Jack L. Vevea (psyc010ucm@gmail.com)
Social Science and Management Building, room 306-A
Office hour: Wednesdays, 9:00-11:00, or by appointment.
Katie Coburn (kcoburn@ucmerced.edu)
Social Science and Management Building, room 303
Office hours: Mondays, 12:00-1:30 P.M.
Nicole Zelinsky (nzelinsky@ucmerced.edu)
Social Science and Management Building, room 328
Office hours: Tuesdays, 6:00-7:30 P.M.
The textbook for this course will be the hardcover edition of Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences (9th edition) by Gravetter and Wallnau.In addition to the text, you should purchase a pocket calculator. There is no need for an expensive calculator. You should get one that has at least one memory register, and that can perform basic functions such as square roots. A typical $15 Hewlett Packard or equivalent is fine. Bring it to class meetings. Note that cell phone calculators and calculators on laptop computers are not acceptable: You will not be allowed to use them during exams.
We will meet Mondays and Wednesdays from 5:30 to 7:20 PM in Classroom Building 116.
Psychology 10 addresses the statistical principles underlying psychological research. We will focus on descriptive and inferential statistical techniques and the manner in which they are employed in the design of psychological experiments and analysis of behavioral data.The goal of this course is only in part to offer a sequential presentation of some of the basic statistical techniques you might need for simple analyses of psychological data. More importantly, it is to teach the skill of thinking statistically and to foster a basic understanding that will enable the student to learn and understand analytic techniques independently.
The learning objectives for this course are:
By the end of the semester, students should be able to:
You must have successfully completed PSY 001, Introduction to Psychology, or COGS 001, Introduction to Cognitive Science, to enroll in this course.
Attendance
Regular attendance in class is essential. Many classes will have an in-class activity, and your work on that activity will be collected at the end of the class. The attendance component of your grade will be based on the proportion of in-class assignments for which you were present.
Attendance will count for 10 percent of your final grade. We recognize that a few absences during the semester are almost inevitable. Accordingly, your attendance grade will be based on the proportion of times you are present when attendance is taken, but with three "free passes" during the semester. That is, for up to three absences you will be counted as present. Your attendance score will use the following mappings of percentage to grade:
Percent Present Grade 98-100 A+ 92-97 A 90-91 A- 88-89 B+ 82-87 B 80-82 B- 78-79 C+ 72-77 C 70-72 C- 60-69 D <60 F(Percentages between grade boundaries will be rounded down if below .5, or up if equal to or above .5. For example, 87.5% would count as a B+, but 87.4% would count as a B.)
Homework
There are twelve homework assignments specified in the course outline below. Homework must be submitted by the beginning of class on the due date specified in the course outline. There will be no exceptions to this policy. We understand that on occasion circumstances may make it impossible to complete work on time. For that reason, we will drop your two lowest homework scores before we calculate a composite score.
Homework will count for 30 percent of your final grade.
Midterm examinations
There will be two midterm exams during regularly scheduled class time on the dates specified in the course outline. You will be allowed to use calculators, notes, and books. The purpose of making the exam open-book, open-notes is to encourage students to focus on conceptual understanding more than on rote memorization of formulas. Your book and notes can provide formulas; students who rely on books and notes as a substitute for thorough understanding of the material will almost certainly be unable to finish the exams in the allotted time.You may not use cell phone calculators, tablets, laptop computers, personal music players, or any device that allows electronic communication during exams.
Each midterm exam will count for 20 percent of your final grade.
Final examination
There will be a three-hour final exam during the scheduled final exam period for this class. The same materials and devices allowed (or prohibited) for the midterms will be allowed (or prohibited) for the final exam.
This exam will be comprehensive; that is, it will cover material from the entire quarter. If your final exam grade is higher than your lowest midterm grade, it will replace the lowest midterm grade. However, a higher final exam grade cannot replace both midterm grades.
The final exam will count for 20 percent of your final grade.
Calculation of grades
The components described above make up the final grade in the following manner. First, each component (attendance, homework, first midterm exam, second midterm exam, final exam) gets a grade point value: A+ = 4.3, A = 4.0, A- = 3.7, B+ = 3.3, B = 3.0, B- = 2.7, and so on. The weighted average of the grade points from the five components determines your final grade. The following table shows the mapping of grade point averages to letter grades:
Grade Point Range Letter Grade GPA > 4.25 A+ 3.75 < GPA < 4.25 A 3.50 < GPA < 3.75 A- 3.25 < GPA < 3.50 B+ 2.75 < GPA < 3.25 B 2.50 < GPA < 2.75 B- 2.25 < GPA < 2.50 C+ 1.75 < GPA < 2.25 C 1.50 < GPA < 1.75 C- 0.75 < GPA < 1.50 D GPA < 0.75 FIn the rare case where a student is precisely on the cusp between two letter grades, classroom participation determines whether the student receives the higher or lower grade.
One aspect of academic honesty that needs clarification for this class is cooperative work on homework assignments. Students are welcome to work together on computational aspects of homework. However, we expect your write-up to be accomplished independently. Therefore, homework papers from different students with identical or nearly identical prose will be considered to violate the academic honesty policy.
Another point worth mentioning pertains to the use of statistical software or calculators. In this class, we expect computations to be performed by hand (using only the basic functions of your calculator). If you have a statistical calculator and know how to use it, it is fine to employ it to check your work. However, both on homework and on exams, we expect to see written evidence of your computations (and not simply a final answer). Answers that do not show work will not receive credit.
Initial class meeting: introductions, using the class web page, scheduling and enrollment issues.Philosophy of teaching.
Statistics, variables, and the scientific method. S.S. Stevens' levels of measurement. Some notation issues.
Reading: all of chapter 1. Note: Ordinarily, you should complete the reading before the class meeting where it is listed. Today is the sole exception (because it is the first class meeting).
Frequency distributions, aspects of shape.Reading: All of chapter 2.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 1; due February 5.
Measures of central tendency.Reading: Chapter 3 through section 3.4.
Measures of central tendency, continued.Reading: Chapter 3, section 3.5 to the end.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 2; due February 12.
Measures of variability.Reading: All of Chapter 4.
Review.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 3; due February 19.
First midterm examination.
No class meeting (Presidents' Day).
Review of the midterm.Changes under linear transformation.
Standard scores.
Introduction to probability.
Reading: All of chapter 5.
Probability, continued.The concept of the sampling distribution.
Reading: All of Chapter 6.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 4; due March 5.
The central limit theorem.
Reading: All of chapter 7.
The central limit theorem, continued.Introduction to hypothesis testing.
Reading: Chapter 8 through section 8.4.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 5; due March 12.
Hypothesis testing, continued.Effect sizes and statistical power.
Reading: Chapter 8, section 8.5 through the end.
The chi-square statistic: different null hypothesis, same logic.Reading: Chapter 17 through section 17.3.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 6; due March 19.
The t test.Reading: All of Chapter 9.
Review.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 7; due April 2.
Second midterm examination.
No class meeting; Spring Break.
Review of second midterm exam.
The two-sample t test for independent groups.Reading: All of Chapter 10.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 8; due April 9.
The independent-groups t test, continued.
The t test for two related samples.Reading: All of Chapter 11.
Estimation and confidence intervals.No new reading.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 9; due April 16.
The analysis of variance (ANOVA).Reading: Chapter 12 through section 12.5.
ANOVA, continued. Post hoc comparisons.Reading: Chapter 12, section 12.6 through the end.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 10; due April 23.
Two-way (factorial) ANOVA.Reading: Chapter 14, sections 14.1 through 14.3.
Two-way (factorial) ANOVA (continued).Reading: Chapter 14, section 14.4 through the end.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 11; due April 30.
Correlation.Reading: Chapter 15, sections 15.1 through 15.4.
Correlation, continued.Introduction to regression.
Reading: Chapter 16, section 16.1 through 16.2. Chapter 17, sections 17.1 and 17.2.
Homework:
You are ready to begin Homework 12; due May 7.
Regression, continued.
Course review.
Final Examination, 3:00-6:00 P.M. in Classroom 105. (Note that this is not our usual classroom!)