Assessment method

Coursework

Assessment type

Crynodol

Description

Brief Written Discussion Points In alternate weeks (5 total submissions), each student will be required to submit 3 “bullet points” about the preceding week's materials. Each bullet point should be up to max 3 sentences in length. The bullet point topics are the same for each submission: 1. Briefly describe one of the key experimental findings or concepts from the topic of the week, using your own words, as if explaining to a layperson (a non-scientist). 2. Briefly describe an unanswered (to you) psychological or neuroscientific question that is related to the topic of the week and suggest a way that it might be possible to explore that in an experiment. 3. Briefly consider how the week's findings might relate to a real-life setting, or else might have ethical or societal implications. The best 4 out of 5 marks for each student on this assessment will be retained for the final module mark (so that each submission will contribute 2.5% of the overall module mark). Guidance 1. For point 1, use everyday language and avoid jargon. It might help to envision a specific person you know who is not a psychologist and imagine explaining this finding or idea to them. Make sure to note why this finding / idea might be important. 2. For point 2, think about what’s missing – what kinds of questions are still left open by the findings from that week? Maybe there are other kinds of tasks you could imagine, or control conditions, or using different methods, or testing different kinds of participants, or adding other measures? Don’t worry excessively about what is feasible or expensive, but do try to stay in the boundaries of what would be ethical! 3. For point 3, think about possible ethical or societal implications of one of the ideas or findings from the week's material. Use your imagination to think about how those findings might be extended in new ways in the future. As we learn more about how the social brain works, in what ways might those findings be used? By whom might they be used? Would they be used for others' benefit, or to their detriment (or both)?

Weighting

10%

Assessment method

Individual Presentation

Assessment type

Crynodol

Description

In alternate weeks (5 total submissions), students will make a brief oral presentation within their small group session, answering three questions about the previous week's materials. These are the same each week, and are the same as the questions that form the basis of the Brief Written Discussion Points. 1. Briefly describe one of the key experimental findings or concepts from the topic of the week, using your own words, as if explaining to a layperson (a non-scientist). 2. Briefly describe an unanswered (to you) psychological or neuroscientific question that is related to the topic of the week and suggest a way that it might be possible to explore that in an experiment. 3. Briefly consider how the week's findings might relate to a real-life setting, or else might have ethical or societal implications. The best 4 out of 5 marks for each student on this assessment will be retained for the final module mark (so that each submission will contribute 2.5% of the overall module mark). Guidance 1. For point 1, use everyday language and avoid jargon. It might help to envision a specific person you know who is not a psychologist and imagine explaining this finding or idea to them. Make sure to note why this finding / idea might be important. 2. For point 2, think about what’s missing – what kinds of questions are still left open by the findings from that week? Maybe there are other kinds of tasks you could imagine, or control conditions, or using different methods, or testing different kinds of participants, or adding other measures? Don’t worry excessively about what is feasible or expensive, but do try to stay in the boundaries of what would be ethical! 3. For point 3, think about possible ethical or societal implications of one of the ideas or findings from the week's material. Use your imagination to think about how those findings might be extended in new ways in the future. As we learn more about how the social brain works, in what ways might those findings be used? By whom might they be used? Would they be used for others' benefit, or to their detriment (or both)?

Weighting

10%

Assessment method

Essay

Assessment type

Crynodol

Description

Review of Journal Article This is a 500 word (maximum) review of a journal article. Students will critically review a single published journal article (chosen from a provided set). This assessment is aimed at all 3 learning outcomes, in particular “Be able to think and write critically about current research in human social-cognitive neuroscience.” Guidance In your review, you should begin with a brief summary of the article. This should really be 100 words maximum (but I am not going to count). Note that this means you won’t need to report a lot of technical detail about the methods or p values, etc. Also, you don’t need to talk about all of the results – you can feel free to focus on one or two main results and ignore sidelines. Next, and most important, you should follow with a critical review of the article. This review should address the contents of the study, not the style! When you read the paper, think about questions like these: Is this a clear research question? (what might have made it better?) Are assumptions made that aren’t justified? (what are they?) Do the methods suit the question? (are there better ones?) Are there other explanations for the data? (they didn’t control for X…) What else could they have done with their data? (a different kind of analysis?) Could they have collected different data with their methods? Do the data say anything about the questions? (if not, why not?) Did we learn about social cognition in “real life”? (if not, why not? How to improve?) Your review will be marked based on: • The summary (10%) A strong summary will be thorough, accurate, concise, and clear. Imagine that it will be read by a smart psychologist who has not read the paper before! • Clear scientific writing (10%) Good style includes making points clearly and concisely, using academic / scientific terminology appropriately, using grammar correctly, and organising your thoughts in a clear structure. • The critique (80%) There isn’t a single “right” answer I’m looking for in each paper. This is about making a critique and then supporting that with logical arguments and/or evidence. It’s important to focus on a critique that engages with the content of the paper rather than the style. (More guidance is provided in the module syllabus).

Weighting

20%

Due date

07/11/2022

Assessment method

Exam/Test

Assessment type

Crynodol

Description

Final Exam Students choose 3 out of 8 set questions to answer with up to 500 words each. These questions draw from the full module including lectures and textbook chapters. The require critical and creative thought e.g. in extending methods discussed in one topic to another topic, or the assimilation of ideas across multiple topics. An example question is provided. This is an open-book, take-home exam, with either a 12 or 24 hour completion period depending on University policy. Exams are submitted via Blackboard.

Weighting

60%