Cognitive Psychology

Tone can be conversational, but appropriate. (You can use the word I, and can discuss your personal opinion/observations; but it should still be grammatically correct, etc.) 

Cite at least 3 sources: two articles from peer-reviewed journals, and one additional source we didn’t use in class (book / newspaper / magazine / reputable website / TED talk / etc.) o At least one of your peer-reviewed articles should be a research study (not review article) that was NOT discussed in the lectures or readings. 

Cite your sources in APA format (internally, and at the end of the paper under References.) CONTENT Choose a specific topic within cognitive psychology. Discuss what interests you about this topic, and some aspect of the research / theories on this topic that stood out to you. o 

The topic of your paper should relate directly to a major cognitive process (perception, attention, imagery, memory, language, decision-making, intelligence, creativity, etc.) o Keep your topic relatively narrow (in other words: your topic should not be ‘memory’ or ‘long-term memory’; but some specific phenomenon related to memory–e.g., the effect of REM sleep on memory; context-dependent memory; the cognitive interview; etc.) o Your topic should relate to, but go beyond, something we learned about in class. o 

A good way to choose a topic is to combine a cognitive process with your interests outside of class.(Someexamples:ifyou’reinterestedinclinicalpsych,youcan investigate cognitive symptoms of a psychological disorder. If youre a true crime buff, you can relate the memory research we discussed to a real-life case. If you’ve recently started meditating, you might delve deeper into the benefits of mindfulness practice on attention.) Introduction: Briefly describe / define the cognitive topic you chose. Some subjective elements you might include, in the body paragraphs: o What about this topic resonates with you? (Why did you choose it?) o What is its application to your life, and/or popular culture? Discuss some of the experimental evidence and theories on the topic youre discussing. o You should discuss at least one research finding that was not discussed in class. o Youcanusetheotherpeer-reviewedarticletoprovideadditionalsupportforthe inferences from that study, and/or to offer competing or additional perspectives. o To find peer-reviewed articles, you can use the BC Library databases (PSYCInfo if a good bet), or Google Scholar (scholar.google.com.) Science Direct is also a good way to get a broad overview of the current research on a topic. Conclusion: Bring the paper to a clear ending point. You shouldnt be introducing any new ideas in the conclusion; but rather wrapping up and emphasizing the main take-away youd like to leave the reader with. (Both introductions and conclusions should take a bigger picture perspective, while the body paragraphs should go into more detail.)