Dear all,
We would like to invite you to our Affiliate Christmas Party.
The party is taking place on Friday, 16/12 @ 5pm in room 308 (common room).
There will be free drinks and nibbles. We might go to the pub for more drinks and party later on.
To help preparing the event, could you please let us know if you would like to attend by completing the poll:
http://www.doodle.com/7qrhryszapgqks69
Hope many of you can make it,
Lucy & Matt
Wednesday 7 December 2011
Essay Format
Dear all,
We have been receiving questions regarding how to format your essays. We think it might be of interest to everybody to share some general expectations about this issue.
Kindly not that these format requirements only apply to your second essay submission. No penalties will be made if the format of the first essay was inconsistent with the following outline.
People who have already submitted their 2nd essay are kindly asked to work essays over.
Please email us, if you have any more questions.
Good luck,
Matt & Lucy
OUTLINE:
General Format of the essay
• Double-Spaced
• Times New Roman or Arial with font size 12
• Margins: 2.5cm (can be larger, but not smaller than 2.5cm!)
General Presentation
• Title page
- Course Title and course code (e.g., Organisational Psychology: Psyc 3108)
- The Question you chose to answer
- Your UCL ID (i.e., SN: you will find it on your student card e.g., 110055784)
- Word count (not including title page or reference list)
• Essay (British spelling)
• References (APA style)
Penalties
• Not respecting the format outlined above (-5%)
• Late submission (-5% for every 24h late)
• Not respecting the word limit (-5%)
We have been receiving questions regarding how to format your essays. We think it might be of interest to everybody to share some general expectations about this issue.
Kindly not that these format requirements only apply to your second essay submission. No penalties will be made if the format of the first essay was inconsistent with the following outline.
People who have already submitted their 2nd essay are kindly asked to work essays over.
Please email us, if you have any more questions.
Good luck,
Matt & Lucy
OUTLINE:
General Format of the essay
• Double-Spaced
• Times New Roman or Arial with font size 12
• Margins: 2.5cm (can be larger, but not smaller than 2.5cm!)
General Presentation
• Title page
- Course Title and course code (e.g., Organisational Psychology: Psyc 3108)
- The Question you chose to answer
- Your UCL ID (i.e., SN: you will find it on your student card e.g., 110055784)
- Word count (not including title page or reference list)
• Essay (British spelling)
• References (APA style)
Penalties
• Not respecting the format outlined above (-5%)
• Late submission (-5% for every 24h late)
• Not respecting the word limit (-5%)
Friday 18 November 2011
Seminar Week 7
Dear all,
Please remember to bring along a draft (3-4 copies) of one of your essays to the next seminar.
This does not have to be your final work. But it is a valuable opportunity to get your peers' feedback before handing in your essays.
Cheers,
Lucy & Matt
Please remember to bring along a draft (3-4 copies) of one of your essays to the next seminar.
This does not have to be your final work. But it is a valuable opportunity to get your peers' feedback before handing in your essays.
Cheers,
Lucy & Matt
Applying for an extension of your essay deadline
Dear affiliate students,
Since there already have been inquiries regarding extending the deadlines for your essay assignments, please find the procedure you need to follow, if you would like to apply for an extension:
- Obtain a note from a professional (e.g. a doctor) explaining why you need an extension.
- Arrange an appointment with both of the affiliate demonstrators to discuss the possible extension.
- The affiliate demonstrators will then consider the legitimacy of needing an extension.
- If the affiliate demonstrators agree that an extension is warranted, the case will be taken to the affiliate tutor and the relevant course convenors.
- If all parties agree, an appropriate extension will be granted.
We also would like to remind you that extensions are rare, since your essay assignments are handled following the same guidelines as with any other written exams.
Please feel free to contact us with your questions.
Yours,
Lucy & Matt
Tuesday 15 November 2011
Due Dates Essays - Fall Term Affiliates Only
Dear Affiliate Students,
Here, we outline how you are going to submit your essays in all of the psychology classes, so please read the information carefully.
Submission:
All essays are to be submitted electronically to ucl.affiliates@googlemail.com
When you send your email, please write course number and course title in the subject line of your email, so that we can forward your essays to the course convenor.
Essays should be attached to your email as .pdf or .doc. Please name the document using your UCL ID (e.g., ID_essay1.pdf and ID_essay2.pdf). Missing to attach your essay will result in penalties for late submission, so double check before sending your emails.
Deadlines:
The deadline for your first essay is Friday 02/12/2011 at 5pm.
The deadline for your second essay is Friday 16/12/2011 at 5pm.
Penalties for late submission:
For every 24h you choose to submit your essay late, 5% will be taken off your mark.
Any essay that is submitted 7days late will no longer be marked and thus result in your final mark for this essay being 0%.
Word-count penalties:
There is a 10% discrepancy for word-counts (i.e. a 2000 word essay can be 1800-2200 words).
If you fail to adhere to the correct word-count, 5% will be taken off your mark.
If you have any questions, please email Matt or Lucy.
Yours,
Matt & Lucy
Wednesday 2 November 2011
Mid-Term Social Event
Hello everybody,
Reading Week is almost upon us. Before you get ready to read a lot
(I suppose the only thing most of us will be reading are guidebooks...),
how about having a quick get-together and share a pint or two?
Where: ULU Bar
When: Thursday (11/03)
Meeting: 6pm Entrance Hall Psychology Building
Hope to see many of you,
Matt & Lucy
Reading Week is almost upon us. Before you get ready to read a lot
(I suppose the only thing most of us will be reading are guidebooks...),
how about having a quick get-together and share a pint or two?
Where: ULU Bar
When: Thursday (11/03)
Meeting: 6pm Entrance Hall Psychology Building
Hope to see many of you,
Matt & Lucy
Friday 14 October 2011
Fall Assessments
Dear affiliate students,
Below are the course assessments for Fall term only students.
Health and Clinical Psychology:Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
(Questions 1-4 are from the health half of the course, questions 5-9 are from the clinical half)
1. Often people who intend to engage in health-promoting behaviours (or not to engage in health risk behaviours) fail to act on their intentions. Why might this be?
2. Why it is so hard to stop smoking and what can be done to help?
3. "Individuals with poorly controlled Type I Diabetes only have themselves to blame". Would you dispute this statement and why?
4."Suffering offers us the best protection for survival" (Damasio, 1994). Explain how pain could function to protect us.
5. Explain the role of cognition in the cause and maintenance of two psychological disorders.
6. To what extent can biological factors explain how an individual becomes addicted to alcohol?
7. Are eating disorders becoming more common and if so, why?
8. What causes an episode of anxiety to persist and turn into a psychological disorder?
9. Among the factors thought to play a causal role in schizophrenia, how important are genetic influences?
Perception, Attention and Action: Two 2,000 word essays.
Do not pick question 6 with question 7.
1. Critically assess alternative theories of pitch perception
2. Describe the structure of a cortical hypercolumn in primary visual cortex.
3. What evidence points to the importance of the configuration of the face in face perception?
4. Do speakers use auditory feedback to control their vocal productions?
5. Assess motor theory as an account of the relationship between speech perception and production.
6. Are we always conscious of our actions and intentions? Discuss.
7. Describe how the brain enables the understanding of others’ actions.
8. Can we simply describe attentional selection as space-based?
9. Critically evaluate the evidence in favour of early selection in vision.
Computing for Psychologists: 1 essay (set for everyone in the class) and 1 project due at the end of term (this will be a slightly easier version of the project set for the rest of the class)
Psychology of Health Risks: Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
1. What determines health risk behaviours? Discuss with reference to contemporary evidence.
2. To what extent have the health models (e.g. HBM, TRA and TPB) led to health gains that would not otherwise have been achieved? Draw on evidence of the centrality of other variables in determining health-related behaviour.
3. Do demographic variables determine risk perception? Explain the ‘white male effect’.
4. What are the shortcomings of a ‘perception’ approach to health risks?
5. How are novel risks interpreted and incorporated into lay thinking, according to social representations theory? Discuss the role played by identity in this process.
6. How does social representations theory differ from ‘risk perception’ theory?
7. What is the pattern of response to many EID? Why is there a recurrent pattern of response?
8. To what extent is the historically abiding response to EID applicable to contemporary pandemics?
9. Evaluate the virtues and problems of disgust-inducing health campaigns.
10. Why do so many health campaigns fail to change the targeted behaviour?
11. How valid conceptually is the distinction between ‘primitive’ responses to epidemics (e.g. accusations of witchcraft) and ‘modern’ responses, as seen in early responses to AIDS or SARS?
12. How does the popular interpretation of the medical understanding of the immune system influence contemporary health practices?
13. Have the health professions become out of step with changes in society and with changing expectations of patients?
14. If current trends continue, how might the relationship your children have with their doctors differ from the one you have?
15. Why is it that certain (rare) health risks, such as the purported dangers of MMR vaccine, seem to create more fear than more common ones, such as the dangers of childhood measles or mumps?
16. Is there anything health professionals can do to increase trust?
17. Is the concern with wellness and ‘care of the self’ new? If so, what wider social forces might be responsible for it? (E.g. ageing baby boomers, increasingly expensive health care)
18. Is the ‘geneticisation’ of social issues in light of the discoveries of the Human Genome Project simply the old nature / nuture debate in new ‘scientific’ clothes?
19. To what extent can you manipulate a patient’s health decision by the way you present the risk statistics?
20. Are there any general principles about what works best in terms of translating statistical data on health risks into information patients can use to make informed decisions about treatment / non-treatment?
21. Is the notion that we should tailor doctor-patient relationships to minority groups patronising? Should all patients be treated the same?
22. How much of the poor relationship between doctors and patients from minority groups might be explained in terms of social class, rather than ethnicity, sexuality or disability?
Human-Computer Interaction: Answer 2 questions in total. Question 1 is compulsory. Also write one additional essay, choosing between questions 2 and 3 (2,000 words).
Question 1
Suppose you have been commissioned to conduct a usability evaluation of an interactive system designed to support and encourage behaviour change. Your evaluation should consider the quality of the design from the perspective of one potential user group.
You should focus your evaluation on one of the target user populations. You should identify and address the following key evaluation questions.
1) How well does the system support the client in conducting their therapy?
2) Any interactive system that provides this kind of support should be a positive user experience, making the user feel confident in the privacy and efficacy of the system. How well does the chosen system fare in providing a positive user experience?
Write an academic report (up to 2,000 words) that outlines your plan for this evaluation (you are not required to conduct the evalution). In this, you should:
·Justify your choice of techniques and participants, and describe how you planned and would conduct the evaluation studies.
·Discuss and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen evaluation questions and techniques. You are encouraged to relate this discussion to literature, in addition to grounding it in your own experience of conducting such evaluations.
Question 2
Explain how advertisers use visual features to attract users’ attention to adverts on a webpage. Why do people not always notice such adverts?
Question 3
How can theories of the causes of slips and mistakes give guidance to design?
Speech: Two 2,000 word essays or one 4,000 word essay. Orienting questions given at the start of the lecture used for essay questions
Stuttering: Two 2,000 word essays or one 4,000 word essay. Orienting questions given at the start of the lecture used for essay questions
Human Learning and Memory: One 2,500 word essay (in line with what non-affiliates are doing). Pick your own title, subject to approval by David Shanks when you submit a title and abstract at the end of reading week.
Multivariate Statistical Methods in Psychology: One exam towards the end of the last week of term. Three hours comprising of two computational parts and one essay question.
Topics in Neurobiology: Two 2,000 word essays. Pick your own questions from past exam papers. These can be found at:
http://digitool-b.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8881/R/YKVF11C5RYVG63LR5RPNKKFXAPJ5RRX2JAGSFXT55JRJ7TLADK-03517?&local_base=EXAMPAPERS
or, questions given on the lectures slides.
Genes and Behaviour: Two 2,000 word essays.
1. Discuss why children growing up in the same family are often remarkably dissimilar to each other.
2. Discuss the ethical concerns surrounding genetic research.
Organisational Psychology: Two 2,000 word essays. Pick your own questions from past exam papers. These can be found at:
http://digitool-b.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8881/R/YKVF11C5RYVG63LR5RPNKKFXAPJ5RRX2JAGSFXT55JRJ7TLADK-03517?&local_base=EXAMPAPERS
Concepts and Methods: Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
1. Describe classical (Pavlovian) conditioning. What factors determine whether an animal will become conditioned to a particular stimulus?
2. How do expectations and schemata affect memory?
3. How does the way in which infants interact with other people change over the first year of life?
4. What have data from aphasic patients suggested about how the brain processes language?
5. What is meant by ‘executive function’? Under what circumstances can executive function fail, and what are the consequences?
6. Describe, in detail, how action potentials are generated and propagated in neurons
7. What are the strengths and weaknesses of what is known as the Medical Model of psychopathology?
8. Discuss how cocaine produces its effects with reference to the underlying processes of
Neurotransmission?
9. Explain how the ‘James-Lange’ and ‘Cannon-Bard’ theories differ in the way they address the relationship between the various constitutive aspects of emotion.
10. What did the study of H.M. contribute to understanding about memory mechanisms?
11. Children learn about the different aspects of language in an orderly sequence. Discuss.
12. Are humans well-equipped to perceive and respond to other people?
Below are the course assessments for Fall term only students.
Health and Clinical Psychology:Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
(Questions 1-4 are from the health half of the course, questions 5-9 are from the clinical half)
1. Often people who intend to engage in health-promoting behaviours (or not to engage in health risk behaviours) fail to act on their intentions. Why might this be?
2. Why it is so hard to stop smoking and what can be done to help?
3. "Individuals with poorly controlled Type I Diabetes only have themselves to blame". Would you dispute this statement and why?
4."Suffering offers us the best protection for survival" (Damasio, 1994). Explain how pain could function to protect us.
5. Explain the role of cognition in the cause and maintenance of two psychological disorders.
6. To what extent can biological factors explain how an individual becomes addicted to alcohol?
7. Are eating disorders becoming more common and if so, why?
8. What causes an episode of anxiety to persist and turn into a psychological disorder?
9. Among the factors thought to play a causal role in schizophrenia, how important are genetic influences?
Perception, Attention and Action: Two 2,000 word essays.
Do not pick question 6 with question 7.
1. Critically assess alternative theories of pitch perception
2. Describe the structure of a cortical hypercolumn in primary visual cortex.
3. What evidence points to the importance of the configuration of the face in face perception?
4. Do speakers use auditory feedback to control their vocal productions?
5. Assess motor theory as an account of the relationship between speech perception and production.
6. Are we always conscious of our actions and intentions? Discuss.
7. Describe how the brain enables the understanding of others’ actions.
8. Can we simply describe attentional selection as space-based?
9. Critically evaluate the evidence in favour of early selection in vision.
Computing for Psychologists: 1 essay (set for everyone in the class) and 1 project due at the end of term (this will be a slightly easier version of the project set for the rest of the class)
Psychology of Health Risks: Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
1. What determines health risk behaviours? Discuss with reference to contemporary evidence.
2. To what extent have the health models (e.g. HBM, TRA and TPB) led to health gains that would not otherwise have been achieved? Draw on evidence of the centrality of other variables in determining health-related behaviour.
3. Do demographic variables determine risk perception? Explain the ‘white male effect’.
4. What are the shortcomings of a ‘perception’ approach to health risks?
5. How are novel risks interpreted and incorporated into lay thinking, according to social representations theory? Discuss the role played by identity in this process.
6. How does social representations theory differ from ‘risk perception’ theory?
7. What is the pattern of response to many EID? Why is there a recurrent pattern of response?
8. To what extent is the historically abiding response to EID applicable to contemporary pandemics?
9. Evaluate the virtues and problems of disgust-inducing health campaigns.
10. Why do so many health campaigns fail to change the targeted behaviour?
11. How valid conceptually is the distinction between ‘primitive’ responses to epidemics (e.g. accusations of witchcraft) and ‘modern’ responses, as seen in early responses to AIDS or SARS?
12. How does the popular interpretation of the medical understanding of the immune system influence contemporary health practices?
13. Have the health professions become out of step with changes in society and with changing expectations of patients?
14. If current trends continue, how might the relationship your children have with their doctors differ from the one you have?
15. Why is it that certain (rare) health risks, such as the purported dangers of MMR vaccine, seem to create more fear than more common ones, such as the dangers of childhood measles or mumps?
16. Is there anything health professionals can do to increase trust?
17. Is the concern with wellness and ‘care of the self’ new? If so, what wider social forces might be responsible for it? (E.g. ageing baby boomers, increasingly expensive health care)
18. Is the ‘geneticisation’ of social issues in light of the discoveries of the Human Genome Project simply the old nature / nuture debate in new ‘scientific’ clothes?
19. To what extent can you manipulate a patient’s health decision by the way you present the risk statistics?
20. Are there any general principles about what works best in terms of translating statistical data on health risks into information patients can use to make informed decisions about treatment / non-treatment?
21. Is the notion that we should tailor doctor-patient relationships to minority groups patronising? Should all patients be treated the same?
22. How much of the poor relationship between doctors and patients from minority groups might be explained in terms of social class, rather than ethnicity, sexuality or disability?
Human-Computer Interaction: Answer 2 questions in total. Question 1 is compulsory. Also write one additional essay, choosing between questions 2 and 3 (2,000 words).
Question 1
Suppose you have been commissioned to conduct a usability evaluation of an interactive system designed to support and encourage behaviour change. Your evaluation should consider the quality of the design from the perspective of one potential user group.
You should focus your evaluation on one of the target user populations. You should identify and address the following key evaluation questions.
1) How well does the system support the client in conducting their therapy?
2) Any interactive system that provides this kind of support should be a positive user experience, making the user feel confident in the privacy and efficacy of the system. How well does the chosen system fare in providing a positive user experience?
Write an academic report (up to 2,000 words) that outlines your plan for this evaluation (you are not required to conduct the evalution). In this, you should:
·Justify your choice of techniques and participants, and describe how you planned and would conduct the evaluation studies.
·Discuss and critically assess the strengths and weaknesses of the chosen evaluation questions and techniques. You are encouraged to relate this discussion to literature, in addition to grounding it in your own experience of conducting such evaluations.
Question 2
Explain how advertisers use visual features to attract users’ attention to adverts on a webpage. Why do people not always notice such adverts?
Question 3
How can theories of the causes of slips and mistakes give guidance to design?
Speech: Two 2,000 word essays or one 4,000 word essay. Orienting questions given at the start of the lecture used for essay questions
Stuttering: Two 2,000 word essays or one 4,000 word essay. Orienting questions given at the start of the lecture used for essay questions
Human Learning and Memory: One 2,500 word essay (in line with what non-affiliates are doing). Pick your own title, subject to approval by David Shanks when you submit a title and abstract at the end of reading week.
Multivariate Statistical Methods in Psychology: One exam towards the end of the last week of term. Three hours comprising of two computational parts and one essay question.
Topics in Neurobiology: Two 2,000 word essays. Pick your own questions from past exam papers. These can be found at:
http://digitool-b.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8881/R/YKVF11C5RYVG63LR5RPNKKFXAPJ5RRX2JAGSFXT55JRJ7TLADK-03517?&local_base=EXAMPAPERS
or, questions given on the lectures slides.
Genes and Behaviour: Two 2,000 word essays.
1. Discuss why children growing up in the same family are often remarkably dissimilar to each other.
2. Discuss the ethical concerns surrounding genetic research.
Organisational Psychology: Two 2,000 word essays. Pick your own questions from past exam papers. These can be found at:
http://digitool-b.lib.ucl.ac.uk:8881/R/YKVF11C5RYVG63LR5RPNKKFXAPJ5RRX2JAGSFXT55JRJ7TLADK-03517?&local_base=EXAMPAPERS
Concepts and Methods: Two 2,000 word essays from the questions below.
1. Describe classical (Pavlovian) conditioning. What factors determine whether an animal will become conditioned to a particular stimulus?
2. How do expectations and schemata affect memory?
3. How does the way in which infants interact with other people change over the first year of life?
4. What have data from aphasic patients suggested about how the brain processes language?
5. What is meant by ‘executive function’? Under what circumstances can executive function fail, and what are the consequences?
6. Describe, in detail, how action potentials are generated and propagated in neurons
7. What are the strengths and weaknesses of what is known as the Medical Model of psychopathology?
8. Discuss how cocaine produces its effects with reference to the underlying processes of
Neurotransmission?
9. Explain how the ‘James-Lange’ and ‘Cannon-Bard’ theories differ in the way they address the relationship between the various constitutive aspects of emotion.
10. What did the study of H.M. contribute to understanding about memory mechanisms?
11. Children learn about the different aspects of language in an orderly sequence. Discuss.
12. Are humans well-equipped to perceive and respond to other people?
Wednesday 5 October 2011
SEMINAR GROUPS
Dear affiliate students,
Please find this term’s affiliate seminar groups and times.
There are four groups and each of you has been assigned to one group in accordance with his/her course timetable. If however a conflict between the seminar and your courses exists, please email Matt at matthias.gobel.11@ucl.ac.uk specifying which course you have at the time of your seminar. We can then reassign you to another group. If you do not find your name in any of the four groups, please contact Lucy or Matt as soon as possible, so that we can assign you a seminar group.
Group 1
Mondays 5pm-6pm in BW 448
Demonstrator: Lucy
Group 2
Wednesdays 9am-10am in BW 448
Demonstrator: Matt
Group 3
Thursdays 3pm-4pm in BW 448
Demonstrator: Lucy
Group 4
Thursday 5pm – 6pm in BW 311
Demonstrator: Matt
Note that your attendance is essential in preparing your final essay assignments. That is why these seminars are compulsory.
Seminars will start on Monday next week (October, 12th).
If you have any questions, please email us.
Yours,
Lucy, Matt & Daniel
Please find this term’s affiliate seminar groups and times.
There are four groups and each of you has been assigned to one group in accordance with his/her course timetable. If however a conflict between the seminar and your courses exists, please email Matt at matthias.gobel.11@ucl.ac.uk specifying which course you have at the time of your seminar. We can then reassign you to another group. If you do not find your name in any of the four groups, please contact Lucy or Matt as soon as possible, so that we can assign you a seminar group.
Group 1
Mondays 5pm-6pm in BW 448
Demonstrator: Lucy
- Francis Kane
- Ashley Huggins
- Marisa Marcus
- Jacqueline Tam
- Bowie Han
- Danica Gould
- Sarah Kim
- Yuhui Yun
- Jennifer Dee
- Lauren Sanchez
- Sarah Barrett
- Louisa Gummer
- Florence Mertens
- Jason Kaushik
Group 2
Wednesdays 9am-10am in BW 448
Demonstrator: Matt
- Carly Hirschberg
- Rachel Scharf
- Elizabeth Campbell
- Yuxi Wang
- Joanna Falk
- Robert Chu
- Miriam Goldstein
- Aditee Mane
- Chris Deschenes
- Marta Ceccon
- Lei Huang
- Chowon Sung
- Alexandra Thompson
Group 3
Thursdays 3pm-4pm in BW 448
Demonstrator: Lucy
- Hana Eaton
- Sonia Betti
- Chaia Flegenheimer
- Ellen Scribner
- Banafsheh Sharif-Askary
- Grace Kim
- Elyse Albert
- Jennifer Friedman
- Jessica Kastenbaum
- Elizabeth Rudy
- Matt Dinowitz
- Katherine Wong
- McKinley Siegfried
Group 4
Thursday 5pm – 6pm in BW 311
Demonstrator: Matt
- Jessica Schanzer
- Kathryn Phillips
- Katelin Maguire
- Jennifer Weinberg
- Kenneth Burchfiel
- Isabel Penzini
- Jackie Siegle
- Ingrid He
- Alexandre Swanson
- Jae Seo
- Andrea Stacy
- Phillip Jang
- Emily Hacker
- Barbara Ungiert
Note that your attendance is essential in preparing your final essay assignments. That is why these seminars are compulsory.
Seminars will start on Monday next week (October, 12th).
If you have any questions, please email us.
Yours,
Lucy, Matt & Daniel
Tuesday 4 October 2011
PLEASE ENTER YOUR CLASSES ON THE DOODLE POLL
Dear all,
Now that you have entered all of your courses into portico, please make sure that you have entered what time you have classes on the doodle poll. This can be found at: http://www.doodle.com/x3g5ruhspsam3yh6
Anyone who has not entered their times by 5pm this afternoon will be allocated a seminar time when we know that there are no classes, e.g. early in the morning.
Please could those of you who do not need to attend seminars (because you are only taking one psychology module) e-mail us to confirm this.
Thanks,
Lucy & Matt
Now that you have entered all of your courses into portico, please make sure that you have entered what time you have classes on the doodle poll. This can be found at: http://www.doodle.com/x3g5ruhspsam3yh6
Anyone who has not entered their times by 5pm this afternoon will be allocated a seminar time when we know that there are no classes, e.g. early in the morning.
Please could those of you who do not need to attend seminars (because you are only taking one psychology module) e-mail us to confirm this.
Thanks,
Lucy & Matt
Monday 3 October 2011
Matt changed his email
Dear all,
Please note that my email address has changed.
You can now contact me at: matthias.gobel.11@ucl.ac.uk.
I am looking forward to hearing from you,
Matt
Please note that my email address has changed.
You can now contact me at: matthias.gobel.11@ucl.ac.uk.
I am looking forward to hearing from you,
Matt
Friday 30 September 2011
Class times
Dear affiliate students,
Daniel has noted a misunderstanding with the online survey for seminar times.
We would like you to fill in all the times that you do not have classes scheduled. Looking over the responses so far, people appear to have said 'no' to times when they would just prefer not to have a class. For example, many people have blocked off the whole of Friday, but when Daniel checked their timetables he saw that they were free that day.
As you can appreciate, it is quite a logistical challenge to find times when everyone can meet, given that there are 50 of you taking classes from across UCL. Therefore, we must insist that you fill in this survey according to when you actually have classes scheduled. Also, as mentioned at the induction, things at UCL end just before the hour and start just after. So if you only have a class at 11-12 on one morning, this means that you would be free for a seminar at 10 and a seminar at 12.
Don't worry: once we have figured out a possible list of times to meet, then it is very, very unlikely that we would pick 9am on Monday or last thing on a Friday if we can possibly avoid it. We would like to avoid those times for seminars too!
Since the seminar classes won't start until the week of 10th Oct, we can give you until Wednesday of next week to fill in the survey. If you need to change your answers, I think doodle will let you edit or cancel your previous replies.
Yours,
Lucy, Matt & Daniel
Daniel has noted a misunderstanding with the online survey for seminar times.
We would like you to fill in all the times that you do not have classes scheduled. Looking over the responses so far, people appear to have said 'no' to times when they would just prefer not to have a class. For example, many people have blocked off the whole of Friday, but when Daniel checked their timetables he saw that they were free that day.
As you can appreciate, it is quite a logistical challenge to find times when everyone can meet, given that there are 50 of you taking classes from across UCL. Therefore, we must insist that you fill in this survey according to when you actually have classes scheduled. Also, as mentioned at the induction, things at UCL end just before the hour and start just after. So if you only have a class at 11-12 on one morning, this means that you would be free for a seminar at 10 and a seminar at 12.
Don't worry: once we have figured out a possible list of times to meet, then it is very, very unlikely that we would pick 9am on Monday or last thing on a Friday if we can possibly avoid it. We would like to avoid those times for seminars too!
Since the seminar classes won't start until the week of 10th Oct, we can give you until Wednesday of next week to fill in the survey. If you need to change your answers, I think doodle will let you edit or cancel your previous replies.
Yours,
Lucy, Matt & Daniel
Tuesday 27 September 2011
Inputting class times onto doodle
Dear affiliate students,
Please coul you all make sure that you have registered you classes on the doodle poll by the end of the week, so that we can arrange seminar times.
You can find the poll at: http://www.doodle.com/x3g5ruhspsam3yh6
Yours,
Lucy & Matt
Wednesday 21 September 2011
Welcome to the UCL psychology affiliate program!
Dear affiliate students,
A very warm welcome to the UCL psychology affiliate program!
This blog is administrated by your affiliate demonstrators (Lucy and Matthias). Together with your affiliate tutor (Dr. Daniel Richardson), we use this platform to keep you informed. Please follow it regularly during your stay at UCL.
If you would like to contact us, you can write an email to Lucy (l.riglin@ucl.ac.uk) or to Matthias (matthias.gobel@etu.parisdescartes.fr).
We wish you interesting and challenging studies at UCL and an enjoyable stay in London!
Yours,
Lucy, Matt & Daniel
A very warm welcome to the UCL psychology affiliate program!
This blog is administrated by your affiliate demonstrators (Lucy and Matthias). Together with your affiliate tutor (Dr. Daniel Richardson), we use this platform to keep you informed. Please follow it regularly during your stay at UCL.
If you would like to contact us, you can write an email to Lucy (l.riglin@ucl.ac.uk) or to Matthias (matthias.gobel@etu.parisdescartes.fr).
We wish you interesting and challenging studies at UCL and an enjoyable stay in London!
Yours,
Lucy, Matt & Daniel
Research Projects for Psychology Affiliate Students: PSYC9001
Computational simulations of psycholinguistic experiments
Stefan Frank and Gabriella Vigliocco (s.frank@ucl.ac.uk)
In many experiments that study human sentence comprehension, reading times on words are measured. Although probabilistic models of language predict general patterns of word-reading times, it still unclear which particular psycholinguistic phenemona they are able to explain. In this project, the sentence stimuli from several psycholinguistic experiments will be processed by a number of models, in order to investigate which models can account for which experimental result. Advanced programming skills are not required, but the student on this project will need to have some affinity with programming and maths.
“Damned by Faint Praise” and “Praised by Faint Damning” (2 students)
Adam Harris (adam.harris@ucl.ac.uk)
“Damned by Faint Praise” is the phenomenon whereby weak positive information leads to a negative change in belief. Traditionally, Bayesian models of belief revision are unable to account for such effects because positive information should only exert a positive change on belief. Through a consideration of what information isn’t being provided, however, a version of Bayes’ Theorem incorporating a concept of epistemic closure can predict those conditions under which a ‘Damned by Faint Praise’ effect is observed. In some situations, the model makes unique predictions whereby an individual may also be ‘praised by faint damning’ – that is, a negative piece of information will have a positive effect. Two projects are available using experiments that are designed and ready to run, aside from question booklets being typed up and put together. Each project will require recruitment of 96 unique participants (participants will not be able to participate in both experiments). The experiments will have a similar structure to those in the paper below, which is available at: www.ucl.ac.uk/lagnado-lab/adamharris It is recommended that those interested in this project first read this paper.
Suggested Reading:
Harris, A., Corner, A., & Hahn, U. (2009). "Damned by faint praise": A Bayesian account. In N. A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 292-297). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Studies of Introspective Access to Reasoning
Petter Johansson and Dave Lagnado (petter@fennel.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
This research program involves giving participants reasoning tasks (for example the Wason card selection task, or SAT-style test questions) and then obtaining and analyzing reports on the reasoning process the participant used to get their answer. The verbal reports are recorded either with a microphone or by being written down, and can be coded according to several coding schemes. There is also the opportunity to construct a computer version of the experiment to be administered via a website, if a student is skilled with programming.
Does the relative frequency of a word's meaning affect how it is processed by the brain?
Jenni Rodd (j.rodd@ucl.ac.uk)
Many words in language are ambiguous and can refer to multiple concepts. For example the word "bark" can refer to the sound made by a dog and to the outer covering of a tree. To understand a sentence that contains an ambiguous word the listener must decide which meaning is appropriate on the basis of the meanings of the other words in the sentence. We have recently conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study which has revealed a network of brain regions that are more active when volunteers listen to sentences that contain ambiguous words. Previous behavioural experiments suggest that these sentences should be most difficult to understand when a very low frequency meaning is used, for example the "animal enclosure" meaning of the word "pen". The aim of this new experiment is to obtain accurate estimates of the relative frequencies of the meanings of the words used in our recent fMRI experiment using a variant of a well established word association method in which volunteers are asked to give a word associate for each of the ambiguous words. For example if given the word "bark" they might say either "dog" or "tree" and we can infer from their responses which meaning they retrieved. Once the student has obtained these measures of the relative frequencies of the word meanings, they will be given the opportunity to assist with the analysis of the existing fMRI data to see if there is a relationship between these measures and the brain's response to these words. These results will help constrain our model of how the brain processes spoken language.
Effect of Order of Different Focus of Attention on Choice Reaction Time Task
Mohsen Shafizadeh and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (m.shafizadehkenari@ucl.ac.uk)
In the previous experiment about the effect of focus of attention on speed of decision-making we showed that external focus (focus on environment) speed up reaction time, but this effect depends on the body laterality so that the internal focus (focus on fingers) condition had better performance when the task required the S-R compatibility. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of focus of attention on speed of decision-making in a keyboard choice reaction time task when the order of stimulus cues is different. The design of experiment is between-within subject design in which two independent groups have to execute the task 200 trials in different conditions. One group (n=12-15) will receive stimulus cues about the finger (R/L) first and stimulus cues about the keys (B/W) second, whereas the other group (n=12-15) will receive stimulus cues about the keys (B/W) first and stimulus cues about the finger (R/L) later. Reaction time will be computed after each trial. Your duties are to find participants, to run the experiment on a standard desk computer and distributing the consent form.
Effect of Rhythmic Cues on Movement-Specific Self-efficacy
Mohsen Shafizadeh and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (m.shafizadehkenari@ucl.ac.uk)
Self-efficacy is the belief to execute the specific movement that originates from different resources such as physical practice, imagery, modelling, self-talking, and feedback. According to scientific studies, providing auditory cues to performer could improve the movement coordination, performance, and self-confidence. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of auditory cues on motor control and task-specific self-efficacy in a stand-to-sit task in healthy people. The design of experiment is between-within subject design in which two independent groups have to execute the task 45 trials in different conditions. One group (n=12-15) will receive auditory cue by metronome, whereas the other group (n=12-15) will not. Self-efficacy will be completed after each 5-trial. Digital video camera and motion analysis software will analysis the movement to compute inter-joint coordination, movement hesitation, and velocity of movement. Your duties are to find participants, to collect the movement data by video recording and distributing the questionnaire and consent form according to instruction.
Effect of focus of attention online feedback on manual body awareness in healthy people
Mohsen Shafizadeh and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (m.shafizadehkenari@ucl.ac.uk)
The aim of this study is to explore to what extent providing different online feedback from the position of hand as a kind of body awareness during the manual targeting task could be helpful for successful reaching. In this experiment two groups of healthy participants (n= 20-24) will be took part in a target reaching task in which they have to reach one hand to achieve a target that is placed in a 40 cm distance from the person. One group will receive the internal focus feedback about their hand position during the reaching task, whereas the other group will receive external focus feedback about the position of the target. All subjects are occluded and cannot use their vision and feedback will be provided by video cameras through projection of the motion and image on the screen. Dependent variables include targeting score (radial error) and hand motion kinematics (e.g. angle, velocity, acceleration).
Speech segmentation in noise: The role of stress and phonotactic cues
Katrin Skoruppa and Stuart Rosen (k.skoruppa@ucl.ac.uk)
This student project investigates what cues listeners can use to break down the speech stream into word units. We will test how normal-hearing adult listeners segment chunks of nonsense syllables (e.g. voolimay) that contain different combinations cues to word boundaries. Specifically, we are going investigate the interplay between stress cues and phonotactic cues in noisy conditions. As for stress cues, most English words tend to start with a strong syllable (e.g. WAter), and English listeners have been shown to assume a word boundary before strong syllables. However, competing phonotactic cues, such as the presence of a consonant combination that is rare within words, such as [kfl], can lead them to revise this strategy. Recent research has shown that such consonant cluster cues can outweigh stress cues in quiet, but listeners tend to rely more on stress cues in noisy condition (Mattys et al. 2005). The current project focusses on the interaction between stress and an acoustically more robust phonotactic cue, that is, vowel tenseness (tense vs. lax vowels, e.g. sheep vs. ship). We have already shown that this factor affects segmentation in quiet in a pilot experiment. The project student would use the same method to investigate speech segmentation in noisy conditions in 16-20 normal-hearing healthy adults. In the long term, we hope that this method can be used to test speech segmentation in patients with hearing impairment, who perceive speech as a degraded, "noisy" signal.
Suggested Reading:
Mattys, White & Melhorn (2005): Integration of Multiple Speech Segmentation Cues: A Hierarchical Framework. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 477–500.
The effect of social power across cultures (1 or 2 students)
Matthias Gobel and Ana Guinote (a.guinote@ucl.ac.uk)
The power one person has over another person is a ubiquitous part of social interactions. Social psychologists have been interested in the effects of power, and studies have shown that power leads to agency, selective information processing, and goal-directed behaviour, to mention a few examples. However, most of the studies have been conducted in Western countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom. One question that remains unanswered is if power has the same effects in different cultures. Indeed, culture provides a framework of shared meaning, values and social norms. Not surprisingly, important differences between individuals from North American or Western European countries and individuals from East Asian countries have been demonstrated with regard to how they feel, think, and behave. The question the present research project investigates is if the effect of power is the same or different across various cultures. To this aim, in our experiments, we compare British students with students from Asian cultures. The task of the interested affiliate student is to help with the organisation and preparation of one or more experiments, the data collection and analysis.
Suggested Reading:
Guinote, A. (2007). Behaviour variability and the Situated Focus Theory of Power. European Review of Social Psychology, 18, 256–295.
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D., & Anderson, C. (2003). Power, approach, and inhibition.
Psychological Review, 110, 265-284.
Please note:
This research project is for affiliate students that identify as Asian or Asian American only.
Behavioural coordination and virtual reality (2-3students)
Daniel Richardson (dcr@eyethink.org)
We will be investigating the consequences that different types of interpersonal coordination have for social interaction. The experiment will be run on pairs of participants who interact with each other in virtual environments. As they talk, we will manipulate the way their virtual selves appear to mimic each other and align their gaze, to see what effect this might have for how well they communicate and how they respond to each other. The project will take place in the 3D Cave environment in the computer science department.
Self reflection: gaze pattern and individual differences (2-3students)
Daniel Richardson (dcr@eyethink.org)
From late-august to late-September my lab (http://www.eyethink.org) will be running an experiment in the London Science Museum in collaboration with the lottolab (http://www.lottolab.org/). We will be presenting participants with images of faces of people who have visited the museum, including their own, and tracking their gaze while they make some judgements about emotions and attractiveness. At the end they will answer some biographical and personality questionnaires. Their gaze patterns to their own and others' faces will be related to various individual differences and personality.
Stefan Frank and Gabriella Vigliocco (s.frank@ucl.ac.uk)
In many experiments that study human sentence comprehension, reading times on words are measured. Although probabilistic models of language predict general patterns of word-reading times, it still unclear which particular psycholinguistic phenemona they are able to explain. In this project, the sentence stimuli from several psycholinguistic experiments will be processed by a number of models, in order to investigate which models can account for which experimental result. Advanced programming skills are not required, but the student on this project will need to have some affinity with programming and maths.
“Damned by Faint Praise” and “Praised by Faint Damning” (2 students)
Adam Harris (adam.harris@ucl.ac.uk)
“Damned by Faint Praise” is the phenomenon whereby weak positive information leads to a negative change in belief. Traditionally, Bayesian models of belief revision are unable to account for such effects because positive information should only exert a positive change on belief. Through a consideration of what information isn’t being provided, however, a version of Bayes’ Theorem incorporating a concept of epistemic closure can predict those conditions under which a ‘Damned by Faint Praise’ effect is observed. In some situations, the model makes unique predictions whereby an individual may also be ‘praised by faint damning’ – that is, a negative piece of information will have a positive effect. Two projects are available using experiments that are designed and ready to run, aside from question booklets being typed up and put together. Each project will require recruitment of 96 unique participants (participants will not be able to participate in both experiments). The experiments will have a similar structure to those in the paper below, which is available at: www.ucl.ac.uk/lagnado-lab/adamharris It is recommended that those interested in this project first read this paper.
Suggested Reading:
Harris, A., Corner, A., & Hahn, U. (2009). "Damned by faint praise": A Bayesian account. In N. A. Taatgen & H. van Rijn (Eds.), Proceedings of the 31st Annual Conference of the Cognitive Science Society (pp. 292-297). Austin, TX: Cognitive Science Society.
Studies of Introspective Access to Reasoning
Petter Johansson and Dave Lagnado (petter@fennel.rcast.u-tokyo.ac.jp)
This research program involves giving participants reasoning tasks (for example the Wason card selection task, or SAT-style test questions) and then obtaining and analyzing reports on the reasoning process the participant used to get their answer. The verbal reports are recorded either with a microphone or by being written down, and can be coded according to several coding schemes. There is also the opportunity to construct a computer version of the experiment to be administered via a website, if a student is skilled with programming.
Does the relative frequency of a word's meaning affect how it is processed by the brain?
Jenni Rodd (j.rodd@ucl.ac.uk)
Many words in language are ambiguous and can refer to multiple concepts. For example the word "bark" can refer to the sound made by a dog and to the outer covering of a tree. To understand a sentence that contains an ambiguous word the listener must decide which meaning is appropriate on the basis of the meanings of the other words in the sentence. We have recently conducted a functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study which has revealed a network of brain regions that are more active when volunteers listen to sentences that contain ambiguous words. Previous behavioural experiments suggest that these sentences should be most difficult to understand when a very low frequency meaning is used, for example the "animal enclosure" meaning of the word "pen". The aim of this new experiment is to obtain accurate estimates of the relative frequencies of the meanings of the words used in our recent fMRI experiment using a variant of a well established word association method in which volunteers are asked to give a word associate for each of the ambiguous words. For example if given the word "bark" they might say either "dog" or "tree" and we can infer from their responses which meaning they retrieved. Once the student has obtained these measures of the relative frequencies of the word meanings, they will be given the opportunity to assist with the analysis of the existing fMRI data to see if there is a relationship between these measures and the brain's response to these words. These results will help constrain our model of how the brain processes spoken language.
Effect of Order of Different Focus of Attention on Choice Reaction Time Task
Mohsen Shafizadeh and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (m.shafizadehkenari@ucl.ac.uk)
In the previous experiment about the effect of focus of attention on speed of decision-making we showed that external focus (focus on environment) speed up reaction time, but this effect depends on the body laterality so that the internal focus (focus on fingers) condition had better performance when the task required the S-R compatibility. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of focus of attention on speed of decision-making in a keyboard choice reaction time task when the order of stimulus cues is different. The design of experiment is between-within subject design in which two independent groups have to execute the task 200 trials in different conditions. One group (n=12-15) will receive stimulus cues about the finger (R/L) first and stimulus cues about the keys (B/W) second, whereas the other group (n=12-15) will receive stimulus cues about the keys (B/W) first and stimulus cues about the finger (R/L) later. Reaction time will be computed after each trial. Your duties are to find participants, to run the experiment on a standard desk computer and distributing the consent form.
Effect of Rhythmic Cues on Movement-Specific Self-efficacy
Mohsen Shafizadeh and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (m.shafizadehkenari@ucl.ac.uk)
Self-efficacy is the belief to execute the specific movement that originates from different resources such as physical practice, imagery, modelling, self-talking, and feedback. According to scientific studies, providing auditory cues to performer could improve the movement coordination, performance, and self-confidence. The aim of this study is to investigate the effect of auditory cues on motor control and task-specific self-efficacy in a stand-to-sit task in healthy people. The design of experiment is between-within subject design in which two independent groups have to execute the task 45 trials in different conditions. One group (n=12-15) will receive auditory cue by metronome, whereas the other group (n=12-15) will not. Self-efficacy will be completed after each 5-trial. Digital video camera and motion analysis software will analysis the movement to compute inter-joint coordination, movement hesitation, and velocity of movement. Your duties are to find participants, to collect the movement data by video recording and distributing the questionnaire and consent form according to instruction.
Effect of focus of attention online feedback on manual body awareness in healthy people
Mohsen Shafizadeh and Nadia Bianchi-Berthouze (m.shafizadehkenari@ucl.ac.uk)
The aim of this study is to explore to what extent providing different online feedback from the position of hand as a kind of body awareness during the manual targeting task could be helpful for successful reaching. In this experiment two groups of healthy participants (n= 20-24) will be took part in a target reaching task in which they have to reach one hand to achieve a target that is placed in a 40 cm distance from the person. One group will receive the internal focus feedback about their hand position during the reaching task, whereas the other group will receive external focus feedback about the position of the target. All subjects are occluded and cannot use their vision and feedback will be provided by video cameras through projection of the motion and image on the screen. Dependent variables include targeting score (radial error) and hand motion kinematics (e.g. angle, velocity, acceleration).
Speech segmentation in noise: The role of stress and phonotactic cues
Katrin Skoruppa and Stuart Rosen (k.skoruppa@ucl.ac.uk)
This student project investigates what cues listeners can use to break down the speech stream into word units. We will test how normal-hearing adult listeners segment chunks of nonsense syllables (e.g. voolimay) that contain different combinations cues to word boundaries. Specifically, we are going investigate the interplay between stress cues and phonotactic cues in noisy conditions. As for stress cues, most English words tend to start with a strong syllable (e.g. WAter), and English listeners have been shown to assume a word boundary before strong syllables. However, competing phonotactic cues, such as the presence of a consonant combination that is rare within words, such as [kfl], can lead them to revise this strategy. Recent research has shown that such consonant cluster cues can outweigh stress cues in quiet, but listeners tend to rely more on stress cues in noisy condition (Mattys et al. 2005). The current project focusses on the interaction between stress and an acoustically more robust phonotactic cue, that is, vowel tenseness (tense vs. lax vowels, e.g. sheep vs. ship). We have already shown that this factor affects segmentation in quiet in a pilot experiment. The project student would use the same method to investigate speech segmentation in noisy conditions in 16-20 normal-hearing healthy adults. In the long term, we hope that this method can be used to test speech segmentation in patients with hearing impairment, who perceive speech as a degraded, "noisy" signal.
Suggested Reading:
Mattys, White & Melhorn (2005): Integration of Multiple Speech Segmentation Cues: A Hierarchical Framework. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 134, 477–500.
The effect of social power across cultures (1 or 2 students)
Matthias Gobel and Ana Guinote (a.guinote@ucl.ac.uk)
The power one person has over another person is a ubiquitous part of social interactions. Social psychologists have been interested in the effects of power, and studies have shown that power leads to agency, selective information processing, and goal-directed behaviour, to mention a few examples. However, most of the studies have been conducted in Western countries such as the United States or the United Kingdom. One question that remains unanswered is if power has the same effects in different cultures. Indeed, culture provides a framework of shared meaning, values and social norms. Not surprisingly, important differences between individuals from North American or Western European countries and individuals from East Asian countries have been demonstrated with regard to how they feel, think, and behave. The question the present research project investigates is if the effect of power is the same or different across various cultures. To this aim, in our experiments, we compare British students with students from Asian cultures. The task of the interested affiliate student is to help with the organisation and preparation of one or more experiments, the data collection and analysis.
Suggested Reading:
Guinote, A. (2007). Behaviour variability and the Situated Focus Theory of Power. European Review of Social Psychology, 18, 256–295.
Keltner, D., Gruenfeld, D., & Anderson, C. (2003). Power, approach, and inhibition.
Psychological Review, 110, 265-284.
Please note:
This research project is for affiliate students that identify as Asian or Asian American only.
Behavioural coordination and virtual reality (2-3students)
Daniel Richardson (dcr@eyethink.org)
We will be investigating the consequences that different types of interpersonal coordination have for social interaction. The experiment will be run on pairs of participants who interact with each other in virtual environments. As they talk, we will manipulate the way their virtual selves appear to mimic each other and align their gaze, to see what effect this might have for how well they communicate and how they respond to each other. The project will take place in the 3D Cave environment in the computer science department.
Self reflection: gaze pattern and individual differences (2-3students)
Daniel Richardson (dcr@eyethink.org)
From late-august to late-September my lab (http://www.eyethink.org) will be running an experiment in the London Science Museum in collaboration with the lottolab (http://www.lottolab.org/). We will be presenting participants with images of faces of people who have visited the museum, including their own, and tracking their gaze while they make some judgements about emotions and attractiveness. At the end they will answer some biographical and personality questionnaires. Their gaze patterns to their own and others' faces will be related to various individual differences and personality.
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