Teaching of Psychology

A 2-semester introductory course sequence in any discipline may be justified on the basis that there is too much material to cover in 1 semester and that more in-depth consideration of material will provide students with a better foundation from which to approach subsequent courses. This study took advantage of a natural situation to compare students who had taken a 1-semester introductory psychology course and those who had taken a 2-semester sequence. Analyses of student performance (grades) in upper level psychology courses indicated no advantage associated with a 2-semester introductory course. Students incur a 100% cost increase (the additional introductory course) for 0% benefit.

Conventional wisdom is that some topics in introductory psychology are more difficult for students than others. Such wisdom seems reasonable given mismatches between students' and instructors' expectations and variations in both instructor expertise and student motivation across topical areas. Five instructors pooled students' exam performance data to investigate topical difficulty. Data showed that students performed better on questions about social psychology, memory, consciousness, and development than questions about biopsychology and emotion. Discussion includes possible explanations and considerations for course planning.

We examined the effects of in-class writing instruction, practice, peer review, and feedback on writing skills of undergraduates enrolled in a general psychology course. We rated writing for grammar, writing style, mechanics, and American Psychological Association referencing style. Significant differences emerged on the 4 writing skill domains (p< .001). Improvement occurred immediately for referencing, whereas other skills did not improve significantly until the 4th paper. The results show that teaching writing in content courses such as general psychology can yield significant improvement in students' writing. We believe that writing instruction by psychology professors is worth the time and effort to help undergraduate psychology students develop better writing skills.

I tested 2 competing theories to explain the connection between students' expected grades and ratings of instructors: cognitive dissonance and revenge. Cognitive dissonance theory holds that students who expect poor grades rate instructors poorly to minimize ego threat whereas the revenge theory holds that students rate instructors poorly in an attempt to punish them. I tested both theories via an experimental manipulation of the perceived ability to punish instructors through course evaluations. Results indicated that student ratings appear unrelated to the ability to punish instructors, thus supporting cognitive dissonance theory. Alternative interpretations of the data suggest further research is warranted.

One of the most difficult concepts for statistics students is the standard error of the mean. To improve understanding of this concept, 1 group of students used a hands-on procedure to sample from small populations representing either a true or false null hypothesis. The distribution of 120 sample means (n =3) from each population had standard errors that closely approximated those of the theoretical sampling distributions, thereby illustrating how the Central Limit Theorem provides a standard error to use for hypothesis testing. Performance on an exam about the standard error of the mean was significantly better for the students who had completed this exercise than for students in a control group.

We designed a cooperative learning classroom activity to enhance students' ability to understand psychological disorders and distinguish among anxiety, mood, and psychotic disorders. We employed a group interviewing approach with the instructor (or a graduate student) serving as the pseudo-client. Students interacted with a pseudo-client to arrive at a diagnosis. Evaluations of this activity indicated that students learned about various psychological disorders as well as better understood the process of clinical interviewing and diagnosis.

College students completed a 29-item survey containing items covering first day of class activities. We found students preferred to obtain information regarding the class structure and required coursework rather than learn personal information about the instructor or their peers on the first day. We also found that students do not universally believe that first-day activities set the tone for the remainder of the course. We discuss these results in terms of developing effective strategies in planning for, and teaching on, the first day of class.

Experiencing examples of auditory phenomena can clarify textbook and lecture explanations. The addition of visual displays to auditory demonstrations can make them more understandable. Two sound editor programs, Audacity and Adobe Audition Pro 2.0, provide excellent capabilities for the display and authoring of auditory demonstrations. Audacity possesses a considerable price advantage, whereas Audition has better capabilities for presenting and producing demonstrations.

Erin Rasmussen is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Psychology at Idaho State University where she teaches learning, behavioral pharmacology, senior seminar, and introductory psychology. She received her MS and PhD in experimental psychology (with a minor in behavioral pharmacology and toxicology) from Auburn University. She taught at the College of Charleston for 3 years before joining the faculty at Idaho State. Her past research involved examination of how prenatal exposure to heavy metals affects the behavior of offspring and the role of environmental enrichment in attenuating those effects. Currently, she is examining how prenatal food restriction affects food choices that lead to obesity.

Michael Gazzaniga, the David T. McLaughlin Distinguished University Professor at Dartmouth College, is a pioneer in the field of cognitive neuroscience. He received his PhD from California Institute of Technology in psychobiology, where he conducted his famous work with Roger Sperry on the split-brain phenomenon. His research has provided insights on functional lateralization and how the cerebral hemispheres communicate with one another. He has written more than 20 books, many for the lay audience, and has well over 100 publications, including book chapters, interviews, and monographs. Currently, he serves as Director for the Center of Cognitive Neuroscience at Dartmouth. He was elected president of the American Psychological Society in 2004. He manages a summer school program in cognitive neuroscience and conducts many visiting professor seminars.