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HOMEWORK ASSIGNMENT #1 LEARNING TO RIDE A BIKE

In this assignment, you should describe some of the psychological processes that need to occur before you could learn to ride a bike or processes that help you ride a bike successfully once you've learned. You do not need to know any technical details about bikes to be able to complete this assignment—if you yourself cannot ride a bike, just think in very general terms about the most basic features of this skill and think about what you would need to do to accomplish the actions involved. These can include developmental processes that may have occurred right at the time you learned (e.g., you became mature enough to understand how it works), or they may include general processes that everyone uses every time they ride a bike (e.g., you need to be able to see to steer). You have a lot of flexibility in this assignment and there is room for creativity on your part. All we are looking for is for you to apply some of your knowledge from this class to a real life event that has happened for most of you.

For example, to ride a bike you need to see the road in front of you. Therefore, if you chose this process, you would need to describe the physiology of the eye, the way patterns of light on the retina are transduced, and the way that signal from the eye is interpreted by the brain. You could not simply say “I need my eyes to see.” You would need to describe this process in some detail.

To complete this assignment, write a 3-page paper describing these processes. You will lose points if you do not follow these directions precisely! This includes getting the length, font, margins, file format, etc. correct. Here are the details.

Formatting

 The paper must be at least 3 full pages and no more than 4 pages long. When I say 3 full pages, I mean it. Do not write 2 and a half pages. Do not write 2 and 3/4 pages. The writing should go all the way to the bottom of the 3rd page (and to be safe, you may want to go a line or two on to the fourth page. You will lose points if your paper is even one line shorter than three pages.

 The paper must be double-spaced, and you should use 1 inch margins all around.  Use 12-point Times New Roman font.  Do not put extra spaces between paragraphs.  Do not start the writing halfway down the first page (see sample).  Do not copy directly from the book, the notes, or other students. Work on your own and write in your own words. I

use software that compares your document to other students in this class and previous classes. It will take you much less time to write the paper on your own than to modify someone else’s work.

Content

 Come up with at least five specific processes that are needed to occur for you to learn or be able to ride a bike. Again, be creative. Don't just think about physical skills; also consider what you need to do psychologically to follow the rules and accomplish the relevant tasks. For each chapter you've read, think about whether the processes we've discussed have any implications at all for riding a bike.

 These five things cannot all come from the same chapter in the book. You must use topics from at least three of the chapters. For example, you may talk about specific parts of the brain that regulate the actions that you take while riding, but you cannot focus your entire paper on the brain. You would also need to pick processes that were discussed in some of the other chapters (development, sensation, perception, evolution and genetics, memory, thinking and language, intelligence, etc.). You can use chapters that we have not yet covered.

 Don’t use my example about needing your eyes to see (since I’ve already explained this in some detail below).  Label each section of your paper according to the process that you are describing. Do this exactly as I have done in

the sample below (with underlines).

Grading.

This exercise is meant to get you thinking about these principles and applying them to your life. It is not meant to be a high stress assignment. You will get credit if you follow instructions. Make sure you follow directions carefully. You will lose points if your paper is not long enough, if you don’t come up with five processes, if the five processes don’t come from at least three different chapters, if the processes aren't underlined, or if you do not follow any of the instructions from above. In addition, you will lose one point per hour if you do not turn the paper in on time. You will also lose points if you pick a process that has nothing to do with any of the psychological phenomena that we discussed. For example, if you say that you needed to learn how to pedal, but you do not link this to a psychological process or phenomenon that was discussed in the book or in class, you will not get credit. You will not lose points if your description of the process is not exactly perfect. Just do your best to describe what is happening.

Turning in your paper.

You will need to type your paper on a computer and save the paper as a file that can be uploaded to the Homework #1 dropbox on the d2l web site. Please save your file as a Microsoft Word document (.doc or .docx extension), even if you do not use Microsoft Word. All modern word processing software should be able to save as a Word document, though this may not be the default setting. Make sure that your file has a .doc or .docx extension before submitting it. Please do not include identifying information anywhere in your paper, including the name of the document. Name your document “Homework1.doc” or “Homework1.docx”. You should not put your name on the paper because we use TurnItIn to maintain academic integrity (see below).

You must submit your assignment by 11:59PM on Wednesday March 16th. Technical difficulties are not an excuse for late assignments. You are strongly encouraged to submit your assignment early to make sure there are no problems.

Sample Format :

I need my eyes to see the road . To ride a bike I need to see the road in front of me. To do this, my eyes

need to interpret the patterns of light that are being reflected off of the road. Light comes into my eye

through the cornea. After passing through the lens, an image is projected on my retina. This image then

causes chemical changes in the rods and cones of my eye, which in turn, send signals to the bipolar cells.

These bipolar cells then connect to the ganglion cells, and the axons of these ganglion cells form the optic

nerve, which translates the signals to the thalamus in the brain. The thalamus then filters these signals

and . . .

I need . . . When I am riding a bike, I need to . . .

Statement About the Use of TurnItIn: Consistent with MSU’s efforts to enhance student learning, foster honesty, and maintain integrity in our academic processes, instructors may use a tool called Turnitin to compare a student’s work with multiple sources. The tool compares each student’s work with an extensive database of prior publications and papers, providing links to possible matches and a ‘similarity score’. The tool does not determine whether plagiarism has occurred or not. Instead, the instructor must make a complete assessment and judge the originality of the student’s work. All submissions to this course may be checked using this tool.

Students should submit papers to Turnitin Dropboxes without identifying information included in the paper (e.g. name or student number), the system will automatically show this info to faculty in your course when viewing the submission, but the information will not be retained by Turnitin. Student submissions will be retained only in the MSU repository hosted by Turnitin.