Teaching Critical Thinking in Psychology: A Handbook of Best Practices

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Beyond Standard Lectures

Analysis of Activity

Kershaw assessed this technique by comparing two undergraduate cognitive psychology

classes she taught at UIC during the Spring 2003 (n = 23) and Summer 2004 (n = 35)

semesters. The courses covered the same information and used several of the same

assignments. The primary difference between the courses was that the Spring 2003 class

used a textbook (Ashcraft, 2002), and the Summer 2004 class used journal articles.

The classes were compared on the overall points and common assignments that were

unrelated to article content. The students who used a textbook and the students who used

articles did not differ in the total number of points or on their scores on one assignment,

but students who had the textbook outperformed those who used journal articles on the

other assignment. Comparisons of student ratings on a standard UIC student government

Table 16.2. List of Journal Articles Assigned by Topic

Topic Articles Used

Perception McCarley, J. S., Kramer, A. F., Wickens, C. D., Vidoni, E. D., &

Boot, W. R. (2004). Visual skills in airport-security screening.

Psychological Science, 15 , 302–306.

b

Divided attention Strayer, D. L., & Johnston, W. A. (2001). Driven to distraction:

Dual-task studies of simulated driving and conversing on a cellular

telephone. Psychological Science, 12 , 462–466.

b

Working memory Conway, A. R. A., Cowan, N. A., & Bunting, M. F. (2001). The

cocktail party phenomenon revisited: The importance of working

memory capacity. Psychonomic Bulletin and Review, 8 , 331–335.

a

Beilock, S. L., & Carr, T. H. (2005). When high-powered people fail:

Working memory and “choking under pressure” in math.

Psychological Science, 16 , 101–105.

c

Episodic memory Lewandowsky, S., Stritzke, W. G. K., Oberauer, K., & Morales, M.

(2005). Memory for fact, fiction, and misinformation: The Iraq

war 2003. Psychological Science, 16 , 190–195.

c

Cognitive aging Ryan, L., Hatfield, C., & Hofstetter, M. (2002). Caffeine reduces

time-of-day effects on memory performance in older adults.

Psychological Science, 13 , 68–71.

b

Language Boroditsky, L. (2001). Does language shape thought?: Mandarin and

English speakers’ conceptions of time. Cognitive Psychology, 43 ,

1–22.

c

Problem solving German, T. P., & Barrett, H. C. (2005). Functional fixedness in a

technologically sparse culture. Psychological Science, 16 , 1–5.

b

Creativity Ward, T. B., & Sifonis, C. M. (1997). Task demands and generative

thinking: What changes and what remains the same? Journal of

Creative Behavior, 31 , 245–259.

a

a
This article was used during the Summer 2004 semester only.

b
This article was used during the Summer 2004 and 2005 semesters only.

c
This article has been used since the Summer 2005 semester.