The present article describes four free or inexpensive Internet-based activities that can be used to supplement statistics/research methods/general psychology classes. Each activity and subsequent homework assessment is described, as well as homework performance outcome and student opinion data for each activity. (Contains 1 table.)

Dr. Henry L. (Roddy) Roediger is the James S. McDonnell Distinguished University Professor in the Psychology Department at Washington University in St. Louis (WUSTL) and a scholar of human memory. He graduated from Washington & Lee University in 1969 and received his PhD in psychology from Yale University. He served as chair of the Psychology…

Students in research methods courses, especially those taught in an intense format, might be hard pressed to actually conduct research studies due to logistics and time constraints. I describe the use of single-case research design and a personalized behavior project as an alternative research project for students in an undergraduate psychology…

We examined job advertisements published in the September and October 2006 issues of the APA Monitor and APS Observer for courses that psychology departments requested successful applicants for assistant professor openings to teach. We found that 4 courses accounted for 45% of all courses so listed: research methods, introductory psychology,…

Undergraduate theses are an excellent method of providing paraprofessional research experience for psychology students. Describes some of the problems (and their remedies) in conducting and advising baccalaureate psychology theses, many of which were published or read at professional meetings. (CS)

Describes the use of classic psychological experiments taken from scholarly journals in teaching an undergraduate experimental methodology course. Includes suggestions for matching journal articles with common topics and provides questions to facilitate students' understanding of the articles. (Author/JDH)

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…

Two experiments designed to assess brain hemispheric specialization of function are described. The first experiment involves tactile letter and number identification; the second one, verbal interference with a manual task. The experiments provide an excellent introduction to research methodology for undergraduate students. (Author/RM)

Distressed research participants were identified and contacted to investigate their experiences. Anxiety due to physical discomfort was the primary complaint. However, the experiments had very mild distress effects on the subjects. Anonymity did not influence responses. (CS)

Students critiqued research contained in the book "Rival Hypotheses" (Huck and Sandler, 1979), which contains studies dealing with knowledge claims of practical importance, e.g., the evidence that saccharine causes cancer. (RM)

Method, results, and conclusions are discussed of a study to compare responses to 3-choice test items with responses to 4-choice items when the question or statement being presented was held constant. (Author/AV)

Describes a research project which demonstrates to college-level psychology students the differences between experimental and correlational research methods. The project consisted of an examination of the relationships between rewards and helping and costs and helping in a nonemergency situation. (Author/KC)

Criticizes the type and extent of statistical training given to undergraduate students in psychology courses on the college level and suggests ways of improving this training. Suggestions include introducing broad concepts of differential and inferential statistics at the beginning of the course and presenting introductory information on…

A psychology course which uses original experiments to test about research design and validity is described. (DE)

A laboratory course in experimental physiological psychology and animal behavior is described. (DE)