Social Cognition Lab

Aim of the course is to deepen, broaden, and apply students’ knowledge

of methodology used in social cognition research. We will talk about

methodological problems, solutions to these problems, and about newest

approaches to planning and reporting empirical research. During the

course students will design their own study. On the example of this study

they will also learn how to give, receive, and respond to scientific

feedback. We will also train communicating research to others in a clear

manner.

Aim of the course is to deepen, broaden, and apply students’ knowledge

of methodology used in social cognition research. We will talk about

methodological problems, solutions to these problems, and about newest

approaches to planning and reporting empirical research. During the

course students will design their own study. On the example of this study

they will also learn how to give, receive, and respond to scientific

feedback. We will also train communicating research to others in a clear

manner.

There will be a reading and a quiz or a small homework for most of the

classes. The aim of the quizzes and small homeworks is to make students

come prepared to the class and to work regularly. The readings and class

discussion should also prepare them to design and describe their own

study in social cognition in a group-work task. During class, there will be a

lot of time for discussions and critical thinking. Students will also get close

supervision and a lot of feedback on their work.

After the course, students should be comfortable with designing a study

and describing its methodology in detail even before conducting the

study. Students should also feel acquainted with the newest

methodological standards of conducting and publishing research in social

cognition (and beyond).

The readings will be provided by the lecturer.

1. Hello, expectations to the course, general introduction

- No readings

METHODOLOGY

2. Methodological problems and debates in social cognition

- Simmons, J. P., Nelson, L. D., & Simonsohn, U. (2011). Falsepositive

psychology: Undisclosed flexibility in data collection and

analysis allows presenting anything as significant. Psychological

Science, 22(11), 1359-1366.

- Quiz about methodological problems (5%)

3. Rigorous and replicable methods in social cognition

- Stangor, C., & Lemay, E. P. (2016). Introduction to the special

issue on methodological rigor and replicability. Journal of

Experimental Social Psychology, 66, 1-3.

- Nosek, B.A., Spies. J.R., & Motyl, M. (2012) Scientific utopia: II.

Restructuring incentives and practices to promote truth over

publishability. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 7(6): 615–

631.

- Quiz about rigor and replicability (5%)

4. Specification curve model

- Leif Nelson on specification curve (39 minutes)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g75jstZidX0

- Rohrer, J. M., Egloff, B., & Schmukle, S. C. (in press). Probing birthorder

effects on narrow traits using specification-curve analysis.

Psychological Science, online first.

- Quiz about specification curve (5%)

- Homework: To what research would you like to see it used? (5%)

5. Other approaches – Bayesian statistics (with a guest expert Wiktor

Soral, PhD)

- Dienes, Z. (2011). Bayesian versus orthodox statistics: Which side

are you on? Perspectives on Psychology Science, 6(3), 274–290.

- Quiz about Bayesian statistics (5%)

- Homework (for an OK): At least one question (max. 10) to the

expert.

6. Pre-registered research

- Moore, D. A. (2016). Preregister if you want to. American

Psychologist, 71(3), 238-239.

- Jonas, K.J. & Cesario, J. (2016). How can preregistration

contribute to research in our field? Comprehensive Results in

Social Psychology, 1(1), 1-7.

- Kai Jonas on a first preregistration-only journal (10 minutes)

https://vimeo.com/149168089

- Quiz about pre-registration (5%)

DESIGNING OWN RESEARCH

7. Analyzing examples of pre-registered research

- Reading is different for each person

- Homework (10%): Search for an example of pre-registered

research. Summarize it (1 page A4). Be ready to summarize it

orally during the class.

8. Planning and reporting the methods of your study

- Pre-registration protocol – one from the OSF open projects (I will

show you how to find it)

- Homework (10%): Write up a draft of your study idea and how

you would do it (1 page A4). Be ready to present it to others.

9. Designing your own pre-registered research (new or a replication)

- No readings

- Discussing and getting feedback on the ideas from the lecturer

10. Presenting your ideas, getting feedback from everyone

- Homework (group-work, 17%): Presentation of your research plan

PUBLISHING YOUR RESEARCH

11. Tools that help in writing (SWAN, Scholar, citing managers)

- Kinnunen, T., et al. (2012). SWAN-Scientific Writing AssistaNt: A

tool for helping scholars to write reader-friendly manuscripts.

Proceedings of the Conference of the Association for

Computational Linguistics, 20-24.

- Watch at least a bit of all the videos from

http://cs.joensuu.fi/swan/videos.html

- Download SWAN and bring it on your laptop, bring also the file of

your master/empirical thesis or some other manuscript in an

editable format

- Homework (5%): Write what similar tools you know, write your

opinion on one of these tools, its advantages and disadvantages.

- Writing cover letters for scientific manuscripts.pdf

- Hansen_Dovidio_cover_letter_1.pdf

- Homework (for an OK): Think of a journal you would like to once

publish in, go through the website in detail (especially guidelines

for authors), open an account, create a test submission (without

submitting it). Be ready to summarize the journal’s requirements

orally during the class.

- Bring with you an editable file of your master thesis or some

other paper that you would like to get feedback on.

13. Giving scientific feedback

- Marusić, M., Sambunjak, D., & Marusić, A. (2005). Guide for peer

reviewers of scientific articles in the Croatian Medical Journal.

Croatian Medical Journal, 46(2), 326-332.

- Homework (10%): Write a review of your colleague’s draft

14. Receiving feedback and responding to it

- Jensen, P.E. (2012) It’s not personal! Pointers for responding to

reviewers. AAI Newsletter, 17-19.

- Hansen_Dovidio_cover_letter_2.pdf

- Hansen_Dovidio_cover_letter_3.pdf

- Homework (5%): Respond to the feedback you received

Students will

- Deepen their knowledge and understanding of experimental

methods as well as of a chosen topic in social cognition

- Learn in theory, discussion, and practice about good (but still

realistic) standards of conducting experiments and analyzing data

- Get acquainted with the newest approaches to planning,

reporting, and publishing research in social cognition

- Develop skills to design and communicate high-quality

experimental research

- Learn to critically read and give scientific feedback to others

- Learn how to as receive, use, and respond to scientific feedback

Student performance will be assessed based on: activity during the class,

quizzes, home works, search and summaries of articles, and presentation

of a small group project.

Quizzes will be based on the general understanding of the readings. They

are aimed at motivating students to read before the class and to do it

attentively.

Participation assessment (active/not-active) will be based on

contributions to class discussions and to other class activities. It will be

assessed by the students (for other students) and by the lecturer. The

sum of these assessments will be taken.

% of the grade:

- Active participation, engagement (13%)

- Quizzes (25% = 5 x 5%) – classes: 2, 3, 4, 5, 6

- Little homeworks (15% = 3 x 5%) – classes: 4, 11, 14

- Middle homeworks (30% = 3 x 10%) – classes: 7, 8, 13

- Own research plan (17%, group work) – class 10

Attendance rules

Students may have maximum 2 absences (regardless if excused or

unexcused). Two additional absences are permitted only with formal

excuse. If more than 2 classes are missed students will be asked to do an

additional task related to the class that they missed. Missing more than 4

classes results in course failure.