This project is strengthening the general appreciation for science training that undergraduate students in psychology gain. The project specifically addresses two needs: (1) giving a wide range of students (prospective majors and nonmajors) significant methodological training and active learning experience at the introductory level, without requiring a full laboratory course; and (2) giving beginning majors the opportunity to master and apply design and analysis skills, using multimedia computing, in research representative of contemporary psychological science. To accomplish these goals, the department is acquiring equipment for a new General Psychology Laboratory that supports innovative multimedia research modules on topics such as correspondence bias in social psychology and behavioral self-control in learning psychology. Two modules are being incorporated in the introductory course. Each one is leading students to collect data on a basic psychological effect, to consult World Wide Web-based summaries of relevant research studies, to critically evaluate theory and research paradigms, to design and conduct a new study using the module, and to receive instruction in statistics and research design. These modules are quickly getting introductory students to think and act like psychological scientists. Reinvigorated training in two core psychology methods courses is coherently building upon those introductory experiences. In those courses, majors are developing the ability to operationalize independent and dependent variables using multimedia computing. These experiences are reinforcing basic methodological training and motivating more sophisticated work in psychological science. *
