Presents a demonstration for teaching psychology students to be wary of pseudoscientific treatment methods. Offers instructions for presenting the demonstration. Shows how a patently ridiculous treatment can be shown effective, in the same way that a fad treatment can sometimes appear valuable. Concludes that students learned from and enjoy the…

A public Web site (Goolkasian & Van Wallendael, 2001), established to provide educational materials in cognitive science, served as the primary text for an interdisciplinary course. We tracked student use of the Web site online and with self-report questionnaires. A majority (74%) of the students rated the Web site to be as useful or more useful…

We developed a computerized game designed around principles shown to improve classroom performance and experience: multimedia, practice testing, vivid instructional techniques, and in-class participation. Students compete as 2 teams, and the game plays like Jeopardy meets Hollywood Squares with learning outcomes. Our evaluation indicated that the…

Describes a classroom demonstration called the Gambler's Fallacy where students in an introductory psychology statistics class participate in simulated gambling using weekly results from professional football game outcomes over a 10 week period. Explains that the demonstration illustrates that random processes do not self-correct and statistical…

To enhance student interest in research methods, tests and measurement, and statistics classes, we describe how teachers may use resources from economic psychology to illustrate key concepts in these courses. Because of their applied nature and relevance to student experiences, topics covered by these resources may capture student attention and…

Chickens, instead of rats, were used in an upper-level laboratory course on animal learning. To help other instructors interested in using chickens for a lab course, a discussion of the physical and behavioral characteristics of chickens is provided. Student reaction to the course is also discussed. (RM)

At the beginning of an introductory social psychology course, students were asked to rate their professor on a semantic differential scale. The results were compiled and used to generate questions about interpersonal perceptions, stereotypes, data collection, and the characteristics and limitations of social psychological research in general. (AM)

Describes a classroom demonstration that uses daily horoscopes to show the effect that expectation can have on judgment. Addresses the preparation, procedure, and results of the demonstration, and student evaluations. States that the demonstration appears to be effective for teaching students about expectancy confirmation. (CMK)

Describes a project used in a sophomore-level psychological testing and measurement course. Students worked through the different phases of developing a test focused on item writing, reliability, and validity. Responses from both students and instructors have been consistently positive. (MJP)

Describes the Key Groups that is a 40-60 minute exercise centering on student-led groups that create an answer key to a quiz that the students have taken immediately before the exercise. Recommends using Key Groups because this exercise helps students develop leadership skills and task-group membership. (CMK)

Discusses an activity that uses the metaphor "the mind is a black box," in which students work in groups to discover what is inside a sealed, black, plastic box. States that the activity enables students to understand the need for theories in psychology and to comprehend how psychologists build, test, and refine those theories. (CMK)

Discusses the extra credit exercise (ECE), a pop quiz variation that combines the benefits of frequent, unannounced testing with the features that make quizzes less aversive (the ECE are extra-credit and do not hurt the students' grades). Addresses the benefits of the ECE assignment and the students' reactions to it. (CMK)

Describes the use of daily essay quizzes to encourage thorough preparation for class and higher level thinking. Explains a study assessing student reaction to daily quizzes, which compared anonymous student questionnaire responses from two classes: (1) a test-based class and (2) a daily quiz-based class. (CMK)

Describes an activity for use in an introductory psychology course in which students collaborate and apply their neuroanatomy knowledge to three case studies. Provides a table with descriptions of and possible answers for the three case studies and discusses the students' responses. (CMK)

Explores classroom extensions of job enrichment theory by administering a modified Job Diagnostic Survey, a widely employed organizational research tool that assesses each core job characteristic, to 217 psychology students along with outcome scales assessing their course motivation, satisfaction, performance, absenteeism, interest, and desire to…