This project is to further improve the ability of our students to use the latest software and hardware for research and learning in Psychology, to foster a sense among students that they are doing psychology, as well as learning it. The purchase of the proposed hardware (principally computers) and software will make it possible to markedly increase laboratory experiences in courses in Sensation and Perception and Learning. New experiments will be added in Introductory Psychology, Cognitive Psychology, Advance Statistics, and Advanced Experimental Psychology. Upgraded equipment will make it possible to use software for real-time data acquisition and analysis that requires newer machines than are currently available in our undergraduate laboratory. These additions build on an existing, successful program to incorporate more research into undergraduate education. Students affected by these laboratory improvements include introductory students, Psychology majors, and a significant number of Elementary Education majors. We will offer next year a new laboratory course that meets a University-wide requirement of a laboratory introduction to scientific principles. Independent student research in our department will be further strengthened by a new Senior Capstone research requirement in Experimental Psychology. Both the laboratory course and the capstone, as well as other independent student research and faculty/student collaboration, will benefit from new software for implementing experiments that will be significantly easier for novice users to learn. The hardware and software will also make new types of experiments available, such as those employing auditory stimuli. Student access to Internet tools for research will be improved. Our previous success in involving undergraduates in research will be extended into new areas, and more students, majors and non-majors, scientists and nonscientists, will get to participate in the science of Psychology.
