Springer Science and Business Media LLC

Graphical simulations of the behavior of virtual subjects in laboratory or field microworlds were developed to teach research principles to introductory psychology students. Students conduct studies in laboratory classes, assuming the primary role of being an experimenter. Microworld modules were designed to foster the flexible exploration of important steps in the research process, including hypothesis generation, research planning and design, behavioral observation or testing, and data summarization and analysis. The modules were designed to impart a sense of behavioral “presence” so that students would obtain an appreciation of realistic behavioral observation and of testing methodologies. Microworlds that have been developed include infant preferential looking (cognitive processes), courting behavior of fireflies, personality test development, working memory, operant conditioning, single-cell recording of sensory function, and testing of brain-damaged people. Principles that guided the development of software modules and laboratory class exercises are discussed.

Some influences of computers on theory and methodology in cognitive research are discussed. Theoretical constructs that cognitive science has borrowed from computer science include processing algorithms, processing rates, information organization, and information selection. The application of these constructs to human information processing is considered, with illustrations from memory and reading research. Further, the role of computers in research methodology is evaluated, on the basis of a comparison of 1962 and 1992 journal articles. Attributes considered include the nature of stimulus control, item content and physical features, cognitive task demands, information feedback to subjects, and assessment of individual differences in cognitive strategies. These methodological attributes are illustrated by memory and reading paradigms for which computer technology is critical. Computer science has enriched theory and data in cognitive science, but the comparison of journal articles from 1962 and 1992 suggests that many psychologists are not taking full advantage of these possibilities.

This paper discusses the design and development of an interdisciplinary social science computer laboratory for teaching undergraduate research methods courses and research components of applied and theoretical courses. The U.S. Census of the Population, a database commonly used in all of the social sciences, is used in order to give students research experience and to avoid ethical problems involved in working with animal and human subjects in an undergraduate course. Some issues in laboratory design and required changes in teaching methods are discussed.

Pointing tasks with a mouse are very useful in psychological experiments concerned with a subject’s ability to track a visual object or to move to a target location (e.g., to find a word in text). Such tasks are quite easily performed by subjects, and numerous variables may be obtained from the mouse movement. In this article we describe a set of Turbo Pascal 6.0 units and a program running on the IBM PC family that show how data (x,y coordinates) recorded from a mouse movement can be analyzed to give dispersion, direction, and distance of the movement.