Students of the Dutch bachelor’s programme, see Cognitieve Psychologie
Entry requirements
There are no entry requirements for this course. However, to successfully complete this course, it is essential that students have a basic understanding of statistics as covered in the first year courses of the Bachelor Psychology. This includes, among other things, knowledge of how to perform and interpret simple statistical tests in R, such as the t-test. Students taking this course as an elective are advised to refresh their knowledge of these topics.
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 in R 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 to and registered for all course components in the first academic year by the education administration of their bachelor programme. The programme will communicate to these students for which course components and for which period the registration applies;
If applicable, minor students, premaster students, exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure;
All other students, including resit students, must register themselves for all course components (lectures, werkgroups and/or and practicals) they wish to follow. You can register up to 5 days before the start of the course.
Exams
First-year bachelor students will need to register themselves for resit exams in My Studymap. Registration for resit exams is open from 30 to 10 days before the exam date. Don’t forget! First-year bachelor students are registered for all regular exams (not resits) in the first academic year by the education administration of their bachelor programme. For more information, see the enrolment procedure;
If applicable, minor students, premaster students, exchange students and external guest students will be informed by the education administration about the current registration procedure;
All other students, including resit students, must register themselves for exams and resits. You can register up to 10 days before the exam. Don’t forget! For more information, see the enrolment procedure.
You cannot take an exam without a valid registration in My Studymap.
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.
Although you are permitted to miss one of the three practical sessions, we strongly recommend attending all three, as all materials covered during the sessions are included in the examination content. For each practical session — including any you miss — the corresponding assignment must be submitted. 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.
You will be informed about the method of inspection and feedback of the examination via Brightspace in due course.
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
- Cognition. Chun, M. M., & Most, S. B. (2022). print ISBN: 9780199950638, e-book ISBN: 9780190878726.
- Cognitive Psychology CogLab Syllabus (available via Brightspace)
Contact information
For questions concerning registration and administration:
- Student administration osc@leiden.edu
Coordinators:
- Dr. Manon Mulckhuyse m.g.j.mulckhuyse@fsw.leidenuniv.nl
Practica:
- Jaïr Stunt j.d.stunt@fsw.leidenuniv.nl