Fall 2019
LAB IN COGNITION AND PERCEPTION
Instructors
Professor: Todd Gureckis, PhD
Email: todd.gureckis@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Monday 3-4pm, or by appointment
Office: Meyer 859
Teaching Assistant: Hillary Raab
Email: har292@nyu.edu
Office Hours: Wednesday 12-1pm, or by appointment
Office: Meyer 888
Place and Time
Meyer 159 MW: 10-11:50
Textbook
You are looking at it! You will refer to this website for reading, lecture slides, and other exercises. Sometimes links will be provided to other websites and videos.
Assignments
The grade in the course will be determined by the following categories:
Class Participation (10% of grade)
Attendance and participation in lectures and labs is essential. There are in-class tasks and assignments in most class periods that cannot be made up later. Short quizzes will be assigned in class at the start of each lecture and will be a major part of the participation grade.
Homework (20% of grade)
We will have fairly regular homeworks (at least once a week). These should not be too long or onerous and should let you develop your skill and practice material covered in class. Often you will complete these assignments by filling out a webform or by completing some exercises on the class Jupyterhub instance and submitting your completed notebooks.
Labs (30% of grade)
The later part of the course will consist of three lab units. These labs will expose key concepts in the psychology of cognition and perception and will consist of multiple exercises and reports. Most of this work will take place in the Jupyterhub.
Writing Assignments (15% of grade)
At various times during the semester we will have written assignments which give you practice summarizing research results in paper form. Rarely will this require writing an entire paper from scratch. Instead, you will be ask to write sub-sections of a total article.
Final Project (25% of grade)
The course builds to a final project which will be completed in groups. The final project will involve designing and experiment, collecting the data, and analyzing it. Students may work in small groups (~2-3 people), but each will independently write a final report of the research. The final written paper should be in journal format using APA style with an abstract, intro, methods, results, discussion, and references. Format 12-20 typed double-space pages, 11pt Ariel or Times font. (bibliography not included in the page limit). Each person is expected to write their own intro and conclusion, but the group can collaborate on the methods and results sections if they want. At the end of the class each group will give a ~10 minute presentation on their project (background, hypothesis, experimental design, results, analyses, conclusions). Paper Due at Midnight on the last day of class.
- Paper: 15%
- Presentation: 10%
Classroom Policies
Honor code and plagarism
All work that students turn in must be their own work. For group assignments, all work must have been done by the students on the team and must include an acknowledgements section detailing the contribution of each team member. Any outside sources (articles, books, people) must be appropriately cited in written assignments. Turning in someone else's work as your own is unacceptable and will result in a failing grade. Written assignments will be run through a website that checks for plagarism and we have code that compares the submitted responses across class members. Most importantly, such behavior is academically dishonest and lazy. Submit only your own ideas and words.
Late Assignments
All papers and presentations are due at the date and time specified. Scores for late papers will be reduced by 10% for every 24-hour period a paper is late. No extensions will be granted due to computer failure, roommate difficulties, printing problems, etc.
Technology
Computers and tablets may be used in class, but use of cell phones will not be permitted (no phone calls, ringers, or texting).
Disabilities
Any student with a documented disability needing academic adjustments or accommodations is requested to speak with me by the end of the second week of the term.
Religious observances
Some students may wish to take part in religious observances that occur during this academic term. If you have a religious observance which conflicts with your participation in the course, please meet with me by the end of the second week of the term to discuss appropriate accommodations.
Computing Environment
The course will rely on a online computing environment called Jupyter. Each student will have their own JupyterHub instance and can connect to this from a variety of devices over the internet. The address of the class JupyterHub is http://labincp.jupyter.hpc.nyu.edu. You will log in with your normal NYUHome credentials. You will have to have a HPC account created so check with the TA or instructor if it is not working for you.
Communication
We will use a website called Piazza to facilitate discussion outside of class. You can post questions about any of the course content and the TA or instructor will try their best to respond quickly. By asking your question on the public forum you can learn from the questions and answers of your fellow students. The link is here: https://piazza.com/class/k059qm82ubi6s8.
Schedule
Each class will be divided into two parts. A lecture covering basic aspects of psychological research and a lab session teaching practical skills for data analysis, exploration, and stastistical reporting. A link to the current schedule can be found here.