Randolph A. Smith

Are Peer Ratings of Student Debates Valid

Although many instructors use debates in various courses, little information is available regarding debate grading. This article reports an evaluation of student participation in grading debates. In most respects, student and instructor ratings correlated highly. In addition, students reported that they liked debates, that debates helped them to learn, and that evaluating other students was valuable experience. These data support the use of peer ratings in grading classroom debates.

Expanding the Boundaries of Scholarship in Psychology Through Teaching, Research, Service, and Administration

The Society for the Teaching of Psychology formed a task force in 2000 on Uniting Scholarship and Teaching to develop suggestions for how the Society might facilitate Boyers (1990) and Halpern et al.s (1998) expanded views of traditional scholarship with respect to the teaching of psychology. This article represents a partial fulfillment of that charge. Specifically, we explore the scholarly dimensions of teaching, research, service, and administration and consider models for undertaking and documenting scholarship in each of these realms of academic life.

Advising Beginning Psychology Majors for Graduate School

The 539 American graduate programs listed in Graduate Study in Psychology 1983–1984 were surveyed in order to provide more information for advising psychology majors, particularly beginning majors. Undergraduate course preferences and ratings of five nonobjective criteria were tabulated in relation to the programs training specialty and type of degree offered. Programs were classified as offering one of four types of training—clinical/counseling, experimental, both clinical/counseling and experimental, or educational. The type of training was significantly related to preferred courses and ratings of nonobjective criteria, whereas type of degree was relatively unimportant. Results indicated a high preference for a course in statistics, a high rating for letters of recommendation, and a low rating for extracurricular activity. The data are discussed for each of the four program types, because each requires different advising.

Student Evaluation of Friedman's Immediate Feedback, No Return Test Procedure for Introductory Psychology

Friedmans (1987) immediate feedback, no return test technique was evaluated via student ratings. Students were enthusiastic in their assessment of the technique and believed that it facilitated their learning.

Effects of caffeine on rats’ barpress and maze performance

The effects of caffeine ingestion on rats were tested through barpress and maze performance. Four adult male and 4 adult female rats were bred, yielding 39 offspring (18 control, 21 experimental). The experimental pups received .50 mg/ml of caffeine in drinking water throughout gestation, weaning, and early adulthood; the control group received plain tap water. At 21 days of age, the pups began barpress and maze learning. The subjects were allowed a total of 8 min for each test on alternate days. The results were characterized by the presence of several reliable caffeine × trials interactions. Inspection of the interactions prompted the generalization that although caffeine may facilitate performance early in training, it hinders performance on later trials.

Faculty Development: An Experimental Psychologist Teaches Abnormal Psychology

Teaching a course outside ones area of expertise can enhance faculty development and alleviate burnout. This article describes the benefits and drawbacks of an experimentalists classroom encounter with Abnormal Psychology as well as student reaction to the experience. In this case, the positive aspects outweighed the negative, and teaching a new course contributed to my development.

Caffeine exposure affects barpressing

Three breeding pairs of rats were randomly assigned to one of three caffeine-exposure conditions (pre- and postnatal, postnatal, or control) to assess the effects of caffeine on barpressing. Pre- and postnatally exposed pups received .50 mg/ml of caffeine in their drinking water throughout gestation and thereafter. Postnatal pups received caffeine-adulterated drinking water only following birth. Control pups received plain tap water both pre- and postnatally. At 45 days of age, a series of 15 daily, 8-min barpress sessions began. The results indicated that postnatal-only exposure hindered performance, whereas pre- and postnatal exposure facilitated performance.

The «mind's eye» and metered-memory search

Abstract The effects of imagery value of noun stimuli were investigated in a metered-memory search paradigm. A within-subjects design was used with two levels of imagery (high or low) and three transformation levels. Response latency increased significantly with transformation level and was significantly faster when high-imagery nouns composed the memory set. The imagery effect was not found to lead to differential search rates. The hypothesis that metered-memory search would include a component of visually regenerating the memory set and holding it for the actual search was supported. No evidence was found against the notion that the search itself was verbal in nature.