaning difficult to grasp). For some >> reason the students that I have had seem to conflate what is hard >> (conceptually difficult to understand) with what requires work. >> >> I don't think there is anything conceptually difficult in psych, but it >> does require work. >> >> One student in my methods class bemoaned the fact that he took >> psychology because there was no math in it, only to find he had to learn >> statistics! The only hard part in psych may be statistics depending on >> how far you want to go with it. But then again, a theoretical >> mathematician friend told me there was nothing conceptually difficult >> about statistics, it just required a lot of work! >> >> --Mike >> > >I have the opposite view. There are conceptual issues that are >very hard for the student to grasp. It is hard to learn there is >an issue with their everyday Cartesian dualism. > >Students take psych to "avoid math" but most of the math is only >algebra. If you present it in the right manner then most >students can handle it easily. One of my favorite quips involves > a Rescorla-Wagner model simulation. The sequence starts off >easily but quickly descends into fractions. When the calculation >hits the third decimal place I turn to the class and say "Hey, we >are psychologists and fractions don't scare us--right?" My >students breeze through the integer R-W calculations in my tests. > >Psych majors need to be able to think through simple quantitative > problems and concepts. > >Ken > >------------------------------------------------------------ --- >Kenneth M. Steele, Ph.D. [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Department of Psychology http://www.psych.appstate.edu >Appalachian State University >Boone, NC 28608 >USA >------------------------------------------------------------ --- > > >--- >To make changes to your subscription contact: > >Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([EMAIL PROTECTED])
