Summer+Reading

Your assignment this summer, if you want to be in this class, is to read and take notes on Opening Skinner's Box.

Your first writing assignment is to take the experiment that was assigned to you and identify:

What type of study was used: case study, naturalistic observation, survey, correlation study, experimental research, explain why it was this type of study. What was the original motivation or purpose of the study? Population: Research design elements: (identify any relevant) control group, independent vs. dependent variables, random sample, random assignment, placebo, single vs. double blind, control group, experimental group, hindsight bias, overconfidence, wording effect, false consensus, illusory correlation, sample size. If sample size is large enough to generalize from? Why or why not statistically?

Was any research bias present? explain why. What, if any, were the expected outcomes? What, if anything, did not go according to plan? What made this experiment so important? short term? long term? (sometimes they are the same, sometimes different) Ethical considerations. Could this experiment be done today in compliance with APA ethics regulations, why or why not? If you were to replicate this experiment, how would you change it and why?

Your project product will be to create a poster that answers all but the last of the above questions. In a museum walk, you will each read and create questions about each others' experiments. The next day you will have a chance to answer these questions and share your response to the final question.

This 100pt project will be graded as: Poster: 55pts (50pts for accurately answering questions in detail, 5pts for visual clarity and aesthetics) Questions: 25pts for generating 5 high-leveled, open-ended original questions. (no "gotcha" weirdness though) Discussion: 20pts for articulating the most important aspects of your experiment (everyone else read the book, no need to summarize) and addressing the final question and your reasons why.

Google Form for submitting your thought provoking questions