Course Syllabus
| Semester & Location: |
Spring 2024 - DIS Copenhagen |
| Type & Credits: |
Elective Course - 3 credits |
| Major Disciplines: |
Neuroscience and Psychology |
| Prerequisite(s): |
One psychology course at university level. |
| Faculty Members: |
Nicole Hueng (current students please contact via the Canvas Inbox) |
| Program Contact: |
Department email address psy.cns@dis.dk |
| Time & Place: |
Tuesdays, 10:05-13:00 Classroom: Fi6-Metro 104 |
Description of Course
Humans face a multitude of decisions every single day. From the small, unnoticed choices to the life altering dilemmas, we shape our world through our decisions. But we rarely question our own decision making process. This experiential lab covers theories and phenomena that underlie human decision making and reasoning. Implications for human behavior is explored through empirical experiments on the individual and group level. Insights from cognitive science, neuroscience, and psychology are used to investigate the multifaceted ways that humans reason and decide.
Learning Objectives
Through this course, you will be presented with a nuanced, scientific framework with which to judge the ways decisions are made and be equipped with the basic methodological insights for studying decision-making. You will also learn how create and experience variants of the experiments as you read about them.
By the end of the course, you will:
Faculty
Nicole (Nikki) Hueng
MA (Cognition and Communication, Københavns Universitet, 2021). BA (Psychology major, Neuroscience and Studio Art minors, Lake Forest College, 2018). Previously was a research assistant at the Danish Research Center for Magnetic Resonance (DRCMR) using 7T fMRI to investigate dopamine pathways in the midbrain. Currently teaching as an after school teacher at the International School of Hellerup and working as an administrative assistant in a counseling start-up. I am originally from Kalamazoo, Michigan and first came to Denmark as a DIS student in the Fall of 2016. I returned to do my masters in August 2019 and have been here ever since. With DIS since 2022.
Readings
Book(s):
- No books for this course :)
Example articles:
- Barraza, J. A., McCullough, M. E., Ahmadi, S., & Zak, P. J. (2011). Oxytocin infusion increases charitable donations regardless of monetary resources. Hormones and behavior, 60(2), 148-151.
- Tindale, R. S., & Winget, J. R. (2019). Group decision-making. In Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Psychology.
- Brown, H. R., Proulx, M. J., & Stanton-Fraser, D. (2020). Hunger-bias or gut-instinct? Responses to judgments of harm depending on visceral state versus intuitive decision-making. Frontiers in Psychology, 11, 2261.
- Le Texier, T. (2019). Debunking the Stanford Prison Experiment. American Psychologist, 74(7), 823.
- Evans, J. S. B. (2008). Dual-processing accounts of reasoning, judgment, and social cognition. Annu. Rev. Psychol., 59, 255–278.
- Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1974). Judgment under Uncertainty: Heuristics and Biases. Science, 185(4157), 1124–1131.
- Shah, A. K., & Oppenheimer, D. M. (2008). Heuristics made easy: An effort-reduction framework. Psychological Bulletin, 134(2), 207.
Field Studies
Field Study #1: Exploring Copenhagen
- During this field study, you will explore an area of Copenhagen and document things in the environment that influence your decisions through pictures. While walking around your area, consider: who is the targeted audience? How does their method influence you? Do you feel that it’s effective, or if not, what would you change about it? Did you have an immediate reaction to something, and was it similar or different to your classmate?
Field Study #2: Casino Copenhagen
- Copenhagen's first international casino, we will visit and explore first-hand the types of decisions taken from a gambling perspective.
Guest Lecture
Jacob Vestergård, psychologist
Jacob used to work in the Danish Ministry of Defence at the Center for Recruiting and Career. He now works at a psychologist at his own firm.
Approach to Teaching
The course will give an experiential tour of prominent decision-making research with a focus on re-creating and challenging it.
Class-work will consist of experiencing and/or discussing the experiments in the readings and the methodology they employed. You will be encouraged to ask questions and to discuss with your fellow students, and to try out ideas. The purpose is to train you in proper employment of the scientific method.
You will receive freedom under responsibility, meaning that you will be allowed to explore your own ideas under the expectation that you can argue for your choices when challenged.
Expectations of the Students
This is an experiential lab and as such, you can expect the course to be not just interactive, but experiential, meaning you will try first hand some of the techniques you are learning about and come up with your own experiments. Therefore, I expect you to be imaginative, reflective and collaborative. It is my responsibility to ensure your mastery of the course material on three conditions:
Evaluation
|
Methods of Evaluation |
How Evaluated |
Percentage of Grade |
|
Attendance, Participation and Engagement |
Individual |
15% |
|
Observational Study |
Individual |
20% |
|
Research Proposal Design |
Group |
20% |
|
Poster |
Group/Individual |
30% |
|
Annotated Bibliography |
Group |
15% |
|
Total |
|
100% |
Attendance, Participation & Engagement:
Preparation, attendance, and engagement in classes, field studies, and guest lectures is important because it shows that you are taking responsibility for your own learning. Your participation and engagement grade will be calculated based on your ability to meet the following criteria:
- You attend the class meeting/field study/guest lecture having done the day’s reading.
- You are engaged throughout our class meeting/field study/guest lecture and demonstrate this by prompting discussion and/or responding to your peers by linking comments, asking questions, and drawing connections between readings and themes.
- You listen attentively and respectfully to others (and you avoid dominating or silencing others).
- You offer more than just personal opinion or anecdote – that is, you root your comments in the text we are discussing (e.g., “this reminds me of p. 76 where the authors indicate X”) and link ideas and comments with content from past reading assignments.
- You work collaboratively with people to achieve learning goals when you are placed in a small group.
DIS states that attendance is required for all scheduled classes, Field Studies, and Study Tours. Your absence will only be counted as excused if it is communicated with me prior to the class date you are absent. Please be proactive in your communication with me regarding excused absences. Attendance is pass/fail, and you are allowed up to two unexcused absences before attendance is assessed as a fail. The participation and engagement grade will be reflected upon your active commuication in class, and your commitment to the course work.
Observational Study
You will conduct a short observational study outside the classroom on human behaviour and decision making. You will create your own research question and collect data based on your observations out in the field. From this data, you will create an infographic that could potentially be shared on social media as a science communication post. The goal of this assignment is for you to conduct an observational study and be able to present it in a way understood by both academics and the common people.
Research Proposal Design
Through in-class group work and meetings outside of class, you will put together a research design/proposal that will be used for the poster presentation at the end of the semester. You will set out to research a topic in the decision-making field and give a theoretical outline and reasoning for the research you are wishing to conduct. This assignment will assess your ability of working in a group, conducting your own research for a literature review, and constructing a research question and/or hypothesis.
Poster
After receiving approval for your research proposal, you will be going out into the field to conduct your own research with your group. With time both in class and outside of class, you will have the opportunity to collect, analyze, and present your data and findings in a poster presentation on the last day of class. This assignment will be graded according to your groups ability to create a poster, while also being individually graded for your ability to present to potential stakeholders.
Annotated Bibliography
Alongside your poster presentation, you will submit an annotated bibliography. The bibliography should be in APA format, with a brief summary for each citation. There is no page limit, but you MUST include all sources that you have used that helped the group with the poster.
Academic Regulations
Please make sure to read the Academic Regulations on the DIS website. There you will find regulations on:
Class Policy
Late papers/assignments:
- Late papers/assignments will be accepted for up to 3 days after the deadline, but the grade for the paper will be reduced by 10% for each day that it is late.
Late to class:
- Students who are repeatedly late for class will receive a lower participation grade.
Laptops/tablets and phones:
- Laptops/tablets may be used during class for notes. However, I highly encourage to handwrite notes, as this has been seen to be a better learning strategy. Students who use their laptop/tablet for reasons not related to class will have their class participation grade reduced significantly.
- Use of cell phones is not allowed during class (including field trips).
- If your use of technology is due to a learning accommodation required for you to succeed in class, please discuss it with Academic Support or the instructor directly.
DIS - Study Abroad in Scandinavia - www.DISabroad.org
Course Summary:
| Date | Details | Due |
|---|---|---|