Universität Wien

300108 UE Methods in Cognitive Biology (2012W)

3.00 ECTS (3.00 SWS), SPL 30 - Biologie
Continuous assessment of course work

Introduction: WED 07.11.12 and THU 08.11.12, 15:00-18:00
Final Session: THU 17.12.13, 14:00-18:30
Moodle

Registration/Deregistration

Note: The time of your registration within the registration period has no effect on the allocation of places (no first come, first served).

Details

max. 20 participants
Language: English

Lecturers

Classes

Currently no class schedule is known.

Information

Aims, contents and method of the course

Study design, statistical inference, sampling theory, measurements, data management, publication process, evaluation

Assessment and permitted materials

The participants will be asked to review recent research papers and to develop a research plan on their own.

Minimum requirements and assessment criteria

The course was developed to strengthen the methodological and analytical skills of the students. The focus is on study design with a special emphasis on experimental studies in cognitive biology, ethology and comparative psychology. A list of six core competences was identified as learning targets: after the course the participants should be able to (1) understand the process of scientific enquiry, (2) formalize and communicate their ideas, (3) understand the principles of study design, (4) develop research plans on their own, (5) critically read research literature, and (6) interpret and evaluate research papers.

Examination topics

The course comprises a combination of lecturing, individual work, and group discussion. Within 8 lecturing units the students are taught scientific methodology, fundamentals of experimental design, measuring theory, data analysis and statistical inference. In addition to these methodological issues the lecturer gives an introduction to the publication procedure and the peer review process as applied for scientific journals. The lecturing units are divided into two blocks of four units. At the end of each block the students receive two modified manuscripts of full research papers and are asked to review these manuscripts until the next session block. During this inter-block interval the students have the opportunity to communicate with their colleagues and the lecturer by using a discussion forum on the e-learning platform "Fronter". The first unit of the second block and the complete third block are reserved for open discussion of the manuscripts and reviews.

Reading list

Association in the course directory

MVN 2

Last modified: Mo 07.09.2020 15:43