The CURE in Cognitive Processes (CGSC 232/233) has three stages. The first focuses on giving students experience participating in cognitive evaluations. This includes reviewing canonical experiments in cognitive psychology and completing 6-8 experiments on the open access Psychology Experiment Building Language (PEBL). This along with discussions and reflections on the ethics and ethos of psychological research past and present gives students a sense of what it is like to participate in research. At this stage, students are encouraged to make connections between the theories discussed in CGSC 232 and the activities and experiments in the CGSC233 lab. This approach foregrounds the ethics and the discomfort involved in psychological research. The deliverables include a sense of the time and energy of research, the ethical complexities of human research, and a formal writeup of the methods section of a lab report. At this stage, students know what cognitive science research is and have an idea of how it functions mechanically.
The second stage gives students the opportunity to act as research assistants by thinking about their experiments as collaborative research projects. Here we shift from collecting data to conducting research and applying for IRB approval. We use lab time to find articles that expand upon and challenge the theories that we cover in class. We also focus on the often neglected logistics of research with demos on applying for IRB approval and research methods from a cognitive science research librarian. The deliverables of this stage are a mock IRB proposal and a more advanced lab report written in groups that focuses on APA formatting and includes expanded reference methods and introduction sections. At this stage, students should know how cognitive research develops from hypothesis to data collection and how to navigate valuable research processes like IRB approval and database searching.
The final stage challenges students to conduct their own research from the proposal stage, to data collection, to a lab report complete with results and discussion sections. This project can be done in groups and acts as the final paper for the CGSC232 class. There are many directions that students can take for their research project. They can use the data collected in the first and second stages, or they can collect new data. In some cases, students construct a novel apparatus, but many use the battery of PEBL tests available to them. All groups must support their proposal with evidence and demonstrate that their project conforms to IRB standards. Students then apply for funding, construct a research plan, recruit participants, collect data, and conduct debriefs. The final deliverable is a complete lab report of an experiment that they designed and ran themselves. At this stage, students have now experienced three different facets of research: participation, supportive research, and data collection.
The final projects in this class range from creative replications of historical experiments to new experimental designs that involve role playing. This range is important because it demonstrates the breadth of research possibilities in cognitive science. It also encourages students to consider the importance and challenges of replicating previous findings. In the end, some projects fail to produce expected results, which we use to reflect on our experimental conditions, participant sample size, and other potentially confounding factors. Best of all, this project is fun and students report that empirical research is more approachable after taking this course.
Questions about the process to Kathleen Galotti & Jay McKinney
Does the CURE in your CGSC 232/233 class face any challenges or barriers?
Students come from a variety of backgrounds, some with experience in statistics, laboratory methods, and writing empirical reports in APA format. It is a challenge to ensure that the class is challenging and accessible to all students. It helps to assess their past experience in the first week via survey and discussion. Using this information, we pair students with complementary skills to encourage students to work together. This is most effective for the first partial lab report where we can then assess their work further.
The other primary challenge is the complexity of the course. Scaffolding empirical work requires several steps and it can be a lot to manage. We’ve found that having a dedicated 3-hour lab session and supportive teaching assistants really helps. In many cases if the students are struggling with something during class or the lab, we have time to adjust and address it.
What are some student outcomes of the CURE in your class?
Students get a lot of practice thinking about and conducting cognitive research. Importantly, this experience is grounded in the ethics and logistics of experimental design, human research, and data collection. The CURE approach is ideal because it invites students to experience the ideas out of the textbook for themselves. The hope is that they find the empirical project of cognitive science compelling and take up the challenge of asking new questions and seeking answers in their own research. This class attempts to build up their skills and toolkit for doing so.
Why do you use a CURE in your class? What do you get out of this as faculty?
It’s quite remarkable to watch a student going from a participant to designing their own experiment. Their questions and frames of reference change. The CURE method takes complex and abstract ideas like the Stroop Effect and breaks them down into things that can be broken down, critiqued, and tested. It is rewarding to see students learn and grow as thinkers and researchers. It’s challenging, but it’s worth it.
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