Cognitive psychology
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| 6 Tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) | |
| Examination | Includes residential school |
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Summary
How does memory work? How do we understand language? How do we think? These are just some of the questions related to everyday experience you’ll address on this course. Beginning with core topics – perception and attention; categorisation and language; and memory, thinking and reasoning – you’ll then explore wider issues, such as emotion and consciousness, topics that have presented a challenge to the cognitive approach. Throughout, you’ll be asked to examine theories, evidence and arguments as well as the methods of cognitive psychology, including neuropsychology and neuroimaging. Using a computer, you’ll also be guided through techniques of data analysis, experimentation, and cognitive modelling, and will engage in your own project work.
Course content
Many of the topics studied by cognitive psychologists concern aspects of our everyday experience that we often take for granted. Yet these topics can present significant challenges to our understanding of human psychology.
The course is divided into five main parts, all of which are covered in the main co-published course text. The first four develop some of the principal areas of investigation in cognitive psychology, and raise fundamental questions about human minds and behaviour. The last part looks at some of the topics that challenge the cognitive approach.
The first part introduces the cognitive approach to psychology – the approach of trying to understand the workings of the mind in terms of processing information – and considers how we perceive aspects of our immediate environment, how we pay attention to certain things and not others, and how we manage to recognise objects.
The second part is devoted to language, both how we as individuals process language, and how those processes differ when language is used in a social context, such as a conversation. It also considers how we categorise objects and how this appears to bridge both our perception and our language.
The third part of the course focuses on memory, especially on how what we may think of as ‘memory’ is actually composed of many different kinds of memory, each with different properties.
The fourth part of the course focuses on thinking, that is, on how we reason, how we make judgements and come to decisions, and how we set about solving problems.
Finally, the fifth part of the course focuses more explicitly on topics that have often been seen as presenting direct challenges to the cognitive approach – the topics of emotion, consciousness and the role of memory in our sense of self. This part also examines in more detail a key theme of the course, cognitive modelling – the use of computers in developing models of the mind from cognitive psychological theories. It concludes by considering some of the key theoretical and philosophical positions that underpin cognitive psychology.
Throughout, the course indicates the close links between the topics studied by cognitive psychologists and our everyday experience and how cognitive psychological ideas and insight might apply in the wider world.
Although the course topics are divided roughly into five parts, there are a number of strands of cognitive psychology which are developed in parallel throughout the course, and which link to the various methods used by cognitive psychologists.
Experimentation is a key method, and throughout the course you will develop skills associated with designing, running and analysing experiments. You will have the opportunity to gain insight into different experimental techniques by participating in a number of experimental studies. For your assignments you will learn how to run an experiment using specialist software (on CD-ROM), how to modify experimental designs, how to collect data from participants and how to organise the data in preparation for analysis. You will learn how to develop a design for a study from a hypothesis and a body of literature, and to consider some of the relevant practical issues in running this study. Finally, at the residential school (or the ALE if you are unable to attend the residential school) you will put all this knowledge to use in designing and running a project.
Allied to experimentation, a key skill for cognitive psychologists is how to convey the essence of an experimental investigation in a project report. Your assignments will progressively develop this skill, through focusing on different aspects of project writing, culminating in the write-up of the residential school (or ALE) project.
The analysis of experimental data is another key skill, and the course highlights a number of techniques for analysing data that relate to the project work. You will learn to use specialist software (on CD-ROM) to analyse data and to interpret the results.
Cognitive modelling is also an important method for cognitive psychologists, and the course contains (on CD-ROM) an introduction to and exercises in neural network or connectionist modelling, and discussion of other modelling approaches. Those unable to attend the residential school will have the option of developing a connectionist model at the ALE.
A number of other key methods are also discussed, including neuropsychology and neuroimaging, as well as methodological issues such as the ethical questions raised by experimental work with human participants.
In sum, the course:
- develops the core content areas of cognitive psychology, focusing on topics within the areas of perception, attention and memory, and thinking and language
- presents key debates, issues and controversies with which a cognitive psychological approach engages
- illustrates how cognitive psychology can provide an underpinning for applied psychological research
- shows how different methods are integrated within cognitive psychology, including experimental studies, neuropsychological and neuroimaging studies, and cognitive modelling
- offers a grounding in experimental and statistical methods used in cognitive psychological research
- provides the experience of conducting a substantive piece of empirical research.
Vocational relevance
A knowledge of psychology is considered useful in professions ranging from marketing to personnel work. An understanding of research techniques and statistical methods is also a sought-after skill, with relevance outside the immediate area of psychology. If you take DD303 as part of a complete set of psychology courses, such that you can gain professional recognition, many kinds of psychological work may be open to you – the prison service, educational psychology, applied (workplace) psychology, for example – although many professions require further, postgraduate training.
Residential school
The one-week summer school is devoted to project work and to consolidation and more in-depth exploration of the course topics. Prior to the school, you will be offered a range of project topics. Some of these will involve using a computer to control experiments, but there will also be project options that do not require this kind of computer use. You will conduct a project under the close supervision of tutors, and technical support will also be available. Your project will form the basis of an assignment submitted after the residential school. Though the project work forms the central feature of the residential school, time will also be devoted to discussing different aspects of the course, learning about particular areas in more depth, revision of topics, and preparation for future assignments and the examination. The school also provides an excellent opportunity to learn and discuss with other students, and to meet and engage with tutors and members of the course team. The cost of the school is included in the course fee.
The one-week residential school will run for four weeks in July and you would attend for one of these weeks.
Alternative Learning Experience (ALE)
If you are unable to attend the Residential School, you are required to undertake the Alternative Learning Experience (ALE). The ALE is modelled on the format of the residential school project. Prior to the ALE, you will be offered a range of project topics. Most project options will not involve the use of a computer to control experiments. It will be possible to choose an option that involves neural network (or connectionist) modelling using a computer. You will conduct a project under the close supervision of tutors, given principally using electronic conferencing. Some limited technical support will also be available via electronic conferencing. Your project will form the basis of an assignment submitted after the ALE. The cost of the ALE is included in the course fee.
You must satisfactorily participate in either the Residential School or the ALE to gain credit for the course.
The ALE begins the week after the summer school ends and runs for three weeks. You will need to have access to a computer and the internet during the whole of this period.
Entry
DD303 is a Level 3 course. Level 3 courses build on study skills and subject knowledge acquired from previous studies at Levels 1 and 2. They are intended only for students who have recent experience of higher education in a related subject. You are strongly advised to have previously taken an introductory psychology course, such as our course Exploring psychology (DSE212) (or the discontinued course DSE202). You will be expected to write clear, well-structured essays demonstrating the ability to compare and assess different theoretical perspectives. You will also be expected, with guidance, to carry out and write up reports of practical projects.
If you have any doubt about the suitability of the course, please contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
Preparatory work
Before you begin the course, you may like to read Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook by Michael W. Eysenck and Mark T. Keane (Psychology Press).
Qualifications
DD303 is a compulsory course in our
- BSc (Honours) Psychology (B07)
- BSc (Honours) Computing with Psychological Studies (B49)
- Diploma in Psychology (Conversion for Postgraduates) (D15)
It is an optional course in our
- BA/BSc (Honours) Social Sciences (B06)
- BA/BSc (Honours) Social Sciences (B06) (with Psychology)
- BSc (Honours) Life Sciences (B28)
- BA (Honours) Philosophy and Psychological Studies (B43)
- Diploma in Life Sciences (E05)
It can also count towards most of our other degrees at bachelors level, where it is equally appropriate to a BA or BSc. We advise you to refer to the relevant qualification descriptions for information on the circumstances in which this course can count towards these qualifications because from time to time the structure and requirements may change.
Excluded combinations
Sometimes you will not be able to count a course towards a qualification if you have already taken another course with similar content. To check any excluded combinations relating to this course, visit our excluded combination finder or check with our Student Registration & Enquiry Service before registering.
If you have a disability or additional requirement
The written course material is available in comb binding and on CD-ROM in 'ReadOut' format with navigational facilities. The text is provided and, where available, a real voice recording. You will need your usual interface to access the material e.g. a screen reader with synthetic speech output, screen enlargement software or Braille facilities. You may need someone to help with projects and experiments conducted at home, and in the Alternative Learning Experience; project work at residential school, which provides the opportunity to work closely with tutors and other students, should not present a serious difficulty. You will need to spend considerable amounts of time using a personal computer and the internet. After you have registered you will receive detailed information about the residential school site and the facilities available to help with the academic programme. Our Services for disabled students website has the latest information about availability.
If you are a new student, or new to courses using a computer or the internet, you will need to inform us of your particular needs as soon as possible, as some of our support services may take several weeks to arrange. Details of how to do this and our range of support services are described in our booklets Meeting Your Needs and Meeting your residential school needs, which you can download or request from our Student Registration & Enquiry Service.
You can also find information about accessible course materials, financial support and the Disabled Students' Allowance, equipment and other services, on our Services for disabled students website. It also includes our contact details for advice and support both before you register and while you are studying.
Course materials
What's included
Course books, other printed materials, CD-ROMs, audio CD/cassette, course website.
You will need
Audio CD/cassette player.
Computing requirements
This course includes online computer activities – you can access these using a web browser that can play Flash and Shockwave. Some of your course software will be provided on disk.
You will need internet access and a computer. If you have purchased a new Windows computer since 2002 it should meet your course computing requirements. Check our Technical Requirements section if your computer is older than this or is otherwise unusual. Please note that you cannot use an Apple Mac or Linux computer unless it is running windows Boot Camp or similar.
Teaching and assessment
Support from your tutor
You will have a tutor who will help you with the course material and mark and comment on your written work, and whom you can ask for advice and guidance. We may also be able to offer group tutorials or day schools that you are encouraged, but not obliged, to attend. Where your tutorials are held will depend on the distribution of students taking the course.
Contact our Student Registration & Enquiry Service if you want to know more about study with The Open University before you register.
Assessment
The assessment details for this course can be found in the facts box above.
You will be expected to submit your tutor-marked assignments (TMAs) online through the eTMA system unless there are some difficulties which prevent you from doing so. In these circumstances, you must negotiate with your tutor to get their agreement to submit your assignment on paper.
Four of the TMAs address different aspects of project work; two involve writing essays. Assessment is an essential part of the teaching, so you are expected to complete it all. But if you unavoidably miss or do badly in an assignment, some courses allow you a ‘substitution score’. In DD303 this rule can apply to one of four assignments. You will be given more detailed information when you begin the course.
Professional recognition
This course may help you to gain recognition from a professional body. Ask our Student Registration & Enquiry Service for Recognition leaflet 3.1 British Psychological Society.
Students also studied
Students who studied this course also studied at some time:
Future availability
The details given here are for the course that starts in January 2011. We expect it to be available at the same time once a year.
How to register
To register a place on this course return to the top of the page and use the Click to register button. For more information and advice about registration see OU Study Explained.
About this page
An undergraduate course in Psychology, Science and Social Sciences.
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