2  Weekly overview

The Hitchhiker’s Guide (HHG) and this overview will be continuously updated over the course of the year.

Lab 1 (w/c 30 Sep)

Content

Chapter 3 introduces the lecturers and demonstrators.

Chapter 4 explains how to use this book.

Chapter 5 describes how you will be able to get support outside of the lab classes. This includes the help desk, the Moodle forum, e-mail and Teams chat.

Chapter 6 covers how to set up your computer for the lab classes.

Chapter 7 has some general thoughts on studying psychology and what to aim for in your first year.

Chapter 8 lists dates and times for your weekly lab classes and gives an overview of what we will cover this academic year. In addition, it describes the workload for this module.

Chapter 9 explains how this module will be assessed (including the research participation scheme or RPS). It also introduces academic misconduct, extenuating circumstances and support plans.

Chapter 10 introduces the core book for this module, explains how to get hold of a copy and talks about some wider reading resources.

Chapter 11 requires you to confirm that you have read Chapters 8 to 10.

Chapter 12 describes further computer skills and software.

Learning objectives

  • To get your computer set up for the upcoming lab classes.
  • To learn key facts about this module.

To do outside the lab

  • Install a recommended web browser and Office 365, if you do not have those already installed on your computer (see Chapter 6).
  • Read Chapters 7 to 10 in the HHG and confirm that you have read them using the form in Chapter 11.
  • Get access to Beth Morling’s book (see Section 10.1).
  • We would recommend to read Chapters 1 to 3 in Beth’s book before Lab 2. If you read them, you will not only be better prepared for Lab 2, but you will also have less reading to do in the coming week.

Lab 2 (w/c 7 Oct)

Content

Chapter 13 is an introduction to psychological research basics. It covers empiricism, measured and manipulated variables, conceptual and operational definitions, types of claims, reliability and validity.

Chapter 14 describes the differences between research producers and research consumers.

Chapter 15 contains information about the first summative quiz.

Learning objectives

  • To acquire the basic vocabulary necessary to describe and evaluate psychological studies.
  • To demonstrate understanding of this vocabulary in multiple-choice quizzes.
  • To apply this vocabulary when evaluating research and designing a study.

To do outside the lab

  • Read Chapters 1 to 3 and 5 in Beth Morling’s book.
  • Complete the summative quiz. Deadline: Thursday, 17 Friday, 18 October, 3pm.
  • We would recommend to read Chapter 14 in the Hitchhiker’s Guide.

Lab 3 (w/c 14 Oct)

Content

Chapter 16 talks about key issues related to ethics. It also includes material that we will use for an activity in the lab class.

Chapter 17 describes a formative assignment that will require you to reflect on the reliability and validity of a measurement scale used in an educational psychology setting.

Learning objectives

  • To consider ethical guidelines when conducting research.
  • To apply your knowledge about psychological measurement when evaluating a shyness scale.

To do outside the lab

  • Complete the good measurement assignment. Deadline: Thursday, 24 October, 3pm.

Lab 4 (w/c 21 Oct)

Content

Chapter 18 introduces psychological experiments, specifically simple and choice reaction time tasks.

Chapter 19 introduces interference tasks. It explains how interference tasks typically have a relevant and an irrelevant dimension. The information conveyed by the irrelevant dimension can conflict with the information conveyed by the relevant dimension. As we are typically unable to fully ignore the irrelevant dimension, participants tend to be slower and make more errors when there is conflict. This is referred to as the interference effect.

Chapter 20 describes our activity for Lab 4, a journal article reading exercise.

Chapter 21 is a very brief introduction to the history of experimental psychology (including misogyny in academia).

Chapter 22 showcases a couple of interference examples from the University of Nottingham.

Chapter 23 describes the second summative quiz.

Learning objectives

  • To be introduced to some classic psychological experimental paradigms: simple and choice reaction time task, Stroop task, and flanker task.
  • To learn about interference effects and cognitive control.
  • To practice reading empirical research articles and retrieving key pieces of information from them.

To do outside the lab

  • Read Chapters 10, 11 and 14 in Beth Morling’s book.
  • Complete the summative quiz. Deadline: Thursday, 7 November, 3pm.

Lab 5 (w/c 4 Nov)

Content

Chapter 24 explains how to open, run, quit and save PsychoPy experiments.

Chapter 25 explains the PsychoPy Builder and its key parts: Components, routines, the flow and the toolbar. It also describes naming conventions for PsychoPy components and routines.

Chapter 26 explains the most relevant PsychoPy components and their main properties in more detail. It focuses on the Text component, the Image component and the Keyboard component.

Chapter 27 describes a range of different exercises you will work on in the lab class.

Chapter 28 is an optional chapter which includes a video of me building a Stroop task in PsychoPy.

Learning objectives

  • Learn PsychoPy basics:
    • Learn how to open, run, quit and save PsychoPy experiments.
    • Understand the role of components, routines and the flow in the Builder.
    • Know the main properties of Text, Image and Keyboard components.
  • Apply your knowledge when completing the exercises.

To do outside the lab

Read Chapter 24 to Chapter 26 in the HHG. We would highly recommend to read these chapters before the lab class.

Lab 6 (w/c 11 Nov)

Content

Chapter 29 explains input file basics and how to use PsychoPy loops to update information from one trial to the next.

Chapter 30 shows that input files can be used to define stimuli, to determine the accuracy of responses and to add relevant information to PsychoPy output files.

Chapter 31 describes the exercises for this lab class.

Chapter 32 describes the formative PsychoPy assignment.

Learning objectives

  • To learn how to use loops and input files in PsychoPy.
  • To apply this knowledge when completing the Lab 6 exercises and the formative PsychoPy assignment.

To do outside the lab

Read Chapter 29 and Chapter 30 in the HHG. We would highly recommend to read these chapters before the lab class.

Lab 7 (w/c 18 Nov)

Content

Chapter 33 explains how to give accuracy feedback and “too slow” feedback using PsychoPy.

Chapter 34 describes various useful bits of information about PsychoPy. These are: the order in which PsychoPy processes components, how to skip routines, and how to copy and paste routines and components. It also describes how to access the demo experiments that come with PsychoPy.

Chapter 35 describes the exercise for this lab class.

Learning objectives

  • To learn how to give feedback in PsychoPy.
  • To apply this knowledge when completing the exercise.

To do outside the lab

If you have no previous experience using Python, we would recommend to read Appendix B before the lab.

Lab 8 (w/c 25 Nov)

Content

You will receive feedback on the formative PsychoPy assignment in this lab class. The slides will be made available in Chapter 32.

Chapter 36 covers PsychoPy output files. It explains where these files are stored, how they get their file name, and what is stored in the rows and columns.

Chapter 37 describes the exercise for this lab class.

Chapter 38 contains key information about the summative PsychoPy assignment.

Learning objectives

  • To learn about common problems found in the formative PsychoPy assignment submissions and how to avoid them.
  • To learn how to interpret PsychoPy output files.
  • To apply this knowledge when completing the exercise.

To do outside the lab

Complete the summative PsychoPy assignment. Deadline: Thursday, 12 December, 3pm.

Lab 9 (w/c 2 Dec)

Content

Chapter 39 is an introduction to using Excel.

Chapter 40 introduces Excel formulas and some Excel functions that are relevant for us.

Chapter 41 provides some information relevant in the context of the exam in January, including a link to the practice quiz and slides with example PsychoPy questions.

Learning objectives

  • To learn Excel basics.
  • To learn how to use Excel formulas and functions.
  • To learn about the January exam.

To do outside the lab

Continue working on the summative PsychoPy assignment.

Lab 10 (w/c 9 Dec)

Content

Chapter 42 explains the rationale behind data preprocessing.

Chapter 43 shows how to preprocess PsychoPy output files with Excel. It explains how to remove trials with extreme RTs, incorrect trials and trials with outlier RTs.

For those interested, Chapter 44 shows how to preprocess PsychoPy output files with R.

Learning objectives

  • To learn how to use Excel to analyse a PsychoPy output file, including:
    • Removal of trials with extreme RTs.
    • Removal of incorrect trials.
    • Removal of trials with outlier RTs.
  • To learn how to calculate means, medians and standard deviations using Excel.

To do outside the lab

  • Continue working on the summative PsychoPy assignment.
  • Revise for the exam in January.

Lab 11 (w/c 27 Jan)

Content

Chapter 45 is an introduction to SPSS. Among other things, it introduces SPSS file types, explains how to get data into SPSS and how to compute new variables in SPSS. It also mentions some free alternatives to SPSS.

Chapter 46 covers some steps that should be completed before calculating descriptive or inferential statistics using SPSS. Specifically, it describes how to check measurement levels and how to define missing values.

Chapter 47 has a couple of exercises related to the material covered in this lab.

Learning objectives

  • To learn some SPSS basics, including:
    • Getting data into SPSS.
    • Computing new variables.
  • To learn about SPSS alternatives.
  • To learn how to:
    • Check measurement levels.
    • Define missing values.
    • Add variable and value labels.

To do outside the lab

If necessary, catch up on the Excel material from Labs 9 and 10. There will be a summative quiz on this material next week!

Lab 12 (w/c 3 Feb)

Content

Chapter 48 focuses on categorical data, including selecting and sorting variables, calculating descriptive statistics for categorical data and recoding variables.

Chapter 49 focuses on continuous data, including calculating descriptive statistics for continuous data, boxplots and removing participants.

Chapter 50 includes a couple of exercises related to the material covered in this lab.

Chapter 51 describes the third summative quiz.

Learning objectives

To learn how to:

  • Use Frequencies in SPSS to screen data and to compute descriptive statistics.
  • Recode variables.
  • Use boxplots to identify outliers.
  • Remove and filter participants.

To do outside the lab

Complete Quiz 3. Deadline: Thursday, 13 February, 3pm.

Lab 13 (w/c 10 Feb)

Content

Chapter 52 is an introduction to inferential statistics, including a formative quiz.

Chapter 53 covers how to run, interpret and report one-sample t-tests.

Chapter 54 is an exercise that involves computing a t-test step-by-step using Excel.

Learning objectives

Learn how to…

  • Run and interpret a one-sample t-test using SPSS.
  • Compute a one-sample t-test step-by-step using Excel.
  • Report the results of a one-sample t-test.

To do outside the lab

  • Before the lab class: Take the formative quiz in Chapter 52 and read the chapter if you cannot answer all quiz questions correctly. We will not cover this chapter in the lab class and will assume that you are familiar with this material.
  • Make sure to complete Quiz 3 by Thursday, 13 February at 3pm.
Note

Note that the information below has not yet been updated for 2024/25. It is there to give you an idea what we’re going to do in future labs, but note that the links below will not work and that we might decide to change the content of some of the labs.

Lab 14 (w/c 26 Feb)

Content

?sec-corr-test] covers how to run, interpret and report a Pearson correlation test.

?sec-corr-thoughts] adds some thoughts on the Pearson correlation coefficient.

?sec-excel-spss-quiz] describes the Excel and SPSS quiz.

?sec-lab14-exercise] is an exercise that involves computing a correlation test step-by-step using Excel.

Learning objectives

Learn how to…

  • Run and interpret a Pearson correlation test using SPSS.
  • Report the results of a Pearson correlation test.

To do outside the lab

Lab 15 (w/c 4 Mar)

Content

?sec-lab-report-basics] is an introduction to writing lab reports.

Learning objectives

Learn how to structure and write a lab report.

To do outside the lab

Lab 16 (w/c 11 Mar)

Content

?sec-template-rubric] introduces the lab report template and the lab report marking rubric.

?sec-lab16-exercise] is an exercise focusing on how to structure introduction sections.

?sec-summative-exp] introduces the experiment for the summative lab report.

?sec-formative-report] introduces the formative lab report.

Learning objectives

  • To familiarise yourself with the lab report template and the marking rubric.
  • To learn how to structure an introduction section.

To do outside the lab

Lab 17 (w/c 18 Mar)

Content

?sec-lab17-exercise] is an exercise focusing on how to structure discussion sections.

Learning objectives

To learn how to structure a discussion section.

To do outside the lab

Lab 18 (w/c 25 Mar)

Content

?sec-lab18-exercise] is an exercise focusing on APA-style referencing.

?sec-charts] showcases a chart created with jamovi and ESCI and explains its advantages.

?sec-summative-lab-report] introduces the summative lab report.

Learning objectives

To practise APA referencing.

To do outside the lab

After 28 March, 1pm: Start working on the summative lab report. Deadline: Monday, 13 May, noon.

Lab 19 (w/c 29 Apr)

Content

?sec-formative-fb] includes a link to download the slides for the formative lab report feedback presentation.

Learning objectives

Learn about commonly identified issues in the formative lab reports and how to address these.

To do outside the lab

Continue working on the summative lab report. Deadline: Monday, 13 May, noon.

Lab 20 (w/c 6 May)

Content

?sec-lab-report-examples] includes examples of past formative lab reports.

?sec-lab20-exercise] is a lab report marking exercise.

Learning objectives

  • To see how other students wrote their formative lab reports.
  • To have a go at marking others’ lab reports.
  • To critically reflect on your own lab reports by comparing them with other lab reports.

To do outside the lab

  • Compare your own lab reports with the formative lab report examples.
  • Continue working on the summative lab report. Deadline: Monday, 13 May, noon.