Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

Report 3

A Module-Based Research Project:

Modeling Critical Thinking in Psychology

Nina Lamson and Katherine Kipp

Asking students to do a research paper, even after providing them with lengthy instructions

and detailed examples, often can yield disappointing results. It is apparent that the task is

overwhelming, partly because a comprehension for the purpose of the process may be

lacking. We suggest that, as a foundation for upper division courses, a component of the

introductory course explains the research process and how this process forms the basis

from which psychology content evolves. We present a sample research project of 10,

hands-on, incremental modules designed to model how critical thinking is an integral part

of the research process in psychology. Through this process, students gain knowledge in

reading research articles and answering pertinent questions that provide the support for an

introduction section. They gain an understanding of how to conduct a study by partici-

pating in the study, as well as learning how to collect, analyze, and discuss data. The

project culminates in a final research paper and an in-class poster session.

Project Overview

The project centers on an experiment investigating the effects of talking on a cell phone

while driving, a topic interesting to students and easily adapted for in-class experimenta-

tion. The hypothesis investigated is that cell phone conversation would result in slower

walking pace on a maze and a decline in accuracy on a cognitive load memory task. Several

articles were chosen for the literature review based on their exploration of the effects of cell

phone use on driving. For the actual in-class experiment, students acted either as experi-

menters or as research participants. The basic method involved taking a memory test for a

baseline score; then half the participants continued to be tested for memory while they

walked a maze in the classroom, and the remaining participants simply listened to random

Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices Edited by D. S. Dunn, J. S. Halonen, and R. A. Smith