John Sparrow, Ph.D.

Office: University Center Rm. 351

Phone: 641-4151; E-mail: john.sparrow@unh.edu;

WWW: pubpages.unh.edu/~jes1)

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[Photos courtesy of Laura Piazza]

COURSE DESCRIPTION

The purpose of this offering is to provide students with some hands-on experience conducting research in my vision laboratory. Working together as researchers and subjects, we will outline an experiment and conduct the study within the full context of the scientific method -- from the development of the hypotheses right up through the data collection, analysis, and interpretation stages. Along with the laboratory work, students will be reading some of the professional literature within the field of vision science. The final grade in this offering will be based, in part, upon the student's dedication, effort, and thoroughness in terms of professional scientific conduct. In addition, students will be expected to complete a full-length APA-format laboratory report that summarizes the literature, methodology, results, and implications of the laboratory findings. Students should expect to spend a fair amount of time in the library conducting literature searches in addition to the time spent in the laboratory collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data.

PSYC 401 (Introduction to Psychology), 402 (Statistics in Psychology), and 502 (Research Methods in Psychology) are prerequisites for this experience. Given that the material to be covered in PSYC 795 is heavily dependent on research techniques, it is essential that you have a good background in experimental methodology. In addition to the formal prerequisites, permission from the instructor is required.

Final grades will be based on the following percentage cutoff points:

A = 93 - 100% A- = 90 - 92 B+ = 87 - 89

B = 83 - 86 B- = 80 - 82 C+ = 77 - 79

C = 73 - 76 C- = 70 - 72

D = 60 - 69

E = 0 - 59

If you have any questions, please feel free to contact me at the phone number listed above, or at the e-mail address listed below (john.sparrow@unh.edu).