Lab Schedule of Events and Handouts

In addition to a few additional lectures on the theory of experimental design, this course assumes 13 2-hour labs to learn about the software, to learn about how to write APA papers, and to implement experiments and collect data.

Week 1 (Introduction)

Hand out and go over syllabus (10 min)
Goals: (2 min)
- Learn and understand experimental design
- Learn to use E' and Statview
- Learn to read and write APA format
- Learn details of conducting and interpreting experiments
Very brief overview of APA format (5 min)
Go over writing a reference page and give some examples. Give Reference page Worksheet. (15 min)
Show how to use PsycInfo from Web interface (30 min)

Week 2 (Powerpoint overview of E-Prime)

References Page Worksheet due. (2 min)
Assign students to read Blair & Banaji (1996) for following week. (2 min)
Go over DV/IV, hypothesis, operational definition (25 min) (see details)
- Discuss concepts abstractly first
- Then do color Stroop demo
- Then go over DV/IV, hypothesis, & operational definition for Stroop (i.e., how to fill out Design Worksheet for the Stroop experiment
- Then assign Design Worksheet for Blair & Banaji (Experiment 1 only)
Intro to E', part 1 (40 min) (ppt slideshow)
- Have students get into pairs
- Do powerpoint demo in pairs
- Answer powerpoint questions about E-Prime on E-Prime Tour Worksheet
- Hand in E-Prime Tour Worksheet (1 sheet per pair) (Answer sheet)

Blair, I.V., & Banaji, M.R. (1996). Automatic and controlled process in stereotype priming. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 70(6), 1142-1163.

Week 3 (E-Studio, E-Run)

Return References Page Worksheet and E-Prime Worksheet.
Design Worksheet 1 due (2 min)
Go over requirements for Paper 1 assignment (5 min)
- This will be a description of the methods and results of the Blair & Banaji replication that will be conducted by the class together using E-Prime
Cover APA format for Intro (20 min)
Go over design of Blair & Banaji & ask students about whether you can measure stereotype knowledge this way (i.e., using priming effects) (5 min)
Assign students to read two more papers on reserve and find three more related papers. Assign Design Worksheets for two of these papers (1st experiment in each paper only). (5 min)
Intro to E', part II (40 min) (part1, part2, part3, part4, part5)
- Have students get into pairs
- Do E-studio and E-run tutorial in pairs
- Answer questions about E-studio and E-run on worksheet (answers)
- Run experiment, and hand in resulting data on a disk
  - have runnable demo available in case students have problems
- Hand in E-studio worksheet (1 sheet per pair)
- Remove files created by students (experiment + data)

Week 4 (Paradigm Wizard & Trouble-shooting)

Return design worksheet 1 and E-studio worksheet 2.
- Go over common mistakes, hand back answer sheet
Design worksheets 2&3 are due.
Go over APA format for Methods section (20 min)
Intro to E', part III (60 min)
- Have students get into pairs
- Do Trouble-shooting tutorial in pairs
  - Make sure they copy Tutorial.es to top of MyExperiments folder
- Do Paradigm wizard tutorial in pairs
- Answer question about paradigm wizard on worksheet (answers)
- Hand in worksheet (1 sheet per pair)
- Run experiment (pre-made one so that everyone's data format is exactly the same).
  - Close the open experiment
  - Goto MyComputer\C:\ProgramFiles\PST\E-Prime\Runnable Wizard
  - Open the file RunnableWizard.es
  - Run this experiment (all 160 trials); only 1 per pair
  - For "Subject Number" enter the computer number (on top of monitor)
  - For "Session Number" enter 1
  - For "Group Number" enter number depending on lab section # (1 if only one lab section)

Week 5 (E-Merge, E-DataAid, Statview)

Intro & Methods drafts are due.
Hand back Design Worksheets 2&3, and Paradigm Wizard Worksheet
- Go over common mistakes, hand back answer sheet
Install group data files generated on week 3 onto all machines (before class)
Go over APA format for Results, Discussion & Abstract sections (15 min)
Announce that students need to bring E-Studio and Paradigm Wizard tutorials again next week. For this stereotype priming experiment, they there were given very careful step-by-step instructions. For the next two weeks, they will design, run, and analyze data from a Stroop experiment. This time the instructions won't be as detailed. The idea is to gradually get them to the point were they can design and analyze their own experiments (for the final project).
Intro to E', part IV (45 min)
- Have students work in pairs
- Explain that working with Student generated data (which should have been copied to every machine).
- Do E-Merge tutorial
- Do E-DataAid tutorial
- Do E-Merge on class generated data (Separate data by class in My Experiments folder)
- Do E-DataAid on class generated data
- Answer questions on E-Merge/E-DataAid worksheet (answers)
- Hand in MergeDataAid worksheet (1 sheet per pair)
- Do stats on class generated data (using Statview)
- Go over stats output sheets
- Answer questions on Statview (answers)
- Hand in Statview worksheet (1 sheet per pair)
- Get students to think about why the results are different from what was expected (that male-male, female-female conditions should have been fastest). How did the current experiment differ from the original Blair & Banaji experiment?
  - only two names (Bob, Linda), therefore not really a male/female categorization task
  - no feedback, so may have high error rates

Week 6 (Stroop design)

Results, Discussion & Abstract drafts are due
Return intro & methods draft and go over main problems (15 min)
Hand back E-Merge/E-DataAid & Statview Worksheets (10 min)
- Go over common mistakes, hand back answer sheet
Bring extra copies of E-Studio and Paradigm Wizard
Intro to Stroop Experiment in E' (45 min)
- Go over theoretical question & experimental paradigm of Number Stroop
  - Are some processes more automatic than others? Can a more automatic process interfere with a less automatic process
  - See if people can ignore a more automatic process (reading) while doing a less automatic task (counting)
- Go over structure of experiment (types of trials)
- Specify IV (condition= control, congruent, incongruent) and DVs (accuracy / RT)
- Make a table that lists all 20 possible stimuli and then what condition they are in and what the correct answer should be for each.
- Create experiment from scratch using Paradigm wizard
- Hand in creation to instructor on disk: grade is based on this product rather than worksheet

Week 7 (Run Stroop & analyze)

Install "runnable Stroop" on each computer
Return Results, Discussion & Abstract drafts and go over main problems (15 min)
Go over problems that occurred in the design of the Stroop Experiment
Run Stroop in E' (45 min)
- All students run experiment alone on a computer ("runnable Stroop" version, not the one they created)
- Gather all student's data onto a disk
- Put group data on all computers and have students work in groups of twos (Instructions)
- Have each group run E-Merge, E-DataAid to get appropriate means
- Each group turns in one filled out worksheet
- Reasons why the experiment might not have worked:
  - subitizing for small numbers
  - maybe only analyze strings of length 5 and 6
  - using perceptual string length instead of counting to make judgments
  - maybe should have sometimes spread them out to different lengths

Week 8 (Final projects)

Final version of full paper is due
Hand back Stroop Worksheets (10 min)
- Go over common mistakes, hand back answer sheet
Go over ground rules for final projects (20 min)
- Describe list of experiments that are already available in E'. Students cannot run the existing programs without doing a substantial variation.
- Students will get more points if they create a new program from scratch.
- Experiments should be motivated by some theoretical question or a practically important question that one might expect to go either way.
- Projects can have something to do with memory and/or cognition
- Projects don't have to be done with E-Prime
- Experiments must be cleared with TA in advance.
- Populations other than college students are possible, but exact details must be cleared with TA in advance.
Begin discussion of ideas/designs for final projects. (30 min)
- Sources of ideas
  - Topics from class that were interesting
  - Phenomena from own life
- Follow up methods
  - Find readings on the topic via textbook & PsycInfo
  - Talk to expert in the area
Review Experimental Design issues

Week 9 (Discussion of project ideas)

Return paper. Go over additional problems found.
Discuss project ideas as a group.
Meet individually with students to go over project ideas
- Students need clearance before they can start running their experiments

Week 10 (Review of statistical concepts; Statview tutorial)

Go over ANOVA, F, p as general constructs
Go over main effects and interactions (with example graphs of each type of interaction)
- how to find main effects in 2-way graphs and tables for both dimensions
- how to find interaction effects in2-way graphs and tables (parallel line test, not cross-line test)
- ignore small noise levels in data
Go over how to organize data and how to do analyses in Statview
- Students work on ANOVA worksheet (1 way within/between, 2 ways w/b/mixed)
- Students hand in worksheet (1 per pair) (answers)

Week 11 (Participation in projects)

Hand back Statview2 Worksheets (10 min)
- Go over common mistakes, hand back answer sheet
Warn students about nature and content of the final presentations.
Participate in others' experiments

Week 12 (Participation in projects)

Participate in others' experiments
Students with data already collected should work on data analysis for own experiment-be prepared to help with Statview analyses

Week 13 (Project presentations)

Final projects are due.
Students give brief presentations (7-8 minutes) of their findings. This presentation counts for 1/4 of their participation grade. The students' presentations should have the following components:
- 1 minute description of purpose of study
- 2-3 minute description of methods of study
- 2-3 minute description of findings of study

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