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Participation Assignments

Participation assignments should submitted to the Assignments Page on the course Sakai Site  by 10:00 am of the day that they are due.  You will not receive credit for participation assignments unless you are in class on the day of the discussion.  You should write your assignment in a word processor and then paste it into the box on the assignments page.  Your submission should be single spaced and you should not put your name or a title at the top of your submission.

1: Psychophysics & Food

Read the excerpt on Junk Food by Moss (NY Times, 2013). It is available under Resources/Participation Readings on the course Sakai site. (The full article is there as well if you want to read it.) Comment on some aspect of the article that you find interesting.

2: Bionic Eye

Read and comment on the 2003 New Yorker article called The Bionic Eye by Jerome Groopman. It is available under Resources on the course Sakai site.

3: Restoring Sight?

There are two options for this assignment; you should only do one of them. You should read and comment on the article listed below or you should track down recent information about whether there has been progress in creating implantable electrode arrays of the sort described in The Bionic Eye (see Resources on the Sakai site); if so, what are some factors that have contributed to that progress?

  • To See and Not to See by Oliver Sacks

4.a: Applied Cognition in Transportation Research: Decision-making and Design by Dr. Emanuel Robinson

Zoom into the talk by Dr. Robinson from 1:00-2:00 on Thursday September 10 (link here).  Describe one aspect of the talk that you found interesting.  Say why you found it interesting and how it relates to sensation and perception.  Dr. Robinson is  Senior Research Scientist at Westat.  Information about him can be found here.  Submit your participation assignment by 5:00 pm on Friday (September 11) by emai.

 

4: Spatial Sense & Impaired Vision

Read one of the two articles listed below.  Your comments on the article should begin with a two-to-three sentence description of the main point of the paper and the kind of evidence that is presented in support of that point. This should be followed by an evaluation of some aspect of the article (e.g., why it was compelling, why it wasn’t compelling, an aspect of the method that was interesting or one that you saw as problematic, etc).

  • Amedi et al. (2005).  The occipital cortex in the blind: Lessons about plasticity and vision. Current Directions in Psychological Science.
  • Cheung et al.  (2009). Retinotopic reorganization of visual cortex for tactile pattern recognition. Current Biology.

5: Visual Dementia

Read Crutch et al. (2016). Looking but not seeing… Current Directions in Psychological Science. Your comments on the article should begin with a two-to-three sentence description of the main point of the paper and the kind of evidence that is presented in support of that point. This should be followed by an evaluation of some aspect of the article (e.g., why it was compelling, why it wasn’t compelling, an aspect of the method that was interesting or one that you saw as problematic, etc).

6: Attention

Select and read one of the articles that is listed in Attention folder under Readings on the course Sakai site. Your comments on the article should begin with a two-to-three sentence description of the main point of the paper and the kind of evidence that is presented in support of that point. This should be followed by an evaluation of some aspect of the article (e.g., why it was compelling, why it wasn’t compelling, an aspect of the method that was interesting or one that you saw as problematic, etc).  If possible, you should describe an experiment that would test some issue that was raised in your mind by the article.

7: Tinnitus

You should read and comment on the New Yorker article by Groopman on tinnitus. It is in the Hearing folder under Readings on the course Sakai site.

 

8: Report to Class on Experiment Plan & Goals

You should give a brief report (no more than 5 minutes) the goals and plan for your experiment. You may break down the report into components and have different students present different parts or you may a single student present the project. In either case, all students in a group who are in class for the presentation will receive participation credt. Your report should include the following:

  • The names of the students in your group.
  • The topic and how it relates to your hypothesis for the experiment.
  • The design of your experiment.
    • The independent variables.
    • The dependent variables.
  • How the design allows the hypothesis to be tested.
  • Things that you still need to figure out.

9: Dilemmas in Treating Pain

You should read and comment on one of the articles in the Treating Pain folder under Readings on the course Sakai site. Your comments on the article should begin with a two-to-three sentence description of the main point of the paper and the kind of argument that is presented in support of that point.

10: Best Project

Which project did you think was best (other than your own)?  Describe those aspects of the project that made it interesting and contributed to your understanding of the issues. Did the group doing the project do anything that you wished you had done on your own project.  You must be present for both days of project presentations in order to get credit for this assignment.  There is a link under assignments for you to submit your participation assignment.  It is due by 11:55 pm on Friday, November 13.

11: Smell, Taste & Food

You should read and comment on one of the articles in the Smell, Taste & Food folder under Readings on the course Sakai site.