Psych 245A: Assignments

In-class discussion: Preparation

In-class discussion: Leading

Discussion board posting

Semi-optional final paper

Everyone is expected to contribute to the class discussion. To prepare for this, you should come up with at least two questions or observations about the assigned readings. This will ensure that you have something you are comfortable discussing in class. Before coming to class, it will help if you can summarize the key points of the reading selections to be discussed that day. You should be able to follow the flow of logic. Keeping these questions in mind will help direct your reading:

• What is the theoretical or empirical issue being addressed?
• For theoretical selections, what are the key data points used as the foundation of the argument? Do you agree with them?
• For empirical studies, what is the method? Do you understand the figures in the paper? What do the figures represent? Are the overall conclusions supported by the data in the results section?
• What are the main results & implications of the paper? Keep in mind at least one set of data points or one figure that illustrates the main gist of the paper. How does this relate to other selections read that week, or in previous weeks? Most selections are chosen precisely because they are on the same topic as others during that week, though either from a different perspective or as an interesting extension to previous work. All of them aim to answer something about language learning, so keep in mind what they're trying to tackle. Can you think of any extensions that might logically follow from the current results?
• Important: Don't get hung up on every little wrinkle. Much of this will be primary source language learning literature, and it may have terminology you're unfamiliar with and background assumptions you don't share. Don't panic: This is what class discussion is for.

You are responsible for leading the discussion for at least two articles covered during the course. You will be graded on your successful completion of class discussions. For each class discussion you lead, your grade will be based on how well you lead the discussion - you certainly don't need to know everything, but you need to have thought about what the article's about so we can all try to figure out any problem areas together.

You are responsible for posting one entry on the discussion board at the Computational Models of Language Discussion Board. This entry will be on one article that you lead the discussion for, and should be posted by 9am the day that we discuss that article in class. Your discussion board post will contain your more detailed thoughts on the article. For example posts, see recent posts made by Lisa on the discussion board, such as this one, this one, and this one.

Also, you should feel free to comment on posts that other people make or have made. For every substantitive comment you make on someone else's post, you can earn 1 point of extra credit, added to the "leading in-class discussion" portion of your grade. (This can offset having a not-so-great day when it's your turn to lead discussion, for example.)

If you do not lead class discussion satisfactorily, you will be asked to write a final paper that proposes a computational modeling study about language learning. (You may of course choose to do one anyway for extra credit, even if you lead class discussion well.) The paper should aim to be concise (ideally about 6 pages, single-spaced). But if you need to make it longer to include the necessary information, that's fine.

You must include the following in your proposal:

• the question you are trying to address
• relevant previous work on this question
• the methodology you would use (specific algorithm, computational framework, etc.)
• possible results, and what implications each set of results would have for the question you are trying to address
• how the results would fit into the "big picture" of language learning (what question would it answer, would it answer it better than previous studies on this topic or address shortfalls of previous studies)

Many of the papers we read will be structured in this way. Use them as a model for how much detail to include in any one section of your proposed study (for instance, the review of previous work on the question of study). Since you are proposing a computational study rather than carrying it out, you obviously will not have results. However, your study was probably motivated by what you would expect to happen - so your discussion of possible results is very important. What are the implications for the different possible outcomes in your study? Make sure you also include any relevant citations, and a reference section at the end of your paper listing the citations in their full form. (Look to the articles we read for a sense of when to cite other research appropriately.)