Experimental Psychology (7118.4)

Please note these are the 2025 details for this unit
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Experimental Psychology
Available teaching periods Delivery mode Location
View teaching periods Flexible
On-campus
 Bruce, Canberra
EFTSL Credit points Faculty
0.125 3 Faculty Of Health
Discipline Study level HECS Bands
Discipline Of Psychology Level 2 - Undergraduate Intermediate Unit Band 1 2021 (Commenced After 1 Jan 2021)
Band 1 2021 (Commenced Before 1 Jan 2021)
In this unit, students further develop their understanding of research methods used in psychology. This unit discusses the most common experimental designs in psychology, and associated statistical techniques including t-tests, ANOVA, and nonparametric tests. Students will get experience performing these tests with a statistical package.

Learning outcomes

Upon successful completion of this unit, students will be able to:
1. Critique major research designs in psychology and identify the appropriate statistical analysis;
2. Analyse and interpret data from experimental research designs; and
3. Write a laboratory report in APA format.


Graduate attributes

1. UC graduates are professional - communicate effectively
1. UC graduates are professional - employ up-to-date and relevant knowledge and skills
1. UC graduates are professional - use creativity, critical thinking, analysis and research skills to solve theoretical and real-world problems
2. UC graduates are global citizens - behave ethically and sustainably in their professional and personal lives
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - adapt to complexity, ambiguity and change by being flexible and keen to engage with new ideas
3. UC graduates are lifelong learners - reflect on their own practice, updating and adapting their knowledge and skills for continual professional and academic development


Prerequisites

6611 Introduction to Psychological Research OR 11398 Introduction to Research in Health Sciences AND
10444 Foundations of Psychology OR 11399 Understanding People and Behaviour OR 4309 Psychology 101 OR 4310 Psychology 102

Corequisites

None.

Incompatible units

None.

Equivalent units

None.

Assumed knowledge

None.
Availability for enrolment in 2025 is subject to change and may not be confirmed until closer to the teaching start date.
Year Location Teaching period Teaching start date Delivery mode Unit convener
2024 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 05 February 2024 Flexible Dr Jeroen Van Boxtel
2025 Bruce, Canberra Semester 1 03 February 2025 On-campus Dr Jeroen Van Boxtel
The information provided should be used as a guide only. Timetables may not be finalised until week 2 of the teaching period and are subject to change. Search for the unit timetable.

Required texts

Note that there are no compulsory texts for this unit. However, you may find the following materials (and additional readings provided on Canvas) helpful when completing this unit. Note that there are many different statistics books tailored at psychology students, or students more generally. If you cannot find the book by Howitt & Cramer (or you find them difficulty to understand), you may find that another book is a better fit. 

Paid resources:

  • APA. (2019). Manual of the American Psychological Association, Seventh Edition (2020). Washington, DC:  American Psychological Association.  

Free resources:

  • Linda R. Cote et al. Introduction to Statistics in the Psychological Sciences. (it's free: )
  • Navarro DJ and Foxcroft DR (2019). Learning statistics with jamovi: a tutorial for psychology students and other beginners. (Version 0.70).  DOI: 10.24384/hgc3-7p15 ()
  • APA website:

Submission of assessment items

Extensions & Late submissions

When submission of drafts is provided, note that these are not assessed. This option would only be provided to give information from text similarity checking software. It is the responsibility of the student to submit their work through the correct link in a timely manner. 

Special assessment requirements

Non submitted assessments will receive a 0. 

The final mark is determined by adding all assessment marks together taking into account their weights 鈥� each individual assessment item does not need to be passed in order to pass the unit. Late penalties will be applied to the assessment items for those students without an approved extension.

Note that extensions as per RAPs do not automatically apply for quizzes, unless quizzes as explicitly mentioned (as per Learning and Teaching, and Inclusion policy). Additional time to complete the quiz, will be granted as per the RAP.

Use of gen AI

This unit allows the use of genAI (e.g., Microsoft Copilot) for the lab report (and only the lab report). AI may not be used for any of the other assessment pieces. 
 
Note that AI is not a panacea for all your assessment problems. It is not always correct, and quite often 鈥榟allucinates鈥�. Here is an example of why you should not blindly trust AI ( ). 
 
The use of genAI in the lab-report is allowed for the following purposes, and under the following conditions:
 
You may use AI for these purposes:
  • Ideas generation (e.g. for the introduction)
  • Help with rephrasing (but do not copy/paste whole sentence/paragraphs directly from AI)
  • Improve writing, using spelling checks and grammar.
  • Summarise research (but do not copy paste text into any part of the lab-report, as it is not your own work. Instead think about it, add to it, remove unnecessary bits, etc. Make it your own). Also, it may not be correct. Always read the original articles, and check that what is said is indeed correct.
 
Provided that you follow this condition:
  • Use of AI is properly acknowledged (see here how to do that)
 
You may NOT use AI for the following purposes:
  • Generation of references/citations
  • Data analysis
Note that these restrictions are in place because AI still struggles to do these correctly, but also because you would not meet the learning outcomes of the unit, if you were to use AI for these purposes.
 
Which (gen)AI to use?
The recommended genAI for the lab-report is Microsoft Copilot, when signed in as a UC student. This is because it is a closed system, meaning that your prompts will not be used by Microsoft to train their AI outside of UC. Note that I, as the unit convenor, nor, I believe, anyone in the university, will have access to what you put into Microsoft Copilot. I cannot stop you from using, e.g., ChatGPT, but note that the owners of ChatGPT may use your work (your IP) to train their systems, and give it to anyone who uses their products. 
 
Background information and training
AI is possibly still relatively new to you, at least in academic settings.  Here is important background information and training for you.
TEQSA has some general information for students on the use of genAI:
Our very own Dr Ananthan Ambikairajah has a brief 鈥渃ourse鈥� on how optimally use AI. You may want to watch these videos, to get the best out of AI for the lab-report:
UC has also some information on the use of AI: 
 
 

Students must apply academic integrity in their learning and research activities at UC. This includes submitting authentic and original work for assessments and properly acknowledging any sources used.

Academic integrity involves the ethical, honest and responsible use, creation and sharing of information. It is critical to the quality of higher education. Our academic integrity values are honesty, trust, fairness, respect, responsibility and courage.

UC students have to complete the annually to learn about academic integrity and to understand the consequences of academic integrity breaches (or academic misconduct).

UC uses various strategies and systems, including detection software, to identify potential breaches of academic integrity. Suspected breaches may be investigated, and action can be taken when misconduct is found to have occurred.

Information is provided in the Academic Integrity Policy, Academic Integrity Procedure, and 麻豆村 of Canberra (Student Conduct) Rules 2023. For further advice, visit Study Skills.

Learner engagement

To put these numbers in more practical terms for our unit: 150 h over a period of 13 weeks (including the break), is about 11.5h per week, which is about 1.5 full working days per week. Since we spend 2 hours on lectures and 2h on tutorials (on most weeks), this leaves at least 7.5 h of self-study per week (of which 2h is the workshop if you attend these).

Participation requirements

Students are expected to attend, or access online, all lectures. Tutorials are only offered face-to-face, but additional learning resources in the form of videos are provided online. Before the start of the unit, students need to watch the online introductory video that will be available on Canvas at the start of the semester.

There are also self-directed learning hours. These do not need to be attended. During these hours the computer labs are booked for the students to work on their own on content related to the unit. There is no tutor or supervisor present during these hours.

Attendence is not registered. However, past experience has indicated that participation during the workshop and tutorial times is beneficial.

Required IT skills

Students should have a basic understanding of the Jamovi software for prerequisite requirements. It is also expected that all students will have basic word-processing skills. If you are unfamiliar with searching specialist databases for accessing Psychology Journals please see the UC library site for details of training sessions.

In-unit costs

There are no costs required for this unit. Students may purchase the recommended texts if they wish, but are not required to. Students may download for free the Jamovi and G*Power software or choose to access the program on campus (24/7 access is available, provided the room is not booked out for other classes).

Work placement, internships or practicums

None.

Additional information

Important: Note that the unit convenor aims to answer questions within 2 working days. This has important implications for deadlines: if you ask a question 1 day, or 1 hour before the deadline, you may not get an answer before the passing of the deadline. It is your own responsibility to complete the assessments on time, taking into account that you may run into problems. So be prepared and start on time. Note that due times and dates are strict. Submitting late (even if by just 1 second) will incure a late penalty.

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