Students

COGS2250 – Cognitive and Brain Sciences Laboratory

2023 – Session 2, In person-scheduled-weekday, North Ryde

General Information

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Unit convenor and teaching staff Unit convenor and teaching staff Co-convenor
Paul Sowman
paul.sowman@mq.edu.au
Co-convenor
Jordan Wehrman
jordan.wehrman@mq.edu.au
Jordan Wehrman
jordan.wehrman@mq.edu.au
Credit points Credit points
10
Prerequisites Prerequisites
Admission to BCogBrainSc and COGS2000 or COGS202
Corequisites Corequisites
Co-badged status Co-badged status
Unit description Unit description

This unit will help students develop the knowledge and skills required to conduct research in the cognitive and brain sciences. Students will have the opportunity to participate in all stages of the research process including experimental design, experiment programming, data collection, data analysis, and reporting results. A primary focus of this unit will be to foster the development of practical laboratory skills including appropriate research notetaking and scientific record keeping, professional conduct in laboratory and research settings, and effective scientific communication in both oral and written form.

Important Academic Dates

Information about important academic dates including deadlines for withdrawing from units are available at https://www.mq.edu.au/study/calendar-of-dates

Learning Outcomes

On successful completion of this unit, you will be able to:

  • ULO1: Demonstrate and apply research and problem solving skills.
  • ULO2: Design and program a simple experiment.
  • ULO3: Perform appropriate statistical analyses on collected research data.
  • ULO4: Work professionally, safely, and ethically in a research environment.
  • ULO5: Display effective scientific communication in written and oral form.

Assessment Tasks

Name Weighting Hurdle Due
Research participation 10% No Throughout session, see iLearn for exact dates
Registration report 20% No Monday 25 September (start of Week 8)
Problem sets 35% No Throughout session, see iLearn for exact dates
Research poster presentation 35% No Week 13

Research participation

Assessment Type 1: Participatory task
Indicative Time on Task 2: 5 hours
Due: Throughout session, see iLearn for exact dates
Weighting: 10%

 

Participation in and running of experiments for student-led research projects.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Work professionally, safely, and ethically in a research environment.

Registration report

Assessment Type 1: Report
Indicative Time on Task 2: 20 hours
Due: Monday 25 September (start of Week 8)
Weighting: 20%

 

Highly scaffolded and structured report that outlines the plan for the student-led research project (max. 1000 words).

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate and apply research and problem solving skills.
  • Design and program a simple experiment.
  • Work professionally, safely, and ethically in a research environment.
  • Display effective scientific communication in written and oral form.

Problem sets

Assessment Type 1: Problem set
Indicative Time on Task 2: 25 hours
Due: Throughout session, see iLearn for exact dates
Weighting: 35%

 

Problem sets distributed throughout the session that give students the opportunity to program experiments and comment on code.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate and apply research and problem solving skills.
  • Design and program a simple experiment.
  • Perform appropriate statistical analyses on collected research data.
  • Display effective scientific communication in written and oral form.

Research poster presentation

Assessment Type 1: Presentation
Indicative Time on Task 2: 35 hours
Due: Week 13
Weighting: 35%

 

Research poster presenting the student-led research project.

 
On successful completion you will be able to:
  • Demonstrate and apply research and problem solving skills.
  • Perform appropriate statistical analyses on collected research data.
  • Work professionally, safely, and ethically in a research environment.
  • Display effective scientific communication in written and oral form.

1 If you need help with your assignment, please contact:

  • the academic teaching staff in your unit for guidance in understanding or completing this type of assessment
  • the Writing Centre for academic skills support.

2 Indicative time-on-task is an estimate of the time required for completion of the assessment task and is subject to individual variation

Delivery and Resources

COGS2250 – Cognitive and Brain Sciences Laboratory (S2 2023) – Proposed outline, subject to change 

Date  

Lecture (1hr) – Tuesdays 12:30pm 

Tutorial (2hrs) 

Assessment Task 

Week 1    

Unit introduction & the replication crisis  

  • Introductions 

  • Data storage (and naming) essentials 

  • Download software (PsychoPy, R, RStudio) 

  • Emotiv refresher 

 

Week 2    

Designing experiments  

  • Methods Matter (How to read a method section) 

  • Data collection ERP study part I 

Research Participation 

Week 3    

Designing experiments (continued) 

  • PsychoPy Lesson 1  

  • Work on PS1 

Submit PS1 – PsychoPy    

Week 4   

Semantic priming need to knows  

  • PsychoPy Lesson 2 

 

 

Week 5   

Challenging the automaticity of semantic priming  

  • PsychoPy Lesson 3  

  • Data collection ERP study part II 

 

  • Research participation  

  • Submit PS2 – PsychoPy    

Week 6   

Let’s replicate & pre-register! 

  • PsychoPy Lesson 4  

  • Catch-up/PsychoPy help/Registration report support 

 

Week 7   

  • What’s in store for the rest of this Session? 

  • Priming & neuroimaging  

  • PsychoPy Lesson 5 

  • Work on PS3 

  • Download software (Jamovi, MatLab, EEGLAB) 

Submit PS3 – Your experiment  

Break 

Week 8   

Our behavioural data  

  • Selection of class experiment scripts 

  • Semantic priming RT data ERP study (using R) 

  • Submit Registration report 

  • Research participation  

Week 9   

Statistics outputs  

 

Behavioural data ERP study analysis (using Jamovi) 

Research participation 

Week 10   

From EEG to ERP 

EEG data processing (using EEGLAB) 

Submit PS4 – Group RT data analysis class ERP study 

 

Week 11   

Research communication & data visualisation 

 

ERP analysis 

 

Week 12 

Unit review & Q&A 

Poster preparation & support 

Submit PS5 – ERP waveforms 

Week 13 

Poster presentations 

Poster presentations 

Submit poster & accompanying write-up 

Policies and Procedures

Macquarie University policies and procedures are accessible from Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au). Students should be aware of the following policies in particular with regard to Learning and Teaching:

Students seeking more policy resources can visit Student Policies (https://students.mq.edu.au/support/study/policies). It is your one-stop-shop for the key policies you need to know about throughout your undergraduate student journey.

To find other policies relating to Teaching and Learning, visit Policy Central (https://policies.mq.edu.au) and use the search tool.

Student Code of Conduct

Macquarie University students have a responsibility to be familiar with the Student Code of Conduct: https://students.mq.edu.au/admin/other-resources/student-conduct

Results

Results published on platform other than eStudent, (eg. iLearn, Coursera etc.) or released directly by your Unit Convenor, are not confirmed as they are subject to final approval by the University. Once approved, final results will be sent to your student email address and will be made available in eStudent. For more information visit ask.mq.edu.au or if you are a Global MBA student contact globalmba.support@mq.edu.au

Academic Integrity

At Macquarie, we believe academic integrity – honesty, respect, trust, responsibility, fairness and courage – is at the core of learning, teaching and research. We recognise that meeting the expectations required to complete your assessments can be challenging. So, we offer you a range of resources and services to help you reach your potential, including free online writing and maths support, academic skills development and wellbeing consultations.

Student Support

Macquarie University provides a range of support services for students. For details, visit http://students.mq.edu.au/support/

The Writing Centre

The Writing Centre provides resources to develop your English language proficiency, academic writing, and communication skills.

The Library provides online and face to face support to help you find and use relevant information resources. 

Student Services and Support

Macquarie University offers a range of Student Support Services including:

Student Enquiries

Got a question? Ask us via AskMQ, or contact Service Connect.

IT Help

For help with University computer systems and technology, visit http://www.mq.edu.au/about_us/offices_and_units/information_technology/help/. 

When using the University's IT, you must adhere to the Acceptable Use of IT Resources Policy. The policy applies to all who connect to the MQ network including students.

Changes since First Published

Date Description
23/07/2023 Staff contacts changed.

Unit information based on version 2023.03 of the Handbook