Teaching Research Methods and Cognitive Psychology Laboratories with a Networked Microcomputer Cluster

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This proposal is one component of our plan to increase the participation of psychology majors in independent scientific research. We have two goals: One is to increase the quality of scientific thinking among our majors so that they will receive more effective liberal educations; the second is to encourage more students to pursue careers in cognitive science. The requested microcomputer cluster will allow us to integrate research methods courses and cognitive core courses on learning, memory and cognition, and perception. In addition, we will have greater flexibility to add timely experiments to the laboratories. Students will be able to manipulate the parameters of those experiments so that they can participate more fully in the entire research process rather than simply doing experiments to confirm principles. Finally, a supervised cluster in the Psychology Department will give the students expert assistance in using the computers, and it will create a place where students can gather, carry out their research projects, and discuss the results. This increased student involvement in research should lead to more students performing independent projects. Thus, we envision an integrated, laboratory based curricular path beginning with basic instruction in research design and analysis and culminating in a piece of independent research.