UE438 - Methods in psychological science [PSYCH 102]

Intervenant·e·s

• Thérèse Collins [référent·e]   professeure des universités, Université de Paris
• Jérôme Sackur   directeur d'études, EHESS / Laboratoire de sciences cognitives et psycholinguistiques (LSCP)
• Christian Lorenzi   professeur des universités, ENS

The goal of this class is to expose students to research methods in psychology with a practical approach. Concepts taught in class will be illustrated by practical examples (constructing a valid questionnaire, applying psychophysical methods, performing a meta-analysis, etc). The goal is to provide a tool-box to students interested in pursuing research in psychology, or any other cognitive science that uses behavior as a measure. Another goal is to allow students to develop critical thinking skills about methods in psychology, and the appropriateness of a given method to a particular scientific question.

Le cours a comme objectif de former les étudiants aux méthodes avancées en psychologie scientifique, avec une approche pratique. Les notions abordées dans chaque cours seront étayées de travaux pratiques (construction d’un questionnaire, application des méthodes en psychophysique, réalisation d’une méta-analyse, etc). Il vise à fournir une boîte à outils aux étudiants destinés à poursuivre la recherche en psychologie cognitive, ou toute autre science cognitive qui utilise le comportement comme variable dépendante. De plus, il vise à permettre aux étudiants de prendre du recul par rapport aux différentes méthodologies et d’envisager l’adéquation entre les méthodes et les questions scientifiques posées.

Prerequisites:

Undergraduate-level education in cognitive psychology. This prerequisite can be met in different ways: having an undergraduate degree in psychology or cognitive science, reading, MOOC, or Introduction to Psychology. Students who have undergraduate training in any experimental science (in particular, biology) may be authorized to take the course after catching up on a few bibliographic references. Contact the course coordinator to see if you have the prerequisites.

Students will learn to recognize the different steps in the scientific method as applied to psychological questions, and be able to critique scientific articles at each of these steps. They will be able to describe and explain sample selection and experimental design. They will be able to critique the analyses chosen to test a particular hypothesis, and evaluate the conclusions that can (or cannot) be drawn based on the chosen methodology. A particular emphasis will be placed on signal detection theory, psychophysical methods and response time analysis.