Syllabus

Psychology 340 Memory and Eyewitness Testimony

Instructor: Gary Gillund, Ph.D.

Office: Kauke 39 e-mail: ggillund@acs.wooster.edu Telephone: 263-2370

Office Hours: M, W, F 10:00 - 10:50 and 2:00 - 2:50, and by arrangement

Class: T, Th 9:30 - 10:50 Kauke 5

Books:

     Loftus, E. F., & Ketcham, K.  The myth of repressed memory.  
New York:  St. Martin's Press.

     Sporer, S. L., Malpass, R. S., and Koehnken, G. (Eds.)  
Psychological issues in eyewitness identification. 
Mahwah, NJ: Erlbaum.

Goals. After completing this course you should be familiar with both the theory and research on topics in memory and eyewitness testimony. The course is intended to make you an informed consumer of information appearing in the psychological, legal, and popular literatures. It is expected that you will become actively involved with the material so that it may be useful to you in further academic and nonacademic settings. Finally, this course will address the logic and evidence behind many claims that are made in a variety of settings. We will critically address both the claims and the evidence for those claims.

Tentative course outline

Section 1: Person Identification

• Dates: Jan 14 to Feb 6
• Readings include: SMK Chs. 4, 5, 7, 9, & 6
• Test 1: Feb 6

Section 2: Other topics in memory and eyewitness testimony

• Dates: Feb 11 to Mar 6
• Readings include: SMK Chs. 8, 3, 12, 10, 11, & 13
• First set of student presentations occur during this time period.
• Test 2: Mar 6

Section 3: Repressed and False Memories

• Dates: Mar 25 to Apr 17
• Readings include: Loftus & Ketcham book
• Test 3: Apr 17

Section 4: Student presentations and Should Psychologists Serve As Expert Witnesses?

• Dates: Apr 22 to May 1
• Readings include: Readings to be determined by students/presentations.
• Second set of student presentations occur during this time period.
• Test 4: Monday, May 5, 9:00 a.m.

Tests There will be four exams with a variety of question formats. Each exam is worth 100 points. Ten-percent of each exam (10 points) will be determined by your contribution to the course during the time the material for the class was presented.

Presentations/Papers Each student is required to make two presentations during the class. These will be short presentations on a topic of the student's choosing. In addition, a 5 - 10 page paper on each topic is also required. The first presentation/paper combination is worth 100 points. The second presentation/paper combination will be combined with the final exam and will be worth 100 points.

Grades. Grades will be based on your performance on the four tests and on your paper/presentations. Thus, there are 500 points possible in the course. Grades will be assigned as follows:

Letter Grade	Percentages	Total points
A	93.33-100	466 - 500
A-	90.00-93.32	450 - 465
B+	86.67 - 89.99	433 - 449
B	83.33 - 86.66	416 - 432
B-	80.00-83.32	400 - 415
C+	76.67-79.99	383 - 399
C	73.33-76.66	366 - 382
C-	70.00-73.32	350 - 365
D	<60.00-69.99	300 - 349
F	00.00-59.99	0 - 299

Visit the College of Wooster Home Page