Undergraduate Research Requirement
If you are interested in doing a 399 the application is now online. This application is due before the end of the add period each semester.
Please do not submit paper applications.
Here is a link to the application:
https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_7PsWhL3B8PSgsqU
Here is the link to the Independent Study Progress Report (PSYC 399):
This is for students enrolled in a 2-semester independent study (PSYC 399). You must submit this progress report during the add period of the second semester of your PSYC 399. The last day of the add period is January 28, 2103
https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8upe5dWGfDCV4Hj
Overview.
One goal of the Psychology major is for students to become familiar with the application of the scientific method to topics in psychology, both through critical reading of the primary empirical literature and through first-hand experience with the collection and analysis of psychological data.
One of the distinguishing features of the Psychology major at Penn is the emphasis that is placed on empirical research: Competence in psychological science includes not only a set of ideas about how we think and behave, but also an understanding of how psychologists have arrived at this knowledge. In order to foster a full understanding of the science of psychology, all majors should be comfortable with the application of the scientific method to topics in psychology, both as consumers and as creators of empirical research. The focus on psychology as a science begins in the introductory course, Introduction to Experimental Psychology, and persists in all subsequent, advanced coursework. As majors progress through their curricula, advanced courses shift from textbook summaries of topics to reading of the primary empirical literature. In addition, all majors gain first-hand experience with the process of generating psychological knowledge through empirical research, either by taking a structured Research Experience (300-level) course or by completing a faculty-supervised independent empirical research project (399).
Another goal of the Psychology major is for students to understand the fundamentals of statistical inference as it applies to psychological data; and to achieve fluency in a software application for the organization, visualization, and analysis of quantitative information.
Nearly all psychological research rests on the ability to make generalizations about a population based on a sample of empirical data, with some degree of certainty. Therefore, a full understanding of psychological science requires a basic-level understanding of the theoretical principles that govern the process of statistical inference. In addition, in order to understand (and to help generate) the empirical literature of psychology, one must also gain some familiarity with the many applications of these theoretical principles to topics in psychology. Because the methods used by psychologists are so diverse, the statistical applications are equally so; therefore, the goal of statistical competence at the undergraduate level is to acquire knowledge about the foundations of statistical inference, defined broadly, and then to be able to apply relevant statistical methods in at least one area of psychology. All students take at least one course in statistics; in addition to fulfilling a major requirement, introductory statistics courses also fulfill the Quantitative Skills foundational requirement in the General Requirement curriculum of the college. A number of courses are offered at Penn that meet the goal of learning about the basic foundations of statistical inference; in addition, many of these courses also include instruction in the use of software applications for statistical analysis. All students are expected to learn the relevant statistical methods for a topic of interest as they complete their research experience. The implementation of statistical analyses in the Research Experience courses or during the course of independent empirical study with a faculty member (399) requires instruction in the organization, visualization, and analysis of quantitative information.
Choosing a research experience
This page contains a research description from every member of the standing faculty in psychology (plus several affiliated faculty or lecturers in the department). The listings are subdivided into two sections: (i) Research Experience Courses (300-level seminars) and (ii) independent study opportunities (399). Within each section, the listings are arranged alphabetically by the instructor's last name. The goals of these two types of experiences are the same, as described above; however, there are some differences in their implementation. You should speak with a Major advisor to help you decide the best option for you.
Requests for placement into a research experience course is due proir to advance registraton; a request form is available in the Psychology Office (see Claire Ingulli) or on the web page. Before submitting your preferences, please make sure you have read the description including all of the prerequisites and other requirements. Also, please make sure that the opportunity is offered in the upcoming semester. We have provided a complete set of listings, including for future semesters, to help guide your long-term planning. You are advised to contact the professor about independent study (399) opportunities directly, as soon as possible. Spaces in each lab are limited. If you have any questions about the process for enrolling in one of these opportunities or if you want guidance about the selection process, stop by to see one of the psychology advisors during walk-in hours.
If you are interested in doing a 399 the application is now online. This application is due before the end of the add period each semester.
Please do not submit paper applications.
Here is a link to the application:
https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_7PsWhL3B8PSgsqU
Here is the link to the Independent Study Progress Report (PSYC 399):
This is for students enrolled in a 2-semester independent study (PSYC 399). You must submit this progress report during the add period of the second semester of your PSYC 399. The last day of the add period is January 28, 2103
https://sasupenn.qualtrics.com/SE/?SID=SV_8upe5dWGfDCV4Hj
RESEARCH EXPERIENCE COURSES (tentative)
Research Experience in Clinical Psychology: Close Relationships, Psychology 362
Instructor: Dianne Chambless
Description: We will examine the nature of close relationships (relationships with parents, spouses, and romantic partners) via observation of videotaped interactions and questionnaire measures completed by the participants. In particular, we will look at the relationship of social support and criticism to important relationship features such as relationship satisfaction and maintenance. Students will work in small groups to code interactions; this generally requires meeting with the group one evening a week in addition to class time meetings. Students will develop hypotheses, collect and analyze data, and write a manuscript in the style used by journals published by the American Psychological Association. Data analytic methods will include correlations, t tests, and multiple regression.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC162; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Spring 2014 (tentative)
Research Experience in Clinical Psychology, Psychology 362
Instructor: Melissa Hunt
Description: This course will provide an intensive, rewarding, and fun research experience in one of several areas of clinical psychology such as anxiety, depression, ADHD, psychological assessment, pet-assisted therapy, and cognitive behavioral interventions for irritable bowel syndrome. Offering more support and structure than the typical independent study, this course will still allow you to make a serious and original contribution to the field. Every project is based on original research, not just carried out with existing data sets. My students feel ownership of their projects and are invested in every stage, from initial design and IRB approval, through data collection, to analysis and write up. Statistical methods that are covered depend somewhat on the nature of the project, but typically include using SPSS to examine correlations, dependent and/or independent t-tests, ANOVA and ANCOVA, factor analysis, inter-rater reliability, multiple regression and tests of clinical significance. Over the years, students in this course have presented their work at professional conferences and even merited co-authorship of articles in professional journals. By the time the course is done, you will know whether a career in clinical psychology is for you, and you will be very well prepared to pursue graduate study in a number of related fields.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC162
Other Requirements: Permission of instructor.
Semester: Fall and Spring. This is a year-long course receiving 2 cu's; a two-semester commitment is required, starting in the fall.
Research Experience in Abnormal Psychology, Psychology 362
Instructor: Elizabeth Krause
Gender Differences in Adolescent Psychopathology
This course is designed to increase students' knowledge of research methods in psychology and to help students develop clinical research skills. You will work on group research projects and gain experience in many phases of the research process, including reviewing theoretical and research literature, generating hypotheses, analyzing data, writing a research paper in APA style, and presenting the results. The focus of the course is on gender differences in adolescent psychopathology. Specifically, analyses will be conducted on an existing longitudinal data set that followed middle school students over 3.5-4 years as part of the Penn Resiliency Project (PRP), a randomized clinical trial of a depression prevention program. A broad array of variables will be considered in the course, including life stressors (e.g., negative life events, family conflict, problematic parenting style, parent depression), coping behaviors and cognitive style, and mental health outcomes (depression, anxiety, behavior problems, academic problems, life satisfaction).
Prerequisite(s): PSYC162 and Stat 111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: none
Semester: TBA
Research Experience in Perception and Cognition: Human visual memory capacity, Psychology 311
Instructor: Nicole Rust
Description: For some things, such as strings of numbers, our memory capacity is distinctly limited. For other things, such as visual images, our memory capacity can be remarkable. For example, after viewing thousands of images, each for a few seconds over the course of several hours, people can determine with high accuracy the scenes they have previously viewed and those they have not. In this research course, students will begin by first replicating earlier experiments to measure human visual memory capacity. After several class discussions to discuss ideas, each student will design and conduct their own experiment to further investigate visual and/or familiarity memory. Depending on the requirements of their specific project, students will analyze their data using Excel or a statistical software package (such as SPSS or Matlab).
Prerequisite(s): One semester of statistics and one of the following: Cognitive Psychology, Cognitive Neuroscience, Human Memory, Perception, Visual Neuroscience, or permission of the instructor.
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall 2013
Research Experience in Animal Behavior, Psychology 331
Instructor: Robert Seyfarth
Description:
Research Experience in Animal Behavior involves an observational study of the 90 ponies that range freely on 40 acres at Penn’s New Bolton Center in Kennett Square, PA: for information see http://www.upenn.edu/spotlights/studying-behavior-penn-s-semi-feral-horse-herd. In this course students learn to recognize individual ponies and collect data on their social interactions using ethological methods of behavioral sampling. The course meets once a week from 11 AM-5 PM and can accommodate 5-6 students. Psych 231, the lecture course in animal behavior, is a prerequisite. Enrollment is by permission of the instructors. Interested students should contact either Dorothy Cheney, Professor of Biology, cheney@sas.upenn.edu or Robert Seyfarth, Professor of Psychology seyfarth@psych.upenn.edu for an interview.
Prerequisite(s): Psychology 231 (cross-listed as BBB 231 and Bio 231) and Stat 111 or its equivalent.
Other Requirements: Permission of instructor required.
Semester: TBA
INDEPENDENT STUDY (399) OPTIONS
Independent Study in Human Behavioral Origins
Instructor: Coren Apicella
Description: Research in this lab sits at the interface of psychology, anthropology and biology and are aimed at understanding the proximate (mechanisms) and ultimate (evolutionary) origins of human preferences and decision-making faculties. While a broad range of topics may be explored, including but not limited to, hormones and behavior, mate selection and attraction, behavioral economics, social networks and the evolution of cooperation, evolutionary theory will be used to inform the research. For their independent research course, students will typically be involved in all stages of research from design to implementation, analysis and write-up. Data will be analyzed in STATA and SPSS under guidance from the instructor. Data analysis methods may include t-tests, ANOVAs, chi square tests, correlations and regressions.
Prerequisite(s): STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Visual Perception
Instructor: David Brainard
Description: Vision informs us about the environment around us. Color, for example, provides information about object identity ("the red bicycle") and physical properties ("the yellow banana is ripe"). We are interested in how the light reaching the eye is transformed by the brain to a useful perceptual representation, and we focus on color as a model system for approaching this general problem. Experiments in the lab measure how object color is determined, as well as study related questions such as how we associate object colors with language and how color is used to guide action and choice. Students will work with a mentor in the lab to develop their own research project on one of these topics. Students will learn to analyze data using Excel or Matlab, depending on the project; statistical concepts will include data visualization, estimation of confidence intervals, and fitting of parametric models to data.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC207, PSYC109, PSYC111, or PSYC217 (at least one of the these; cross-listed equivalent OK); STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: Programming experience preferred
Semester: Spring
Independent Study in Speech Perception and Psycholinguistics
Instructor: Delphine Dahan
Description: Our work aims to understand how people make sense of the speech they hear so rapidly and accurately despite the large variability in the physical realization of words across talkers and dialects of the same language. To assess people's interpretation of speech as they hear and process it under various listening conditions, we make use of a variety of behavioral methods, including an eye-tracking methodology. Participants' eye movements to visually present objects are monitored as participants follow spoken instructions to select one of the objects. People typically fixate on a few of the displayed objects before selecting the named object but usually remain unaware of where their gaze falls. Analysis of their fixations over time uncovers their on-going interpretation of the speech (see http://www.psych.upenn.edu/~dahan/lab/ for more details on the research). Students will develop and conduct a study related to some of the current projects in the lab. Students will learn to analyze data using R, a free statistical package; statistical concepts will include one- and two-sample hypothesis tests, one- and two-way ANOVA, or multiple linear or logistic regressions.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC151; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in the Psychopathology and Treatment of Disorders of Mood
Instructor: Robert DeRubeis
Description: We study a variety of phenomena that we think will help us understand why some depressed people, and not others, benefit from a treatment, or why they might benefit differentially from very different treatments. The treatments we study are: cognitive therapy, antidepressant medications, the combination of cognitive therapy and medications, and placebo therapy. We also conduct research the aim of which is to understand the nature of depression, or of differences in the conditions that we group under the umbrella term "depression." We do this both with specific studies of the cognitive and other features of depression, but also with our treatment studies, which can provide clues for a better understanding of the basic phenomena of depression. Students will become more familiar with the following kinds of analytic methods: contingency analysis (chi-square), correlation, t-tests, general linear models that encompass regression, ANOVA, and ANCOVA. Some students will learn the rudiments of multi-level modeling (e.g., HLM) or multivariate methods such as factor analysis. Students should have, at least, a facility with Excel, to aid data management.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC162; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Spring 2104; some one-year projects available
Independent Study in the Psychology of Achievement
Instructor: Angela Duckworth
Description: My lab investigates personality traits that predict achievement. Our empirical research focuses on two traits in particular: self-control (which we study primarily in children) and grit (which we study primarily in adults). Our recent projects emphasize (1) goal setting and planning strategies that facilitate self-control, particularly in work situations; (2) psychological distancing strategies that facilitate self-control in interpersonal situations; (3) cognitive and affective processes underlying grit (i.e., perseverance and sustained commitment to challenging, long-term goals); (4) environmental factors (e.g., life events, parenting styles, school factors) that encourage self-control and grit; and (5) the subjective experience of learning and practice. Many students will use data already collected by my laboratory to develop their own research project on one of these topics. Others will design and complete a study on their own. All students learn to analyze data using SPSS, AMOS, and/or STATA; statistical models are typically parametric, including linear, ordinal, and/or binary logistic regression, and where appropriate structural equation modeling.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC160 or PSYC266 and also STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: One-year projects only.
Independent Study in the Neural Basis of Human Spatial Cognition
Instructor: Russell Epstein
Description: We study the brain systems that underlie human spatial
navigation—the ability to find one’s way from one place to another in
the world. We are especially interested in two questions: (1) How do
we visually recognize landmarks, scenes, and other objects of
potential navigational relevance? (2) How do we learn and remember
the spatial structure of large-scale environments such cities or
college campuses? Our primary methods for investigating these issues
are functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and cognitive
behavioral testing of normal populations. Following a period of
orientation to the methods used in the lab, subjects will work with a
mentor to develop their own research project. Students will analyze
data with Excel, SPSS, Matlab, and dedicated fMRI data analysis
software; statistical concepts will include hypothesis testing, ANOVA,
generalized linear models, and statistical parameter mapping.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC149, STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Neuroscience and Society
Instructor: Martha Farah
Description: These projects will focus on the social, ethical and legal impact of recent advances in neuroscience and the effects of social context on brain function. Current projects are aimed at understanding the motivations of individuals using neuropsychiatric medications for enhancing normal brain function, the effects of such medications on normal healthy individuals, the ways in which neuroimaging is interpreted by the lay public, and the effect of looking at human behavior as the result of physical (neural) processes on moral judgments. Another set of projects address the influence of social context on brain function, particularly the effects of socioeconomic status. The research methods used in these studies varies according to the question being addressed, with current work using internet surveys, laboratory behavioral testing, brain imaging, measurement of stress hormones, pharmacological manipulations and candidate gene analyses. Subjects include college students, community adults and community children. Students will work with a mentor in the lab to learn one or more of these methods and to develop their own project or subproject related to the issues described above. Students will learn to analyze data using SPSS or Excel, depending on the project; statistical concepts will include one- and two-sample hypothesis tests, one- and two-way ANOVA, simple and multiple linear least-squares regression and mediation analyses.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC109 or PSYC149 or PSYC151; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: Psyc247 recommended but not required
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Behavioral Neuroendocrinology
Instructor: Loretta Flanagan-Cato
Description: We study the links between hormone action, brain circuits, and behavior. Two systems that we focus on are, 1) the effects of ovarian hormones on neural plasticity in the hypothalamus, and 2) the effects of the blood pressure hormone angiotensin on water and salt ingestion. Recent projects have discovered (1) the effects of estrogen to re-wire synaptic connections in the hypothalamus; and (2) the role of specific kinase pathways to mediate angiotensin effects on thirst and sodium appetite. We study hormone action in the brain by incorporating behavioral, neuroanatomical, and molecular approaches. Students will work with a mentor in the lab to learn one or more of these methods and to develop their own research project on one of these topics. Students will learn to analyze data using Excel and Prism; statistical concepts will include power analysis, outlier testing, one- and two-way ANOVA, and post-hoc tests.
Prerequisite(s): BBB109; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Moral Judgment and Reasoning
Instructor: Geoffrey Goodwin
Description: My lab studies moral judgment and reasoning. Questions that I am currently investigating include (but are not limited to): (1) Do people regard their moral beliefs as objectively true facts as opposed to subjective preferences, and if so, why? (2) What underlies the desire to punish criminal offenders? (3) How do people make judgments of the moral character of other individuals? (4) How do people make judgments about the moral value of different human lives? Students will work with me to develop their own project on one of these topics, or a related topic. Projects in my lab would typically involve designing and carrying out one or more behavioral studies, analyzing the results (in SPSS or some other statistical software package), and writing up the results in the style of an empirical journal article. Data from research projects will be analyzed in SPSS (or a similar software package). Depending on the project, statistical tests such as the following will be used: t-tests, ANOVAs, chi square tests, correlations, regressions, and mediational analyses.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC 170, OR PSYC 253; STAT111 (or its equivalent). (Some flexibility in these course requirements may be warranted in exceptional cases).
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall or Spring
Independent Study in the Behavioral Neuroscience of Energy Balance
Instructor: Harvey Grill
Description: Focus is on providing interested undergraduate students with hands-on exposure to biomedical research in areas that could be described as behavioral or systems neuroscience. Rodent models are used to address research questions related to the broad topic area of the neural and neuroendocrine control of food intake and body weight control. Examples of topics of several recent 399 students: Role of Hippocampal Leptin Receptor Contributions to Appetitive Learned Behavior; Food Intake and Meal Pattern Analyses of the Combined Effects of Two Anorexic Drugs acting on Different Receptors; A Role for the Paraventricular Hypothalamus and the Parabrachial Nucleus in Prostaglandin-Induced Fever’ Common Sites of action for the Intake Inhibitory Effects of Intra-intestinal Nutrients and Melanocortin Receptor Stimulation. Experiments involve handling rats, making behavioral and various other measurements, keeping records, data summary and presentation. Students will learn to enter, manipulate and analyze data using Excel. Statistical concepts will include one- and two-way ANOVA, and simple and multiple linear least-squares regression. Students will be guided in the process of writing their results in scientific paper format.
Prerequisite(s): BBB109, PSYC127, or permission of the instructor
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall or Spring
Independent Study in Neuroeconomics
Instructor: Joseph Kable
Description: We study how people make decisions, and seek to trace out the underlying psychological and neural mechanisms of choice. Research in the lab draws links across different levels of analysis, and aims to build explanations of decision-making that account for both people's choices and the neural mechanisms underlying those choices. Projects employ an interdisciplinary approach to tackle these questions, drawing on methods and ideas from social and cognitive neuroscience, experimental economics, and personality psychology. The neuroscientific methods used include functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), quantitative analysis of behavioral deficits in neurological patients, noninvasive brain stimulation, and eye-tracking. Students will learn how to use computer presentation software (E-Prime, Psychtoolbox, PsychoPy or Qualtrics) and data analysis software (Matlab, Excel, or SPSS). The statistical concepts introduced include t-tests, correlation, ANOVA, non-parametric tests, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, and nonlinear optimization. Students will also have weekly meetings with the instructor and will have to present their work in at least one lab meeting.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC253 or PSYC149 or equivalent; STAT111 or equivalent
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available
Independent Study in Human Memory and its Neural Basis
Instructor: Michael Kahana
Description: We study the neural bases of human memory and learning, with a particular emphasis on episodic memory (memory for events). Recent projects emphasize the role of brain oscillations in the encoding and retrieval of information bound to a spatiotemporal context; and developing computational models of episodic and spatial memory. We study memory using a variety of behavioral and neuroscientific methods including scalp electroencephalography (EEG) in healthy young adults, and intracranial EEG and single-neuron recordings in neurosurgical patients with epilepsy and Parkinson's disease. Students will learn experimental techniques and will also have the opportunity to carry out original data analyses and/or computational modeling concerning human memory. As part of this research experience, students will learn to do statistical estimation and goodness-of-fit testing using Matlab.
Prerequisite(s): Math 114
Other Requirements: Computer programming (e.g., CIS 120 or its equivalent).
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Evolutionary Psychology
Instructor: Robert Kurzban
Research in my lab is motivated by an explicit evolutionary/biological analysis of function. In their independent research, students will be able to pursue a research question about a wide range of human behavior, with an emphasis on human social behavior, including areas such as friendship, morality, mating, and cooperation. In my lab, students are largely free to pursue the topic and the method for their research. Techniques range from mining existing datasets to simple vignette studies to experimental economic techniques. Generally, students who work with me have taken PSYC 272; I have indicted it here as a prerequisite, but this will be waived in special circumstances. Study design is generally kept relatively straightforward, and data analysis will be done in SPSS, largely using ANOVA or related techniques.
Prerequisite: PSYC 272 and Stat 111 (or its equivalent)
Other requirements: None.
Semester: Fall, Spring, or both, with preference to students who want to do full year projects.
Independent Study in The Neural Basis of Motor Learning
Instructor: Javier Medina
Description: My lab investigates the neural basis of motor learning in a simple eye-blink conditioning task in mice. We are particularly interested in three different areas: 1) the coding and processing of error signals in cerebellar-olivary networks, 2) the neural sources of noise and variability in motor output, and 3) the neural mechanisms underlying precise timing of movement. Our approach to all these questions is multi-disciplinary, and includes behavioral analyses, computational neuroscience, multi-electrode neurophysiology, pharmacology, and opto-genetics. For their independent research course, students will work with a mentor and contribute to an ongoing project the lab. Students will collect their own data and learn to analyze it using one- and two-sample hypothesis tests, one- and two-way ANOVA, simple and multiple linear least-squares regression and goodness-of-fit tests. Because there is a strong computational aspect to every project in the lab, students with programming skills and knowledge of MATLAB are especially encouraged to apply.
Prerequisite(s): BIBB109
Other Requirements: Programming experience, MATLAB (strongly encouraged)
Semester: Fall and Spring. (A two-semester commitment is required.)
Independent Study in Judgment and Decision Making
Instructor: Barbara Mellers
Description: The ability to make accurate forecasts is important in a wide range of occupations. . We are currently working on a large initiative to improve the science of prediction. Our team competes with four other teams across the country to develop the most accurate forecasts of 100 global events (e.g., economic, political, military, or social) each year for four years.
This independent study will focus on prediction markets. In recent years, prediction markets, such as Intrade and the Iowa Prediction Market, have gained a reputation for accurately predicting outcomes. In this seminar, we will examine this method and other methods of judgmental forecasting. Are prediction methods really better than expert surveys and opinion polls? Why do prediction markets work? Under what conditions do they work best?
Students will read popular and scientific literature about forecasting, prediction markets and the wisdom of crowds. They will conduct literature reviews, develop hypotheses, perform data analyses testing these hypotheses, and summarize their findings in a final paper.
Prerequisite(s): STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Spring
Independent Study in the Biological Basis of Declarative Memory
Instructor: Isabel Muzzio
Description: Evidence from both human and animal research indicates that the hippocampus is involved in processing episodic memory. Even though the involvement of the hippocampus in this type of memory has been well documented, the ways in which information is stored and the contribution of different hippocampal areas to this process are still not fully understood. Differences in hippocampal function along the longitudinal axis are of particular interest because afferent and efferent patterns of connectivity change from the dorsal (septal) to the ventral (temporal) pole. These neuroanatomical differences raise the following questions: 1) Do different sub-regions operate as independent modules specializing in different aspects of memory? 2) How does the hippocampus integrate spatial and emotional inputs along the longitudinal axis? 3) Do molecular pathways involved in memory consolidation differentially affect the firing patterns and behavior along the longitudinal axis? To address these questions, we use a variety of techniques including single unit recordings in freely moving mice, genetic tools, computational approaches, and behavioral testing. Students will work with a mentor in the lab to learn one of these methods and develop their own research project in one of these areas. Students will learn how to analyze data using Excel, Sigma Stat or Matlab, depending on the project. Statistical methods will involve descriptive statistics as well as parametric tests to determine if the groups are significantly different (e.g., one- and two-way ANOVAS, simple and multiple regressions, etc.).
Prerequisite(s): BBB109
Other Requirements: Some wet lab experience will be preferable but not required.
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Social, Cultural, and Decision Psychology
Instructor: Paul Rozin
Description: Usually two semesters of individual research, including mastery of a literature, development of a problem to study, design of a study, collection of data, analysis of data, and write-up of the data. About half of these projects end up as publications with the student as an author. Topics currently under study include: What types of sequences of events (as in a concert or a meal) produce the most positive memories; Magical contagion beliefs; Preference for natural things, cross culturally, the psychology of meat, water and chocolate (3 separate problems); Hindu and Buddhist religious outlooks from a psychological perspective; cultural aspects of the relation of people to food; Determinants of food choice; Asian versus Western comparisons in cognition, food psychology, and other areas; The perception of character; The psychology of music. Students will learn how to use SPSS, manage databases, and some basic inferential statistics like chi square, ANOVA, t-tests and correlations, and regressions.
Prerequisite(s): STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Clinical Psychology: Anxiety and Depression
Instructor: Ayelet Ruscio
Description: Most people who suffer from anxiety also suffer from depression. The reasons for this are poorly understood. Our lab is working to identify shared risk processes for anxiety and depression, as well as specific processes that predispose to just one of these conditions. Recent projects have focused on risk processes such as worry (the tendency to get stuck in negative, repetitive thinking), threat sensitivity (the tendency to perceive ambiguous or minor events as threatening), and reward responsiveness (the inability to gain pleasure from rewarding experiences). We study these processes in clinical and healthy populations using a variety of approaches (laboratory experiments, correlational studies, daily diary methods) and measures (self-report, behavioral, psychophysiological). Working closely with Professor Ruscio, Independent Study students will pursue research focusing on risk processes in anxiety and depression. Students will gain experience with study design, participant screening and recruitment, data collection, data management and analysis, and scientific writing. Students will learn to analyze data using SPSS, selecting and applying statistical tools appropriate for their research questions; these may include descriptive statistics, t-tests, one-way or factorial analysis of variance (ANOVA), chi-square, correlation, or multiple regression. Depending on the outcomes of the project and the interest of the student, students may have the opportunity to disseminate their findings to the scientific community through conference presentation or publication. Readings and discussions will focus on challenges and opportunities involved in conducting informative clinical research.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC162 (Abnormal Psychology) and STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: Permission of the instructor
Semester: Fall and Spring. (A two-semester commitment is required.)
Independent Study in Positive Psychology
Instructor: Martin Seligman
Description: We study positive emotion, engagement, positive relationships, meaning and accomplishment. PERMA, in short. Our current projects include positive education, comprehensive soldier fitness, creativity, positive gaming, posttraumatic growth, longitudinal investigations of PERMA on physical and mental health and the measurement of PERMA. Students will work with a mentor on publishable projects. Students will learn hypothesis generation, external validity, visualization and presentation of data, persuasive writing and compelling argumentation.
Prerequisite(s): One semester of statistics.
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in Computational Perception and Cognition
Instructor: Alan Stocker
Description: Research in the Computational Perception and Cognition Laboratory is aimed at discovering the computational principles that govern human visual perception and perceptual decision making. Our general assumption is that most perceptual and cognitive processes are tasks that the human brain tries to solve as well and efficiently as possible. Our approach is to derive models based on this assumption, which we then carefully validate with psychophysical experiments. Current projects study (1) human visual motion perception, (2) perceptual adaptation, and (3) sequential perceptual decision-making. Students will work with a mentor in the lab on a research project within the broader scope of one of these topics. Some specific project descriptions will be listed under http://www.sas.upenn.edu/~astocker/lab/teaching.php.
All projects require an interest and background in computation (e.g. probability theory), and some programming skills. More specifically, our experimental setup is fully computer controlled and using it requires proficient knowledge of the programming language MATLAB. However, a limited number of projects are available for students who are eager to learn programming in MATLAB.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC111 or PSYC151 or PSYC217 (requirement only for psychology majors); STAT111 (or any other higher level math course)
Other Requirements: MATLAB programming (but see above)
Semester: Fall, Spring (typical duration: one semester)
Independent Study in Human Language Learning
Instructor: Daniel Swingley
Description: We study how learning in infancy forms the basis for language acquisition in childhood, focusing primarily on word learning and discovery of the sound structure of language. Recent projects have taken one of a set of approaches, including (1) careful analysis of corpora of maternal speech; (2) experiments testing adults' learning of features of maternal speech in English or another language; (3) computational studies of aspects of language structure; (4) experimental studies of perceptual categorization and learning in adults. Depending on the nature of the project, students will learn some phonetics and/or some fairly elementary programming, and graphical methods and analysis using R, possibly including logistic regression, one- and two-sample tests of group differences, and ANOVA.
Prerequisite(s): At least one course in linguistics, cognitive psychology, cognitive neuroscience, cognitive development, perception, or computer science.
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall (with preference for one-year projects beginning in the Fall).
Independent Study in Political Psychology
Instructor: Philip Tetlock
Description: Good policy making presupposes good forecasting skills—or, at a minimum, greater ability than one’s political critics to predict the consequences likely to flow from adopting one policy instead of another (be it invading Iraq or implementing a national value-added tax or passing universal health insurance or…). Students working in my lab can assist with a large-scale federally funded initiative to sponsor forecasting tournaments that should allow us to answer key questions left unanswered in the 2005 Expert political judgment book and in the wider research literature. Students will be involved in everything from literature reviews and hypothesis development to research design to data coding, collection to data analysis, and interpretation. Data analysis methods include linear regression and psychometric techniques.
Prerequisite(s): STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall or Spring
Independent Study in Human Cognition and Cognitive Neuroscience
Instructor: Sharon Thompson-Schill
Description: We study the biological bases of human cognitive systems – perception, memory, language, thought, cognitive control – and the interrelations among these systems, with a particular emphasis on the characterization of typical and atypical variation across individuals. Recent projects emphasize (1) functions of the frontal lobe in the regulation of thought and behavior, especially in relation to language and memory processes; and (2) the organization and neural substrates of concept knowledge (especially knowledge of visual attributes) and the relation between conceptual information and perception and language. We answer these questions by developing and implementing a wide array of behavioral and neuroscientific methods with both typical and atypical populations, including functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), lesion-deficit mapping of neurological patients, transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), genotypic analysis of typical variation, on-line eye-tracking, & so on. Students will work with a mentor in the lab to learn one or more of these methods and to develop their own research project on one of these topics. Students will learn to analyze data using SPSS, Excel, or Matlab, depending on the project; statistical concepts will include one- and two-sample hypothesis tests, one- and two-way ANOVA, simple and multiple linear least-squares regression, categorical data analysis and goodness-of-fit tests.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC151 or PSYC149; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None.
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)
Independent Study in the Psychology of Language
Instructor: John Trueswell
Description: Our research group studies how languages are learned and how they are processed. We are especially interested in how language is supported by various human cognitive systems (i.e., perception, learning, memory, thought, attention and cognitive control). Much of the research uses eye-tracking methods to study spoken language processing; the eye movements of children (and adults) are recorded as they hear speech referring to a visual referent world. The participant's eye movements to objects in the world can tell us what he or she is considering as possible referents in 'real time' as the speech is unfolding. We use this and other methods to study: (1) how children and adults learn the grammatical properties of their language; (2) how they deploy that grammatical knowledge during speaking and listening; and (3) how children learn the meanings of words within and across multiple learning instances. Some of this work involves comparisons across languages, so students with knowledge of other languages are also encouraged to get involved in the lab. Students will work with a mentor in the lab and may develop their own research project on one of these topics. Students will learn to analyze data using R and Excel; statistical concepts will include one-and two-sample hypothesis tests, one- and two-way ANOVA, simple and multiple linear regression, and perhaps logistic regressions for binary data.
Prerequisite(s): PSYC151 or PSYC149 or COGS101/PSYC207; STAT111 (or its equivalent)
Other Requirements: None
Semester: Fall, Spring, or one-year projects available (preference given for one-year)