Assignemnt: Cognitive Psychology Research Papers

Each of your 4 research papers will start with the inspiration of the TED talk you viewed.

These are the basic formatting requirements for the paper:

• Make sure to use 12 point Times New Roman or Arial font throughout the paper. Double-space the text. Use 1 inch margins around the page.

• You should have a cover page with your name, the name of the TED talk will serve as your paper title, and the date.

• You must use complete sentences and paragraphs in each part of the assignment. NO bullet points at all.

• You should refer to the research article by either the last names of the author and the year the article was published or by the title of the article.

• You should also upload the pdf file of the research study that you chose to summarize.

• Any direct quotes in the paper will result in a subtraction of 50 points from your total paper grade. Even if you properly cite the quotation, I will still deduct 50 points.

TED Talk

You should start your paper by describing the TED talk you watched. Your summary should include the name of the speaker and the reason why the speaker is an "expert" in the topic of the talk. Please summarize the main points of the talk. Also, if any research studies are described, make sure to describe the method and the main findings of these studies. Please do not quote directly from the TED talk. This summary should be at least one page long.

Research Summary

In this section, you will be describing 1 scientific research article. You need to find an article that discuss a similar theme to the TED talk. You may NOT use one of the articles assigned for class discussion. You can find these articles by looking through the section in the textbook that describes the topic, by looking up a research article written by the speaker in the TED talk, or an article referenced by the speaker of the TED talk. You should use the SFA Library Databases or Google Scholar to locate the pdf or full-text of an article that you think will be helpful. The main criterion for the research articles are that you must find articles that are scientific (including a method and results section), NOT written for a general audience (like Psychology Today Magazine), and written in a style that you can understand most of it. If you cannot understand the majority of the article, you should either bring it to me so I can help you understand it or you should pick a different article. A summary based off of an article that you do not understand will not be a very good summary. You must be able to find the complete article. Do not try to write a summary based off of the abstract. I will be able to tell. Please ask me if you are not sure if the article you found fits the criteria.

Once you have found the article, you should write a summary of the article. The summary should be at least one page long!! Make sure to include:

• the goal of the researchers
• the importance of the research
• a basic description of the methods, including who the participants were and what each participant did in the study
• and some of the main findings from the article

You will identify the article you are discussing by referring to either the last names of the author and the year the article was published or by the title of the article. You should make sure to write using your own words, rather than just quoting from the articles because your own words show your understanding of the article much more than quotations do.

Final Summary and Application

After completing the summaries, you should include several paragraphs (at least 1/2 page in length) about the implications of the article and how the research ties together with the TED talk you described. You can also connect the concepts in the articles/TED talk to concepts from our class/textbook. How are they related? Do they conflict or do they reinforce the ideas that you have already learned? You can also discuss your feelings about the articles. Did the articles interest you? Are they related to anything in your life? Does any of the research change how you view the study of cognition? Does the research affect how you view your own cognitive experiences? Do you have any ideas about areas of cognitive psychology that need to be examined in more depth? Where do you think this line of research could go next? What would be a good next step to understanding this concept better?