Week 8 · Readings & resources

Week 8 — Readings & Resources

Introduction to Psychology Free sample edition

Your primary reading is Chapter 8 (in this module). Everything below is the optional, go-deeper layer — pick what helps, skip the rest.

How to use this page

This page has 10 items (4 readings and 6 videos). Allow 76–89 minutes for everything. The first two groups go deeper on this week's new checklist, and the third helps you review memory and study well for the midterm, so use the full menu when you want more practice, or take the quick path below.

Every video here has captions: turn them on with the CC button in the player. The chapter covers the same ideas in text.

Pick-one quick path (17–21 min total)

① Does the study show a cause? Experiments and random assignment

Chapter 8, Section “Build the checklist and run it on an experiment” · Session 2, Segment 4, “The checklist on an experiment” · Remember: a manipulated variable plus random assignment is what lets a study claim a cause.

Psychological Research: Crash Course Psychology #2 — CrashCourse — a quick tour of case studies, surveys, correlations, and experiments, with the independent and dependent variables and random assignment named along the way. This builds on Week 2's work with research designs and what each one can conclude. (video, 11 min) (captions: creator)
Random sampling vs. random assignment — Mine Çetinkaya-Rundel — a short, clear statistician's take on the two random procedures: one decides who is studied, the other decides who gets which condition. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)
The misinformation effect, Elizabeth Loftus, Nobel Prize Summit 2023 — Nobel Prize — the researcher behind the verb study explains how misinformation supplied after an event can reshape what people remember, and where memory's limits lie; as you listen, run the checklist on each study she describes. (video, 16 min) (captions: automatic)

② Is it only an association? Correlation and the third variable

Chapter 8, Section “Run the checklist on a correlation: sleep and quiz scores” · Session 2, Segment 5, “The checklist on a correlation” · Remember: a correlation of any size earns only an association claim until random assignment rules out a third variable.

6.1 Correlation and Causation — Sense & Sensibility & Science — a critical-thinking course's page that lays out the ways two variables can move together without one causing the other, and why randomized trials settle the question. Use it while completing the Week-8 module overview. (reading, 10–14 min)
Correlation Doesn't Equal Causation: Crash Course Statistics #8 — CrashCourse — reading a correlation, then the lurking third variables and reversed arrows that can sit behind one. (video, 12 min) (captions: creator)
Correlation vs Causation: A Brief Guide To Communicating Research — The Winton Centre — a statistician explains why causal words do not fit a correlation, and what wording fits observational versus experimental research. (video, 4 min) (captions: automatic)

③ How do you keep it for the midterm? Memory, confidence, and studying

Chapter 8, Section “Ask how experience changes you: learning and memory” · Session 1, Segment 3, “Learning and memory review” · Remember: memory is rebuilt each time you recall it, so confidence is not accuracy, and practicing recall is how you make it last.

Test a Witness’s Memory of a Suspect Only Once — Association for Psychological Science — a research summary on why a witness's first identification counts most, and why later confidence can grow while accuracy does not. (reading, 6–9 min)
Learn how to Study Using... Retrieval Practice — The Learning Scientists — a plain guide to studying by pulling ideas back out of memory, with practice questions, flashcards, and writing from memory, then checking your notes. (reading, 5–8 min)
Retrieval Practice: A video for Students — The Learning Scientists — a short video version of the same study strategy, useful to watch before you start reviewing for the midterm. (video, 3 min) (captions: automatic)

Optional one-stop reference (free online reference)

Tactics for testing ideas — Understanding Science — a museum's plain reference on testing ideas with controlled experiments and with careful observation; read the parts on experiments and observational studies, and skip the examples from other sciences unless you are curious. (reading, 6–9 min)

Heads-up (links rot): these point to outside sites that occasionally move or rename pages. If a link ever fails, tell your instructor and use the reference above in the meantime.

Provenance: Built with The Course Maker · samples.thecoursemaker.com