Prospectus

nl en

Cognitive Psychology

Course
2024-2025

Students of the Dutch bachelor’s programme, see Cognitieve Psychologie

Entry requirements

None

Description

Cognitive psychology studies general human functions such as perception, attention, memory, language, thinking, decision-making and motor skills. Cognitive psychologists try to answer questions such as the following: How do we allocate our attention and why, how do we recognize the world around us, how do we recognize words, how do we remember events and why do we make memory errors, how do we turn our thoughts into speech, how do we solve problems and how do we improve our cognitive abilities? The objective of the discipline is to describe and provide an explanation for observable behaviour that can be measured in adequately controlled experiments.

Course objectives

At the end of the course, the student can:

  • Understand and describe the most important theories and models of various cognitive processes;

  • Understand and describe the methods for observing and measuring behaviour;

  • Apply theoretical insights to practical situations.

The experimental practical has the following objectives:

  • Understand and describe how experiments are conducted in cognitive psychological research;

  • Understand and describe how an experiment can test an hypothesis;

  • Perform simple analyses on obtained results and interpret the results;

  • Write a scientific report (according to APA guidelines).

Timetable

For the timetable of this course please refer to MyTimetable

Registration

Education

First-year bachelor students are assigned and registered for all components in the first academic year by the administration of their bachelor programme. The programme will communicate to these students for which course components and for which period the registration applies. All other students (excl. minor and exchange) must register themselves for all course components (lectures, tutorials and practicals) they wish to follow. You can register up to 5 days prior to the start of the course.

Exams

You must register for each exam in My Studymap at least 10 days before the exam date. Don’t forget! For more information, see the enrolment procedure.
You cannot take an exam without a valid registration in My Studymap.

Carefully read all information about the procedures and deadlines for registering for courses and exams.

Students who take this course as part of a LDE minor or a premaster programme, exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure.

Mode of instruction

7 2-hour lectures and 3 2-hour experimental practicals.

Attendance at the practicals is mandatory. See Brightspace for more information.

The experimental practical consists of three sessions in a computer room in which demonstrations are given and behavioural experiments carried out of which the results are analysed and interpreted. Students are also required to write a short research report on one of these experiments in accordance with the APA norms. First-year full-time students are automatically assigned to a practical group; all other students have to register. For more information please consult the Syllabus and Brightspace.

Assessment method

The examination consists of (1) a multiple-choice examination of 40 questions on Chun & Most's book, the lecture slides and on the CogLab Syllabus and (2) a short research report on an experiment. The final grade is a combination of the multiple-choice examination grade (70%) and the report grade (30%). The report grade is only registered once the practical assignments have been successfully completed. The partial grade for each of the two components remains valid, if need be also in the following academic year.

A resit of the work group is rewarded with max. a 6.0.

The Institute of Psychology uses fixed rules for grade calculation. It also follows the policy of the Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences to systematically check student papers for plagiarism with the help of software. All students are required to take and pass the Scientific Integrity Test with a score of 100% in order to learn about the practice of integrity in scientific writing. Students are given access to the quiz via a module on Brightspace. Disciplinary measures will be taken when fraud is detected. Students are expected to be familiar with and understand the implications of these two policies.

Reading list

  1. Cognition. Chun, M. M., & Most, S. B. (2022). print ISBN: 9780199950638, e-book ISBN: 9780190878726
  2. Cognitive Psychology CogLab Syllabus (available via Brightspace)

Contact information

For questions concerning registration and administration:

Coordinators:

Practica: