Psych 315

Office hours:
Charles Clifton, Tobin 435, M 3-4, W 9-10
Michael Stroud, Tobin 424, Tu 10:45-11:45, Th 1-2 (NOTE THE THURSDAY CHANGE)

EXAM 1, 2, 3, Makeup, Exam 4, and final exam answer keys AND GRADES are posted on the EXAMS page, together with current CogLab and ExperimenTrak records and your total percentage grade to date (convert to a letter grade using information in the syllabus).

TA OPPORTUNITY: I invite members of Psych 315 to think about getting three credits for being a TA in a section of Psych 100 that I will teach in the Spring. You would have to be available to attend lectures, MWF 1:25-2:15. Besides that, your duties would include (a) helping prepare and conduct demonstrations in class; (b) run one weekly discussion section; (c) meet with me and the other TAs for a weekly planning session; (d) read and evaluate weekly reaction papers; (e) help prepare and grade exams; and (f) help proctor exams. The last time I did this I had a large swarm of TAs and it was good fun - and the P100 students really appreciated the TAs' help. If you are interested, talk to me or e-mail me and check with the advising office or go to http://euryale.sbs.umass.edu/PsychWeb/UGrad/contract398a.pdf to get a contract for a Teaching Practicuum.

If you're having trouble finding the CogLab assignments, just click the bottom box on the left, the one with the blurry label - or simply click here...

INATTENTION! Some of you have asked me to post copies of the gorillas-in-the-midst and other inattention and change blindness videos. There's actually a link to these (and lots of other demos) plus other interesting links on the "weblinks" page. But you can just click here to see them if you like: http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.html Scroll down to the "inattention" section and look at the "opaque gorilla" video.

We *THINK* we have identified the problems with logging into Experimentrak, the on-line system for signing up to participate in UMass psychological research. The problems were in the unclarity of the instructions. An updated how-to follows. Basically, if you pre-registered for Psych315, you will have received an e-mail with a password and some (irrelevant) instructions about verifying your account. You don't have to verify your account. You don't have to register. All you have to do is to log in, using your e-mailed password, and answer some demographic questions. If you registered late and didn't receive the e-mail, or if you didn't provide an @student.umass.edu e-mail when you registered, you do have to register and verify your registration (and provide your umass e-mail address). See "Step 2" below. Problems? Let me know.

1. Everyone who was preregistered for an undergrad psych class can log into Experimentrak on the main screen http://umass.Experimentrak.net by entering the password they received in an email from Aggie Mitchkoski@esched.umass.edu with the subject line VERIFY YOUR ACCOUNT. If for some reason the student does not have the email or their password they can retrieve it by going to the log in screen mentioned above and at the bottom of the screen, in a grey box is a link called RETRIEVE PASSWORD. If they click on that link, their password will be sent to them within minutes. Then they can enter the their Umass email address and password and should be all set. They should NOT use the Registration tab, and they do NOT have to verify their registration. The registration tab and verification procedure are only for students who were not pre-registered.

2 . If the student registered late for the psych class or did not receive an email verification from Aggie Mitchkoski at esched@psych.umass.edu with a password, then they should go to http://umass.experimentrak.net and click on the REGISTRATION tab. Fill out the information and a VERIFY ACCOUNT email will be sent to them with instructions on how to complete the verification process . After that, they will just need to log in.

Also (relevant only to Psych 100, 240, 241), the prescreening is NOT on Experimentrak. It is a separate entity. This is the URL to access the prescreening. http://www.people.umass.edu/pscreen/ The password is "psych".

The textbook for this section of Cognitive Psychology is a new one: Goldstein, E. B. (2005). Cognitive Psychology: Connecting Mind, Research, and Everyday Experience. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth. It comes bundled with CogLab, an on-line set of experiments you can do yourself for extra credit and Concept Maps/CogLab Online Manual, a useful study guide. See syllabus for more details.

NOTE: 9/8/05, Mike has taken a copy of the textbook to the library to be put on 2 hour/overnight reserve. You can look at it there if you can't afford the $$$ yet - but be warned, a few people may want to do that. However, you have to buy your own copy to be able to participate in the CogLab experiments. ALSO - be warned, if you buy a used copy, you won't be able to participate in the CogLab experiments unless you cough up some $30 for access privileges (yeah, it's a rip-off). FINALLY, do check the prices - a new book is $99 at Jeffrey Amherst.

You can take part in the CogLab demonstration experiments (and receive extra course credit) at http://coglab.wadsworth.com Log-in names and numerics password have been distributed in class. They allow you to log in and do experiments.