An Analysis of Variance Approach for Experimental Psychology using jamoviSummary of This PostAbout This ResourceThis Course in ContextThe Psychology Major CurriculumStatistics and ScienceCourse ExpectationsStudent Learning ObjectivesBehaviorCourseworkGradesSubmissionsDue DatesIncomplete GradeCommunicationCommunication MethodsCourse Outline
This post covers important information about the course including how this course fits into the SVSU Psychology Major curriculum, how statistics fits with science, behavior expectations, student learning objectives, coursework, grades, resources, and an outline of course topics.
I've taught almost 20 sections of this statistics course to accompany our department's experimental psychology course and I revise it each time I teach. It is not because the statistical techniques or methodologies change much. I revise the course because I am learning how to better help my students improve their understanding of statistical concepts and how to better share those ideas using professional conventions (i.e., APA style). Each time I aim for a more effective course that focuses on the core components of the course with enough depth and practice to help students retain and apply those skills. This revision introduces a new statistical program (jamovi) and focuses around the concepts of the course that cause students the most strife. In addition to this written resource, students can find short videos that emphasized these key aspects and walkthroughs for the statistical procedures.
This course is designed to help students who are entering their roles as scientists-in-training by offering a review of important statistical concepts such as sampling distributions, variance, and null hypothesis significance testing. Scientists now rely on computer applications to help them apply such statistical concepts and techniques to understand their data and this course offers some general ideas about how software can be used in the scientific workflow. Specifically, this course provides instruction on using jamovi for implementing statistical analyses and Microsoft Word for presenting the results of those analyses.
Psychology majors at SVSU typically take this course while they are taking PSYC 299 Statistics or while taking PSYC 305 Experimental Psychology, or in between the two courses. After completing this course, students are encouraged to enroll in PSYC 400 Advanced Statistics to learn more about multivariate statistics (in which multiple outcome variables are analyzed simultaneously). We offer three and require two statistics courses because learning requires multiple exposures and repeated practice. The content you learn in PSYC 299 is reinforced and extended in PSYC 302 and PSYC 400. Completing PSYC 299 and PSYC 302 will be prepared for the laboratory courses and those who complete PSYC 400 will be well prepared for graduate school.
Statistics is a branch of mathematics but scientists have found a great application in helping them to estimate population-level characteristics from samples. That is, scientists use statistics to guide their decisions about the reliability of their results. Should they expect to find similar results if they replicated the study with a new population?
Scientists use statistics in two ways. The first is to summarize their data to better understand patterns of differences and relationships. The second way is for risk management. They can calculate the probabilities of making an incorrect decision under certain assumptions. Statistics can't guarantee that someone makes the correct decision but it can help to break down the risks.
With these statistical tools, scientists are better equipped to build knowledge efficiently. They can ask more complex questions and have more confidence in their results. It is important to remember, however, that any given result may not be as it appears. That is, a result that suggests that it would be found in another study may be a false positive result. Science can handle this because of our scientific communities. Other researchers are testing similar hypotheses and reporting their results. When their is conflict, researchers and theorists try to determine the source of the differences in results. In fact, it is these checks-and-balances resulting from discrepant results that make use even more confident in the knowledge we build.
To recap, scientists are in want of answers to the questions they pose to nature. Rather than surveying all of nature, they interact with just a portion of it to test their hypotheses. They try to understand what is happening in their samples of data, then check how likely those results are to generalize to, or be repeated in, other samples. These results are being checked by other scientists so that we have a self-correcting process for false positives built in to our community.
Students in this course will be able to:
Skills learned in this course will be useful when reading research articles and in designing studies in laboratory courses or other in research experiences.
College is for learning. It is especially for learning skills and content in your courses, but it is also about learning how to be a professional. To behave in a professional way is to act with integrity and accountability.
Integrity: a firm adherence to a code of especially moral or artistic values 1
Accountability: an obligation or willingness to accept responsibility or to account for one's actions 1
In this course, this means that you should:
Complete your work with due diligence by
Be respectful of others by
Present your best work by
Seeking assistance when
People learn as people do. For this course on how to use software to analyze data and share your results, you will use software to analyze data and share your results. Each week you will be asked to apply the information covered to perform the procedures in the software. That's it: all hands-on activities, no tests, no papers, just experiential learning.
People also learn from their mistakes. If you make mistakes (and you will because everyone does), you will be able to correct those mistakes for full credit. You can earn and A+ in this class even if you get 50% on first submissions of your assignments. If you are willing to do the work to learn, I want to reward you with the score you earn. You are the master of your own grade in this course.
The grading scale is the typical grading scale recommended by the university.
I follow typical rounding rule such that a 93.6% will be rounded to 94% and 93.4% will be rounded to 93%. I do not do any "generous" rounding because I allow students to make up all missed points through regular coursework.
Each assignment will be uploaded to Canvas through it's own assignment page. I will provide you feedback through that same assignment page in two ways. I will often "mark up" your assignment submission on the document you submit (typically a Word document) and then post that annotated file in the comments section of the assignment. I will also often add my feedback in the comments section. Please be sure to check the comments sections of each assignment so that you know how to make corrections.
I understand that life can throw a lot of things at us all and it can be tough to get all of our ducks in a row all the time. I do not penalize for "late" submissions but it is in your best interest to submit your work on time. This allows you to keep pace with the course so that you are not overwhelmed by the amount of work to catch up. On time submissions will also give you more time to make corrections when needed.
All assignments pending and corrections must be turned in by the last day of regular class. If you are taking a fully online and asynchronous section, your assignments must be turned in by midnight of the Friday of the last week of regular classes. I will only accept the final project during finals week.
If you are not able to keep pace with the course, please get in contact with me so that we can make a plan. I can work with you to determine how to complete the course within the semester or to develop an incomplete grade plan in which you complete pending within a few weeks of the next semester. I can only honor plans made before finals week.
In there rare event(currently at less than 1% of students) that you are unable to complete the coursework during the semester because of prolonged circumstances outside of your control, we can work on a plan to complete the work into the next semester with an incomplete (I) grade for the course. The incomplete grade will be replaced with your final course grade when you finish the assignments.
This plan is only available to students who have met with me and made a plan to complete the pending coursework before the end of regular classes.
Learning requires observation but is facilitated with effective communication. This is true for students learning course content and for instructors learning about their students. Let's talk with each other to ensure that we are doing our best to facilitate learning. Attending or watching lectures and reading is a great first start. I try to address the questions that students have had in previous semesters about the content covered but you may have a question that hasn't been addressed. Just because it hasn't been asked before doesn't mean it isn't a good question. PLEASE ASK QUESTIONS. Asking questions is a great way to get the information you need. Even when you do not have a specific question but you are feeling unsure or lost, PLEASE ASK FOR HELP. I am the top advocate for your success in this course. Sometimes, despite our best efforts and intentions, success can be out of our control. Life happens for me like it does for you: I understand. When you need to shift around priorities and your timelines get extended, PLEASE LET ME KNOW. I will work with you to develop a plan to complete the course. Our course schedule may change, too. I will let you know of all changes via Canvas announcements and will update any assignment due dates as needed.
To review, please:
I will deliver course content and announcements via Canvas. You can set whichever notifications and contact methods you wish but I suggest that you turn on notifications for the following for your SVSU email address:
Here is a guide on how to set your notifications.
By setting these notifications, you'll know each time I make a change to the course or send a reminder that impacts you or your grades.
This course follows a typical semester so we'll have 15 sections to work through. If you're taking this course during the spring or summer semester, we'll be covering two topics per week.
SPECIAL NOTE FOR SPRING/SUMMER SEMESTERS
Spring and summer semesters are accelerated such that a full semester's worth of course content and assignments will completed in half the time (seven weeks). To be successful, you must be organized and disciplined. This is especially true for asynchronous courses as there is no regular class meetings to set a cadence for the semester. I will send out an announcement each
Please remember that learning is iterative. That means that you learn in progressive cycles that require revisiting and revising what you've learned previously. If at any point in the semester, you do not feel comfortable with a concept from an earlier section, please let me know so that we can work toward your mastery of the topic.
Below is an outline of the topics.