The purpose of this assignment is two-fold. First, this assignment provides you with an opportunity to explore a selected topic in more detail than can be covered in class. And secondly, this assignment will give you an opportunity to encounter the experimental literature first-hand -- struggling to make sense of the technical language and experimental procedures.
Select one of the published scientific articles listed in the attached bibliography. Write a synopsis of the article by answering the following questions:
- What is the general overall goal of this area of research?
- What is the specific goal of the particular experiment described?
- What background research do(es) the author(s) build on?
- Briefly describe the experimental procedure.
- What were the results of the experiment?
- What conclusions did the author(s) draw?
- What questions were left unaswered?
- Suggest two plausible problems that might invalidate the entire experiment or the conclusions drawn from it.
- Suggest an experiment that might clarify or extend this work.
Your paper should be typed, double-spaced, and no more than five or six pages in length. It must include nine numbered sections identifying the above nine questions.
DUE DATE: Friday May 18 WORTH: 15 percent
Chang, H. and S. E. Trehub Infant's perception of temporal grouping in auditory patterns. Child Development, Vol. 48 (1977) pp. 1666-1670.
Gordon, H. W. and J. E. Bogen Hemispheric lateralization of singing after intracarotid sodium amylobarbitone. Journal of Neurosurgery, Vol. 37 (1974) pp. 727-738.
Sloboda, J. A. Perception of contour in music reading. Perception, Vol. 7 (1978) pp. 323-331.
Thorne, S. B. and P. Himelstein The role of suggestion in the perception of satanic messages in rock-and-roll recordings. Journal of Psychology, Vol. 116, No. 2 (1984) pp. 245-248.