Psychology 2011A/B
Altered States of Consciousness
ANNOUNCEMENTS
July 21, 2010: The course outlines for the fall semester are now available. You can see them by clicking on the appropriate link in the "Resources" box on the left. Please read Chapter 1 of the textbook for the first class.
April 30, 2010: I have submitted the grades for the course. You did well on the final exam, with a class average of 69% for Section 570 and 71% for Section 571. The highest mark on the final exam was 79/80. The same student got 99% in the course. In fact 7 students got 90% or higher in the course. The class averages for final grades were 63% for Section 570 and 68% for Section 571, but these don't mean mean much because they include students who did not write the final exam. The averages for the final exam are more representative of class performance. Have a good summer!
April 17, 2010: Some of you have been asking when the Registrar will have the grades available. As soon as I receive the exam marks, which I've been told will be by Friday, I will add up the marks and submit them to the Registrar at King's.
Also, some of you have been asking what you can do to improve your grades. There are no remedial opportunities for anyone. The grade you receive in the course is determined in the manner explained in the course outline.
March 30, 2010: There will be an optional review session on Friday, April 23, 2010, at 3:00 p.m. in Room DL130.
March 11, 2010: The final examination will be held on Monday, April 26, 2010
at 2:00 p.m. in Rooms SA150 and SA151. All students can go to either room. The
exam will be 90 minutes long. Please remember to bring a pencil, eraser, and
your student identification card. Please do NOT bring your cell phones or other
electronic devices. You are not allowed to have a cell phone or any other
electronic device with you during the examination. The following is a breakdown
of the number of questions on the examination targetting the material for each of the
topics covered in the chapters of the book:
|
Chapter 1 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 2 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 3 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 4 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 5 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 6 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 7 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 8 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 9 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 10 |
2 questions |
|
Total |
80 questions |
The class averages for Test 2 were 68% and 71% for Sections 570 and 571 respectively. No one got perfect but a couple of students, one in each section, got 39/40. Much better performance than the first test!
February 28, 2010: Wow. No matter what I say, I keep getting questions about Test 2. So, to make things simple, let's just go back to what is on the course outline. All tests and exams are cumulative. And I won't answer any more questions about what could or could not be on the test.
February 25, 2010: While Test 2 is cumulative, in the sense that you will need to remember material covered on the first test, I am targetting material covered since the time of the first test. In particular, there are 13 or 14 questions on Test 2 related to each of chapters 4, 5, and 6 for a total of 40 questions.
January 10, 2010: To answer the most frequent questions from students who missed the first class on January 4, 2010: The textbook is my lecture notes; and two topics were covered in addition to those that are in the book, namely, "beliefs about consciousness and reality" and "remote viewing." There is some material to cover those topics in the "Resources" box on the left.
I am still getting requests from students from the fall semester to raise their marks. This is a separate issue from students who feel that they have received the wrong grade for the course. In the latter case, please contact me so that we can clear up any issues, such as a mismatch between your answers for the exam questions and your answers on the scantron sheet, or a mismatch between your calculations of the final grade and mine, problems with the answers for specific questions on the exam, or any other relevant issues. However, please note that I do not respond to students who acknowledge that they received the grade that they did and are simply asking me to give them a higher grade. In my view, making such a request borders on academic misconduct.
December 30, 2009: The final exams have been marked. The class average on the final exam for Section 570 was 70% and for Section 571 was 72%. The highest mark on the final exam was 79/80 and lots of students got marks in the 90% range on the final exam. The highest mark in the course was 99%. The lowest mark was 0%. The class average for the course for Section 570 was 65% and for Section 571 was 67%. I hope that you are having a lovely Christmas break!
December 16, 2009: A reminder that there will be an optional review session on Monday, December 21, 2010 at 2:30 p.m. in Room W170.
November 22, 2009: The class average on Test 2 was the same for both sections, namely, 63%. One student in Section 571 got perfect on the test and a student in Section 570 got A+.
The final examination will be on Tuesday, December 22, 2009 at 7:00 p.m. in
Rooms SA150 & SA151. You can go to either room. The exam will be 90 minutes
long. Please remember to bring a pencil, eraser, and your student identification
card. Please do NOT bring your cell phones or other electronic devices. You are
not allowed to have a cell phone or any other electronic device with you during
the examination. The following is a breakdown of the number of questions on the
examination targetting the material for each of the
topics covered in the chapters of the book:
|
Chapter 1 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 2 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 3 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 4 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 5 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 6 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 7 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 8 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 9 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 10 |
2 questions |
|
Total |
80 questions |
November 19, 2009: One of the students pointed out that there is no link to the drug harmfulness material that was covered in class. Well, now there is. Just go to the "Drug Harmfulness" title in the "Resources" box to the left.
November 8, 2009: For Test 2 I am targetting material since the time of the first test. You still need to remember the material from before the first test, but I won't be targetting it for the second test.
October 23, 2009: I'm still getting swamped with requests from students to write the final examination early. Please note that the academic session does not end until the last examination is over. It is your responsibility to be in attendance until that time. I am not trying to be mean. It is difficult for the Registrar's office to schedule exams with a minimum of time-table conflicts. Don't forget that we have students from pretty much every undergraduate program in the class. In the past, we've had up to 6 or 7 students having to write in the conflict room, and nobody wants to write in the conflict room. So our examination is scheduled at a time when as many students as possible can actually come to write it. It happens to be at the end of the exam schedule. Be please patient with the process and make other arrangements for your vacations.
October 20, 2009: The Registrar's office has announced the date for the final examination for this course, namely, Tuesday, December 22, 2009, at 7:00 p.m. I am already receiving requests from students to write the exam early because they want to buy cheaper plane tickets to get home or go on vacation with their families. Please do not make such requests. If you have a legitimate reason to miss the final examination, such as a medical illness on the day of the exam, then you need to go to your dean's office and they will contact me about it.
October 20, 2009: After sorting out the which students wrote in which section bru ha ha the class average for section 570 is 62%. Please make sure that you write in your section number at the top of the scantron sheet (in addition to filling in the bubbles) so that your test can be correctly sorted into the right pile for marking.
October 20, 2009: Please note that student evaluations of teaching will be carried out before Test 2 on November 9, 2009. The test will begin immediately following the student evaluations of teaching.
October 15, 2009: Your tests have been marked. The class average for section 570 was 60% (including three students who received a grade of zero for writing with the wrong section) with a highest grade of 36/40. The class average for section 571 was 68% with a highest grade of 39/40. See you in class on Monday!
September 13, 2009: The first class is Monday, September 14, 2009. There will be a lecture that will take up the entire time of the class. If possible, please come prepared by reading Chapter 1 of the textbook.
July 20, 2009: I have posted the course outlines for the fall semester 2009–10 in the "Resources" box on the left. I you have any questions about the course, please e-mail me.
May 6, 2009: All the tests and exams have been written and graded. The class averages on the final exam were 71% for Section 570 and 68% for Section 571. The class averages for the course were 69% for Section 570 and 66% for Section 571. The highest mark on the final exam was 78/80. Four students received that mark, three from Section 570 and one from Section 571. The highest mark in the course was 97%. Ten students got 90% or higher in the course; six from Section 570 and four from Section 571. If you have any questions about the exam or your mark, please don't hesitate to ask. Please remember, though, that I do not respond to students who are dissatisfied with the mark that they received in the course and simply ask me to raise it. However, I will address all legitimate concerns as quickly and fairly as possible. Have a good summer! And I'll see some of you in the fall.
April 27, 2009: Just a reminder that the optional review session is today, Monday, April 27, 2009 at 3:00 p.m. in room DL130.
March 22, 2009: The final
examination will be on Tuesday, April 28, 2009 at 2:00 p.m. in Room SA150/151 and will be 90
minutes long. Please remember to bring a pencil, eraser, and your student
identification card. Please do NOT bring your cell phones or other electronic
devices. You are not allowed to have a cell phone or any other electronic
device with you during the examination. The following is a breakdown of the
number of questions on the examination targetting the material for each of the
topics covered in the chapters of the book:
|
Chapter 1 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 2 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 3 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 4 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 5 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 6 |
5 questions |
|
Chapter 7 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 8 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 9 |
16 questions |
|
Chapter 10 |
2 questions |
|
Total |
80 questions |
March 10, 2009: Please note
that office hours for Thursday, March 12, 2009 have been moved to Friday, March
13, 2009 from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m.
February 26, 2009: A number of students have asked me what is included on Test 2. You are required to know everything from the beginning of the course until the time of the test. However, I will only be targetting material covered since the last test. That doesn't mean that you can forget everything before that since you might need to remember it in order to answer some of the questions. Don't forget to bring your student cards, a pencil, and eraser to the test.
Also, I wrote a bit about Matrix Energetics in my blog on the home page.
February 2, 2009: Just a reminder that the classroom for Section 571 (the 3:30 p.m. class) has been moved from W168 to SA151 as of Monday, February 3, 2009.
January 26, 2009: For Section 570 only, the answer to the following question should be D not A. (This was one of the questions submitted by students and it was entirely my fault that I indicated the wrong answer in the table, not the student's.) The correct answer is now reflected in the table of answers for all versions of the test.
#. *According the William
James the self is
A) a stream.
B) the biological organism within which an information processing system
exists.
C) a mental representation of the information processing system within itself.
D) a passing thought that appropriates previously aggregated ideas about what
one is like.
E) the fringe of a penumbra.
January 23, 2009: Students have been asking me about the first test. The test consists of 40 multiple-choice questions which you will get 40 minutes to complete. The questions are fairly evenly distributed throughout the material of the first three chapters with about 12 to 14 questions per lecture. There will be a lecture after the test.
January 13, 2009: A number of students who registered late for the class have asked me what they missed on the first day of class. Most of what was covered is in Chapter 1 of the textbook. However, we covered two topics that are not in the textbook. I elaborated on beliefs about reality, which are discussed in the text, but not to the extent to which I talked about them in class. In order to see that material, click on the "Beliefs About Reality" link in the Resources box on the left. When the link opens, below the "Beliefs About Reality" table is another link to an article in which the table is explained. The other topic was that of remote viewing. I said a little bit about the initiation of that research program at Stanford Research International and mentioned the example in which Pat Price viewed Semipalatinsk. The "Remote Viewing" link in the Resources box on the left has a reference and link to an article describing that work.