Computer Assignments
Each week you will be expected to complete various computer assignments which will involve completing quizzes on Chi Tester and simulations and quizzes on PsychPortal. You can complete these assignments from any computer connected to the internet. All assignments must be completed in a given week and is due by 11:50pm each Friday night for students to earn credit.
To take the Chitester quizzes, just click on the quiz you want to take. You will be automatically connected to Chi Tester which will ask you for your Wildcat ID and Password. If you have ANY PROBLEMS, contact me ASAP (eamsel@weber.edu). These quizzes are meant for you to self-test and practice for the exam. You may use your notes and textbook to complete the quiz but you must earn 100% to earn credit on the Chi Tester quizzes.
To complete the simulations and the related quizzes, go to the psychportal web site and click on assignments. The simulations and quizzes for a given week will be grouped together by due date. Completing the simulations will help you complete the corresponding simulations quiz, but you must earn 100% to earn credit on the quizzes.
You make work on assignments (quizzes, simulations etc.) and as often a you like in the time period that the assignments are available (check the calendar). ALL ASSIGNMENTS MUST BE COMPLETED FOR A STUDENT TO PASS THE CLASS
Computer Assignment 1 is a series of multiple choice questions to be sure that students read and understood the syllabus and are correctly understanding the details of Folk Psychology.
Computer Assignment 2 requires completing a Chi Tester Quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and their associated quizzes) based on the lecture and textbook presentation of the methods of scientific psychology.
A. Scientific Psychology Quiz
B. Descriptive Statistics: To describe the common measures of central tendency and variability and demonstrate their use in summarizing a data set
Summary: This activity introduces you to the basic statistics that researchers use to summarize their sets of data. You will learn how to produce a distribution of scores and how to graph the distribution. After descriptions of the measures of central tendency (mode, median, and mean) and variability (range and standard deviation), you will be able to manipulate the scores in a distribution to see how each score affects the descriptive statistics for that distribution.
PsychSim Quiz 3C. Correlation: To demonstrate the use of scatterplots and to clarify the meaning of the correlation coefficient computed from them
Summary: This activity demonstrates the use of scatterplots to visualize positive and negative relationships. After reviewing the interpretation of positive and negative correlations, we’ll test your skill at guessing the approximate value of correlation coefficients for various scatterplots. Then you’ll be able to alter the scores in a data set to see the effects on the value of the correlation coefficient.
PsychSim Quiz 4
Computer Assignment 3 requires completing three PsychSim activities (and the quizzes that go long with the simulations) and a Chi Tester quiz based on the lecture and textbook presentation of learning and conditioning.
A. Learning and Conditioning Quiz
B. Classical Conditioning: To simulate the acquisition and extinction of conditioned associations
Summary: This activity provides a review of Pavlov's famous experiment on the salivary response in dogs, as well as the basic processes of classical conditioning: acquisition, generalization, discrimination training, and extinction. You will play the role of an experimenter attempting to produce a conditioned eye blink in a human subject.
PsychSim Quiz: 20C. Operant Conditioning: To demonstrate some principles of behavior control through the manipulation of reinforcement
Summary: This activity describes a form of learning called operant conditioning—learning from the consequences that follow our actions. The concept of reinforcement as illustrated with examples from everyday life, while the value of controlled reinforcement schedules is demonstrated in a simulated experiment showing rat bar-pressing behavior under four different schedules of reinforcement.
PsychSim Quiz: 21D. Monkey See, Monkey Do: To introduce Albert Bandura’s classic research on observational learning
Summary: In this activity you will learn about Albert Bandura’s classic experiment on observational learning, will see some video clips of two children who participated in the experiment, and will be able to practice your skills in observing and labeling specific behaviors performed by these children.
PsychSim Quiz 22
Computer Assignment 4 requires completing three PsychSim activities and corresponding quizzes based on the Neuroscience chapter.
A. Neural Messages: To describe and simulate the basic principles of axonal conduction and synaptic transmission in the nervous system
Summary: This activity explains the way neurons communicate with each other. You will review the basic types of neurons and the parts of a neuron, and then learn how neurons “fire” (generate impulses) and send messages to neighboring neurons.
PsychSim Quiz 5
B. Brain and Behavior: To review the major divisions of the brain (brainstem, cerebral cortex), the important structures within each region, and the chief functions of each brain structure or area.
Summary: In this activity you will take a tour of the human brain, exploring the major brain regions to discover the functions of each region or area.
PsychSim Quiz 7C. Dueling Brains: To examine research on hemispheric specialization and word recognition
Summary: This activity opens with a brief review of research on left-hemisphere specialization for language, and then presents a simulation of a classic word recognition experiment that typically demonstrates a right visual field advantage in identifying words.
PsychSim Quiz 29
Computer Assignment 5 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities based on understanding ideas presented in the Neuroscience chapter and lecture.
B. Hemispheric Specialization: To explain how research on split-brain patients has helped us understand the special abilities of the two halves of the brain
Summary: This activity describes what researchers have learned about the special abilities of the left and right sides of the brain. After a brief review of the way that information is carried from the main sensory channels to the brain, you will test the responses of a simulated “split-brain” patient to demonstrate that, for most right-handers, the main language center is located in the left hemisphere, and the right hemisphere is specialized for spatial tasks. Then you will carry out the same experiments with a simulated “normal” individual to explore the functioning of the hemispheres in an intact brain.
PsychSim Quiz 6C. EEG and Sleep Stages: To describe the five stages of the sleep cycle and the electroencephalograph (EEG)
Summary: This activity provides an explanation of physiological recording of electrical potentials from the scalp and their relationship to levels of consciousness and sleep, and is followed by a simulation of one night of recordings from a sleep laboratory, illustrating the normal sleep cycle, REM sleep, and the relationship between REM sleep and dream reports.
PsychSim Quiz 17
Computer Assignment 6 requires completing two PsychSim activities and their corresponding PsychSim quizzes based on Neuroscience and Sensation and Perception.
A. Your Mind on Drugs: To describe the basic types of psychoactive drugs and the neural mechanisms of drug action
Summary: In this activity you will explore the behavioral effects of some common drugs that influence the brain—producing changes in our arousal level, our mood, our perception of our environment, and our actions.
PsychSim Quiz 18B. The Auditory System: To explain how we hear and how the physical nature of the sound wave determines the quality of the sound experience
Summary: This activity covers the characteristics of sound that are important for hearing, and describes the structure of the ear and auditory pathway. You will be asked to locate the parts of the ear on a drawing. The activity simulates the transmission of a sound wave through the outer, middle, and inner ear and shows how the cochlea converts the mechanical energy to neural impulses. Next, it explains the concepts of frequency, amplitude, and waveform and shows how these aspects of the sound wave are related to the experience of pitch, loudness, and timbre.
PsychSim Quiz 14
Computer Assignment 7 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes) based on the lecture and textbook presentation of sensation and perception.
A. Sensation and Perception Quiz
B. Colorful World: To review the principles of color sensation; includes a comparison of the trichromatic and opponent-process theories of color vision
Summary: In this activity you will explore the principles of color vision, and will demonstrate some aspects of color sensation with your own eyes.
PsychSim Quiz 15C. Visual Illusions: To demonstrate and explain four well-known visual illusions
Summary: This activity offers the opportunity to test your susceptibility to four famous visual illusions. In the Müller-Lyer, Ponzo, Horizontal-Vertical, and Poggendorf illusions you will be asked to adjust the length or position of one part of the stimulus to match the apparent length or position of another part. Your results will be displayed and interpreted.
PsychSim Quiz 16
Computer Assignment 8 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and three PsychSim activities based on the textbook and lecture presentation of memory.
A. Memory Quiz
B. Short-Term Memory: To explain some basic aspects of short-term memory
Summary: In this activity you will learn about the common model of memory storage, and will be able to test your ability to hold information in short-term memory.
PsychSim Quiz 25C. When Memory Fails: To explain how memories are stored in the brain, and how damage to certain areas of the brain can impair memory
Summary: This activity explores severe memory loss—how it happens and what impact it has on behavior. In the process, you will learn about the different types of memories we store, as well as the areas of the brain that are involved in forming and retrieving memories.
PsychSim Quiz 26D. Trusting Your Memory: To explain research by Loftus, Schacter, Roediger, and others about memory errors based on gist memory, source confusion, and suggestibility
Summary: In this activity you’ll be able to test the reliability of your memory, and then learn what researchers have discovered about the way that memories are stored and modified by new information.
PsychSim Quiz 27
Portal Assignment 9 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes). These activities are based on the lecture and textbook presentation of thinking and reasoning.
A. Thinking and Reasoning Quiz
B. My Head Is Spinning: To demonstrate thinking with verbal concepts and mental images, using the concept of mental rotation
Summary: This activity provides some background information about thinking with verbal concepts versus thinking with mental images. The issue of mental rotation is introduced and explained with reference to the classic studies by Shepard and colleagues. You will participate in a simulated experiment involving mental rotation of the letter “R” in the picture plane. Your results will be graphed and compared with the pattern of results from Cooper and Shepard (1973).
PsychSim Quiz 28C. Not My Type: To examine the research on attribution and person perception
Summary: In this activity, after reviewing some of the research on the impact of “first impressions,” you will explore the process of forming attitudes about other people.
PsychSim Quiz 41
Portal Assignment 10 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes). These activities are based on the lecture and textbook presentation of social and genetic influences.
A. Social and Genetic Influences Quiz
B. Dating and Mating: To explain evolutionary psychology’s explanation of sex differences in mate selection Summary: In this activity you will explore your own preferences for an “ideal mate,” then consider the perspective of evolutionary psychology on this important issue.
PsychSim Quiz 8C. Get Smart: To explain the multidimensional nature of intelligence and demonstrate some tasks used to measure intelligence.
Summary: In this activity you will explore the concept of intelligence and some of the methods of measuring intelligence. Along the way, you will try your hand at performing a few of the tasks and answering some questions typically found on intelligence tests.
PsychSim Quiz 30D. Everybody’s Doing It! To help students understand the pressure to conform to the behavior of others
Summary: In this activity you will explore the issue of social influence—how the behavior of other people affects your behavior. We'll take you through simulations of some of the classic experiments on conformity and apply the results to everyday situations.
PsychSim Quiz 42
Portal Assignment 11 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes). These activities are based on the lecture and textbook presentation of personality.
B. Helplessly Hoping: To explain the research basis for the concept of learned helplessness
Summary: In this activity you will explore the importance of a sense of personal control over the events in your life. You’ll participate in a simulated experiment on learned helplessness in dogs, and then consider how the results might apply to the behavior of people trapped in unpleasant situations.
PsychPortal Quiz 35
Portal Assignment 12 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and four PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes). These activities are based on the lecture and textbook presentation of development.
B. Cognitive Development: To describe Piaget’s theory on the growth of intelligence and simulate the performance of three children of different ages on some of Piaget’s tasks.
Summary: After presenting background information on Jean Piaget, this activity explains some of the basic concepts of his theory, including schemas, operations, and assimilation/accommodation. Next, Piaget's stages of cognitive development are described and illustrated with examples. In the last segment, you act as the experimenter, testing 4-, 7-, and 13-year-olds on Piaget's conservation and seriation tasks.
PsychSim Quiz 10C. Conception to Birth: To review the three phases of prenatal development, from the germinal phase (fertilization to about 2 weeks) through the embryonic phase (3 weeks to about 8 weeks) and the fetal phase (9 weeks to birth)
Summary: This activity will help you understand the sequence of prenatal development. You will take a tour through the three phases of development between conception and birth—with illustrations and animations of each stage of the process.
PsychSim Quiz 11D. Who Am I? To review Erikson’s perspective on identity formation and Marcia’s categories of identity status during adolescence
Summary: This activity will help you understand Erik Erikson’s perspective on identity formation, as well as James Marcia’s four steps or stages in the identity process. The activity will also help you reflect on your own progress toward achieving a secure and stable identity.
PsychSim Quiz 12E. Signs of Aging: To explain the physical changes that occur in middle age and late adulthood
Summary: In this activity you will explore the main aspects of physical aging.
PsychSim Quiz 13
Portal Assignment 13 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes). These activities are based on the lecture and textbook presentation of psychopathology.
B. Mystery Client: To review and test understanding of the classification of behavioral disorders
Summary: This activity will be most useful to you after you have read the text material on psychological disorders. In this activity you’ll take the role of a consultant called in to provide a second opinion on several clients with disorders, based only on the information contained in the clients’ files. You will select the information to be examined for each client, then form a diagnosis according to what you know about the symptoms of the various disorders.
PsychSim Quiz 36C. Losing Touch With Reality: To explain the symptoms of schizophrenia and the brain changes that accompany schizophrenia
Summary: This activity explores schizophrenia, one of the most severe and bizarre psychological disorders. You will learn about the types of schizophrenia and the main symptoms, view video clips of individuals with schizophrenia, and be asked to identify the symptoms displayed by each individual.
PsychSim Quiz 37
Portal Assignment 14 requires completing a Chi Tester quiz and two PsychSim activities (simulations and quizzes). These activities are based on the lecture and textbook presentation of treatment.
Computer Therapist: To demonstrate (in a limited way) some principles of active listening and artificial intelligence by having the computer simulate a Rogerian person-centered therapist
Summary: After learning about the famous ELIZA artificial intelligence program, you will engage in a conversation with a “computer therapist.” The “therapist” will respond in a more-or-less realistic fashion, by identifying key words or phrases in your conversation, and then generating a nonjudgmental reply that reflects your feelings, to simulate some principles of active listening from Carl Roger’s client-centered therapy.
PsychSim Quiz 38Mystery Therapist: To help students understand the basic goals and techniques of the main forms of psychotherapy
Summary: The activity reviews the major perspectives on psychological disorders and therapy and presents an interactive exercise in which students read brief fragments of case studies and are asked to identify the type of therapy exemplified by each case.
PsychSim Quiz 39