Full Year Courses

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY


Affiliate Student Information (Full Year Only)
2007 – 2008
Full-year Affiliate Students may take the courses listed below in addition to any of the courses available to Fall Term and Spring Term Affiliates (please see additional information sheets for these).
FOR ANY COURSES YOU CHOOSE IN TERM 1, PLEASE ENSURE THAT YOU DO NOT ENTER THE “A” AT THE END OF THE COURSE CODE WHEN REGISTERING YOUR COURSES ON PORTICO (THIS CODE IS ADDED FOR THOSE WHO ARE ONLY HERE FOR 1ST TERM AND ARE ASSESSED DIFFERENTLY).
Introductory Psychology Courses

PSYC1104 INTRODUCTION TO STATISTICAL METHODS ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Alastair McClelland
Email: a.mclelland@ucl.ac.uk

Description: The aims of this course are to give students grounding in a variety of descriptive and inferential statistical methods commonly used in Psychology. The course also provides a foundation for the more advanced 2204 course, and gives students the necessary statistical knowledge required for the 1103 laboratory course. Students are also introduced to computer-based statistical analysis (Minitab). The topics covered in the course are: Basic Statistical Concepts; Scales of Measurement; Research Designs; Frequency Distributions, Bar Charts and Scattergrams; Measures of Central Tendency and Dispersion; Parameter Estimation; Linear Transformations and Standard Scores, The Normal Distribution and Z Scores; Probability; Contingency Tables; The Binomial Distribution; Hypothesis Testing; t-Tests; Analysis of Variance; Simple Linear Regression; Correlation; Chi-square.


PSYC1103 INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS ½ CU
Convenor: Prof Nilli Lavie
Email: n.lavie@ucl.ac.uk

Description: In this course students are introduced to the various experimental methods used in the different disciplines of Psychology, and learn techniques for designing and conducting experiments. In each session, students participate in experiments and then the experimental design and procedure are discussed and the data collected. The analysed data are provided to the students in a report-back session in the following week. There are laboratory classes within each of the following subject areas: Perception and speech, Memory and learning, Attention, Social and Occupational Psychology, Judgment and Decision Making, Emotion and Language. Students are required to write 8 laboratory reports and these form the basis for the assessment.


PSYC2208 COGNITION AND LANGUAGE ½ CU
Convenor: Dr David Green
Email: d.w.green@ucl.ac.uk

Description: This course aims to convey the results and implications of recent research on central cognitive processes in thinking and language and the brain systems involved and to discuss the relevant methodologies.
Lectures 1-10: Cognitive processes and language: aims to convey key ideas on the nature of human cognition and language and the main controversies in the field.Lectures 11-20 Language production and comprehension: aims to provide an overview of the main processes involved in producing and understanding single words and sentences and the dominant theories in the field. Lectures 20-25 Neuropsychological studies: aims to convey the use of neuropsychological data in understanding speech production, reading and numerical cognition.
The course objectives are to ensure that students both know, and can assess the evidence and theories and so improve their skills in formulating and evaluating psychological arguments.



Advanced Psychology Courses

PSYC2204 DESIGN AND ANALYSIS OF PSYCHOLOGICAL EXPERIMENTS ½ CU
Convenor: Dr Alastair McClelland
Email: a.mclelland@ucl.ac.uk

Description: This course aims to provide students with the knowledge required to design sound psychological studies and to apply appropriate analyses to the results. Additional aims are to furnish students with a sound theoretical understanding of the methods taught, as well as practical instruction in the use of computer packages (SPSS). The topics covered are: Non-parametric statistical tests; Introduction to Analysis of Variance (ANOVA); One‑Way ANOVA (Between and within subjects designs); Contrast and Trend Analysis in One‑Way ANOVA; Factorial ANOVA (Between and within subjects designs); Split‑plot (Mixed) ANOVA. Non‑linear Data Transformations; Correlation and Simple Regression (Revision); Multiple Regression; Hierarchical Regression; Forming New Variables for Existing Variables; The General Linear Model; Introduction to Factor Analysis.


PSYC2203 RESEARCH AND QUANTITATIVE METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY ½ CU
Convenor: Prof Peter Howell
Email: p.howell@ucl.ac.uk

Description: The course builds on PSYC1103, the First Year laboratory course. The main aim of the course is to enable students to design and carry out a piece of experimental work, to analyse it, and to write a report. Students carry out four research projects, one in each of the following areas: Visual Perception, Language/Cognition, Body Awareness and Constructing and using Questionnaires. The fifth project (mini‑project) is carried out in an area selected by the student, and is supervised by an appropriate member of staff.


PSYC3901 INDEPENDENT RESEARCH PROJECT 1 CU

Description: This is an empirical, usually experimental, piece of research on a psychological topic of your own choice. Projects are completed under the supervision of a member of staff. There are two pieces of work which you need to complete for the Project. The first piece, the Research Proposal, is worth 10% of the total mark for the Project. The second piece of work is the Project itself, which should approximate to a paper that you would see in a journal. This piece of work is worth 90% of the total mark for the Course Unit.