Syllabus

Professor Lectures
Jordan Richard Schoenherr, PhD Lecture: Mon and Weds,
Office: Zoom! Link will be provided on 11:45-13:00
course webite (Moodle). Room: Zoom[1]/ CC 111 LOY
Online Office hours: 15:00-17:00 Website: All materials
E-mail: available on Moodle.
jordanrichard.schoenherr@concordia .c
a

University calendar course description (3 credit)


Prerequisites: PSYC310 and PSYC315, previously or concurrently.
Students who have received credit for PSYC352 may not take this
course for credit.

Evaluations

Important note. Examinations may not be

deferred unless you have documented
proof of an illness or
bereavement. No exceptions will be made.
Late assignments will receive a 0.
Description % of Due date(s)
grade and
deadlines
35% Please see
Bi-Weekly Quizzes Class Schedule
Multiple-choice questions

Diagram 15% April 1, 2022

 Final Exam 50% TBA
Multiple-choice questions

 Objectives:
How do we navigate though our world? What are the limitations of our
understanding? The main goal of this course is to provide you with the
fundamental concepts, theories, and methods of experimental cognitive
psychology. The course will include a survey of the literature in selected
topics including information theory, perception, memory, decision-
making, and metacognition as well as the application of the methods of
cognitive psychology. You will also be given the opportunity to write-up
experiments conducted in-class.

 Readings:
All readings in Sinnett et al. (2016) are mandatory in order to help you
understand the lectures and answer questions on weekly quizzes. Read
the material indicated in the schedule before coming to class. The main
text may be bought in the University bookstore or an alternative vendor.

Sinnett, D., et al. (2016). Cognition, Sixth Edition. Toronto: Oxford

University Press.*
*Please be aware that there are open-source resources that might make
this textbook available.
Strunk, W. Jr. & White, E. B. (1999). The Elements of Style, 4th Edition,
Allyn & Bacon. N.B., The 1st edition of Strunk and White is available
online at http://www.bartleby.com/141/.

 Textbook:
Sinnett, D., et al. (2016). Cognition, Sixth Edition. Toronto: Oxford
University Press.

 Optional books and resources:

Strunk, W. Jr. & White, E. B. (1999). The Elements of Style, 4th Edition,
Allyn & Bacon.
N.B., The 1st edition of Strunk and White is available online at
http://www.bartleby.com/141/.
 WARNING: The course requires that you attend lectures, read the slides,
and read the text. If you do not buy the textbook, you are still
responsible for the material in the text.

 Weekly Quizzes:
Over the course of the term, you will have to complete six weekly quizzes.
Each will be released online on Friday (17:00) and due the following
Friday (17:00).
The topics for these quizzes correspond to the sections: Introduction to
Cognition and Cognition and the Brain (Quiz 1), Perception and Attention
(Quiz 2), Basic Properties of Memory and Memory Systems (Quiz 3),
Concepts and Categories and Language (Quiz 4), Problem Solving and
Reasoning and Decision-Making (Quiz 5), Intelligence and creativity and
Review (Quiz 6).
Note that with the exception of Quiz 6, all of the content will be new
material covered each week. Quiz 6 will contain new material as well as
information covered in the review section.

 Diagram:
Concepts and theories in cognition are often very abstract, often
describing a complicated set of relationships between variables. In this
assignment, you will select a real-world phenomenon (e.g., driving,
surgery, making a significant purchase) and will develop a diagram that
considers the full range of cognitive processes (e.g., attention, working
memory, long-term memory) that contribute to the phenomenon. It will
be crucial that you 1) identifying all of the relevant cognitive processes
(representations) associated with the task, 2) ensure that the diagram
clearly represents the relationships between these processes, and 3) is
accompanied by a short, clear description (250 word limit).

Mandatory readings (book chapters):

 Class Schedule / Readings (tentative)

Week & Topic

Dates
BASIC COGNITIVE PROCESSES
1. Cognition: Foundational Theories I [Ch 1: Sinnett et
Jan 10 and al. p. 3-22]
12  Introduction to the Course: How Mind = Brain
 Behaviourism and the “Cognitive Revolution”
 Dependent Measures of Cognitive Psychology

2. Cognition: Foundational Theories II [Ch 2: Sinnett et

Jan 17 and al. p. 23-50]
19  Mind and Brain
 Methods of Cognitive Neuroscience &
Connectionist Models
Quiz 1 Released (Friday, 17:00)

3. Perception [Ch 3 (&7): Sinnett et al. p. 51-90; p. 210-

Jan 24 and 216]
26  Pattern Recognition and Bottom-up
Processing
 Top-Down Processing and Gestalt Theory
 Environmental influences on perception

4. Attention [Ch 4: Sinnett et al. p. 91-124]

Jan 31 and  Selective Attention

Feb 2  Divided Attention

 Awareness and Unconscious Processing

Quiz 2 Released (Friday, 17:00)

CORE COGNITIVE SYSTEMS

5. Memory Representations [Ch 6 (&7): Sinnett et al. p.

Feb 7 and 9 163-188; p. 217-226]
 Memory Traces
 Schemata and Scripts
 Levels of Processing

6. Memory Systems [Ch 5: Sinnett et al. p.127-161]

Feb 14 and  Semantic Memory
16  Episodic Memory
  Working Memory
Quiz 3 Released (Friday, 17:00)

7. Concepts and Categories [Ch 8: Sinnett et al. p. 239-

Feb 21 and 262]
23  The Classical Approach
 Family Resemblance, Prototypicality, and
Exemplars
 Domain-Specificity and Folkbiology

8. Language [Ch 9: Sinnett et al. p. 263-304]

Mar 7 and 9  Structure of Language and Nativism
 Communication and Comprehension
 Language and Culture

Quiz 4 Released (Friday, 17:00)

COMPLEX COGNITIVE TASKS

9. Problem Solving [Ch 10: Sinnett et al. p. 305-338]

Mar 14 and  Insight Problems and Gestalt Theory
16  Functional Fixedness and Flexibility
 Modern Approaches

10. Reasoning and Decision-making [Ch 11: Sinnett et al.

Mar 21 and p. 337-372]
23  Reasoning: Rules and Models
 Judgement, Preference and Choice
 Heuristics and Biases

Quiz 5 Released (Friday, 17:00)

11. Intelligence and creativity [Ch 12: Sinnett et al. p.

Mar 28 and 373-406]
30  Operationalizing Intelligence
 Sternberg’s Theory of Intelligence
 Creativity: Constraints

12. Metacognition and Consciousness [Ch 13: Sinnett et

 Apr 4 and 6 al. p.99-103]
 How do we know what we know?
 How are cognitive systems organized?

Quiz 6 (Supplemental) Released (Friday, 17:00)

13. Social Cognition and Review Session [No Assigned

Apr 1 and Reading]
13  Review course content
 Exam preparation

TBA CUMULATIVE FINAL EXAMINATION - [TBD]

 N.B. – This schedule is meant to be a guide and may be subject to

change. Any changes will be announced.

Mandatory Experiments – 14%

(Date – See Class Schedule for Experiments)

 Two experiments will be provided throughout the course.

Each experiment will consist of two parts.
 Part 1 of each experiment will consist of completing a
Powerpoint-based task that will be posted online. You will
recorded your responses on a response sheet that will
include your student number. Completion of Part 1 is worth
3%.
 Part 2 of each experiment will consist of interpreting an
experiment’s results and writing up and abstract. I will
present the results during a lecture and discuss them with
you. Completion of Part 2 is worth 4%.
 NOTE: Points will be deducted for ungrammatical
sentences and spelling. Please use a spell check device.
As with any written assignment, the guidelines on
plagiarism apply.
 For quick writing tips, please consult Strunk and White
(1999) or equivalent online resource noted above.
 Drop off completed in the CULearn dropbox. Please note the
 date and time each assignment is due.

Weekly Quizzes – 38%

(Weekly – See Class Schedule)

 The test will evaluate all the material covered in the lectures
from September to December inclusively.
 The test will evaluate the readings each week outlined in the
class schedule.
 The tests can be completed any time after the final lecture of
the week and will remain open for the following week (e.g.,
the quiz for Week 1 can be taken until the end of Week 2).
 Once started, you will have one hour to complete the quiz.
After that hour, your mark will be finalized.
 There will be 10 multiple-choice questions. Roughly half of
these questions will be selected from the text and the
remaining half with be selected from the lecture.
 Marks will be posted early the following week.
 Your quiz with the lowest mark will be excluded (i.e., 5/6
quiz marks will be used).

Cumulative Final Examination – 48%

(Examination Period: TBA)

 The test will evaluate all the material covered in the lectures
and readings inclusively.
 There will be 50 multiple-choice questions.
 Tests will not be returned, but may be consulted during
office hours.
 There will be no supplemental examinations. Please consult
university policies concerning deferred examinations
and plagiarism.

Regulations and Information Common to Undergraduate Psychology Courses

 GRADING SYSTEM
The grading system is described in Academic Services website:
https://www.concordia.ca/ginacody/students/academic-services/undergraduate/grade-point-average.html

Grade Point Equivalence Percentage Conversion

A+ 4.3 90-100
A 4.0 85-89
A- 3.7 80-84
B+ 3.3 77-79
B 3.0 73-76
B- 2.7 70-72
C+ 2.3 67-69
C 2.0 63-66
C- 1.7 60-62
D+ 1.3 57-59
D 1.0 53-56
D- 0.7 50-52
F 0.0 less than 50

Academic Integrity
Academic integrity is of the utmost importance to Concordia University. You are responsible for understanding the
definition of academic integrity and misconduct: http://www.concordia.ca/students/academicintegrity/offences.html
The most common offence under the Academic Code of Conduct is plagiarism. Plagiarism is defined as “the presentation
of the work of another person as one’s own or without proper a Plagiarism does not refer to words alone - it can also
refer to copying images, graphs, algorithms, tables, and ideas. A "presentation" means more than written work: it means
any method by which you submit work to your instructor. Even translating the work of another person into another
language without citation is plagiarism.

This can include (but is not limited to):

 reproducing or paraphrasing portions of someone else’s published or unpublished material, regardless of the source,
and presenting these as one’s own without proper citation or reference to the original source;
 submitting a take-home examination, essay, laboratory report or other assignment written, in whole or in part, by
someone else;
 using ideas or direct, verbatim quotations, or paraphrased material, concepts, or ideas without appropriate
acknowledgment in any academic assignment;
 using another’s data or research findings; and
 failing to acknowledge sources through the use of proper citations when using another’s works and/or failing to use
quotation marks.

For additional information, students should familiarize themselves with the Academic Integrity Website:
http://concordia.ca/students/academic-integrity
 Due to the ongoing public health situation, classes (and the final
[1]

examination) will be held online as determined by the university and

your instructor.