Psychology 3393.

501: Experimental Projects

Spring 2005
Tuesdays, 7:00-9:45 PM, GR 4.204 (and twice in MP 2.220)

Instructor: Gail Tillman

gtillman@utdallas.edu
Web page: http://www.utdallas.edu/~gtillman/
Office: GR 4.704 (and my “mailbox” is the slot beneath the door)
Office Hours: BY APPOINTMENT

Prerequisites

Psychology 3392 – Research Design and Analysis

Or equivalent level statistics and design course (PSY 3490)

Course Description

(from the departmental "Psychology Course Descriptions" web page):

Laboratory and field experience in designing and conducting
psychological research, with a major emphasis on the writing of
research reports. (This course fulfills the advanced writing
requirement for Psychology majors.)

Required Material
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition (2001)

Recommended material:
Applied Statistics and the SAS Programming Language, Cody and Smith (1997)

Course Assignments and Evaluation

Original Paper 25%
Twenty-five percent of the grade in this course will come from each student’s APA-style
article based upon an original experimental project. Each student will choose and research an
experimental topic, design an experiment, acquire data, analyze that data, and write an APA journal
style paper. Because rewriting is an important part of academic writing and research publication, the
first drafts of writing assignments are due relatively early, allowing for rewrite opportunities.
Although each section of this paper will receive a separate grade, the grade on the final paper will
not necessarily equal the sum of the grades of its parts. Many of the sections must be adapted as the
experiment evolves.

Literature Review (15%). This assignment is intended to assist in the generation of an original
research idea, the development of an academic literature database, the development of library skills
as well as skills for writing in APA style. Students will be expected to locate more than five articles
from peer-reviewed publications. These articles must be chosen according to their relevancy to a
central concept or idea. Students will be graded on their ability to locate relevant articles, to develop
ideas and concepts in their literature review, and to write clearly and in APA style. It is the literature
review that will supply the Introduction/Background Section of the final paper, the ideas for how
to conduct the experiment, and the prism through which the results will be interpreted. Students
may rewrite their literature reviews for a better grade for up to two weeks after the original due date.

Methods Section (15%). This assignment is intended to assist students in refinement of research
topics and to develop skills for writing a methods section in APA style. Students will be graded on
the quality of their methods in addition to the quality of their writing. Students may rewrite their
methods sections for a better grade for up to two weeks after the original due date.

Results Section (15%). Students will be expected to analyze their data and report their findings in
APA style. Students are also expected to present their data in a table or graph. Students may rewrite
their results sections for a better grade for up to two weeks after the original due date.

Discussion Section. The discussion section of the final paper will not be graded separately;
however, this does not reflect its lack of importance. The discussion section is where one evaluates
and interprets the results of the experiment in light of previous research, conflicting theories, and
the original hypotheses, most of which would have been introduced in the introduction. The
discussion section offers the justification for why others should tend to the findings presented in the
paper.

Presentations 15%
This assignment is intended to give students exposure to and to encourage class discussion
of other projects done in class. Students have a choice of giving an oral presentation using
PowerPoint or overhead transparencies, or of preparing a poster presentation for a poster session.
This assignment is intended to give students the opportunity to practice the presentation skills that
are necessary as one begins to present his or her research at seminars, talks, and conferences.
Audience participation counts as part of the presentation grade so attendance is required during
presentations (April 19 and 26). Students lose a percentage of their presentation grade for each
presentation that is missed, up to 5% per presentation day.

Lab and Homework Assignments 15%

These are intended as refreshers for elementary statistics, as a tutorial for using SAS to
analyze data, and as an exercise in using the APA publication manual. Two of these assignments
may be completed in class only, which means attendance is required to receive these grades.

Grade Assignment
90-100 A
80-89 B
70-79 C
60-69 D
<60 F

Policies
Late Assignments
Late assignments will be accepted with a penalty of 5% of the assignment grade per
weekday. Therefore, an assignment will not be accepted after four weeks (20 weekdays) at which
time the assignment would be worth zero. Any penalty for missing the initial due date will be
applied to rewritten papers as well.
Attendance
Students are expected to take responsibility for attending class. Attendance will be formally
taken only on the days in which there are presentations. Attendance is important for receiving a
grade on the in-class assignments as well.

Academic Dishonesty
For information on the academic dishonesty policy at UTD, please go to
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/dishonesty.html or contact the instructor. Plagiarism is an
especially arresting issue. Each student should take special care to use his or her own words.

Learning Disabilities
For information on the learning disabilities center, please go to
http://www.utdallas.edu/student/slife/hcsvc.html or contact the instructor.

Schedule

1. 1/11 Syllabus Review;

Literature Review: library search, reading an article, generating hypotheses;
Introduction to APA style;
Grammar & APA style.

2. 1/18 In-class APA manual-use assignment;

Methods: Variables & measurement.

3. 1/25 Literature Review Due;

Methods: Design, statistics, parts of the Methods Section.

4. 2/1 MEET IN ROOM MP 2.220;

SAS lab (MP 2.220): SAS basics, correlation, regression, one-way ANOVA;
*Bring SAS Lesson 1, downloaded from ~gtillman web page;

5. 2/8 Final rewrite for Literature Review due;

Writing your Results Section;
One-on-one time slots available.

6. 2/15 Methods Section due;

MEET IN ROOM MP 2.220;
SAS lab (MP 2.220): Between-subjects, within-subjects, & mixed design
ANOVA, Chi-Square;
*Bring SAS Lesson 2, downloaded from ~gtillman web page;

7. 2/22 Class participation in data acquisition (extra points accrue for participation in
others’ experiments);
One-on-one time slots available.

8. 3/1 Final rewrite for Methods Section due;

Class participation in data acquisition (extra points accrue for participation in
others’ experiments);
One-on-one time slots available.
SPRING BREAK -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

9. 3/15 Results Section due;

One-on-one time slots available.

10. 3/22 Discussion Section;

Parts and order of the final paper.

11. 3/29 Final rewrite for Results Section due;

One-on-one time slots available.

12. 4/5 Preparing a good poster;

One-on-one time slots available.

13. 4/12 Final paper, including Discussion Section, due;

Preparing a good presentation.

14. 4/19 POSTER SESSION

15. 4/26 PRESENTATIONS; FINAL REWRITE OF FINAL PAPER DUE