WarmUp (PCQ) and Course Background Info -- Jim Benedict, Psych Statistics

Course Info

The statistics course is the second course taken by psychology majors after completing General Psychology. A Mathematical Statistics course is a prerequisite for the Psychological Statistics course.

WarmUp (PCQ) Objectives

For PCQ-2:

Question 1
- Explain the meaning of the mean, median and standard deviation
- Differentiate the concepts of the mean and median
- Apply these concepts to a real world example
Question 2
- Compute standard scores(z)
- Make inferences about z score values
- Apply to a real world example

For PCQ-8:

Question 1
- Compare and differentiate between formulas of inferential tests
Question 2
- Apply inferential tests to experimental designs
- Make inferences about z score values
- Generate valid examples

General comments

My warmup (PCQ) questions attempt to encourage a level of cognitive processing that extends that which occurs during class time. The focus of lectures would be toward helping students understand concepts, formulas, assumptions, etc. The warm-ups usually ask students to apply, analyze or even create something using the concepts discussed in class. Students usually report that they spend around 1 hour answering the 2 essay and 1 multiple choice problem each week. In their other courses, they seldom spend that much time each week answering these kinds of questions. Their responses to the questions then stimulate up to an hour-long discussion of how these statistical concepts can be applied by statisticians outside and beyond the course.

I also assign weekly homework problems which are usually much more procedural than are the PCQ questions.