Michael Smith only

Who Cares???

Choose a topic we have covered in class (e.g., perception, attention, etc.) and discuss how research in that area should (or should not) impact the real world…… answering the question, “Who cares?”. That is, why should Average Joe on the street care (or not care) about this topic. I am NOT asking whether everyone should be up to par on the details of specific studies, models, and theories. I AM asking whether Mr. Joe (A general person) should care about attention, for example, or working memory. So, answer the following: 1) should Mr. Joe care about the topic of your choice? 2) If Mr. Joe knew some basics about the topic of your choice, could he use that information in some way to better his life? If so, HOW could he use it in his everyday life? (BE SPECIFIC!)

The purpose of this assignment is to get you to think about the various applications and value of cognitive research. The purpose is NOT for you to automatically agree with me that cognitive psychology is the best profession in the world. It is perfectly okay for you to say Mr. Average Joe should not care about cognitive psychology. Regardless of your position, make sure you have thought your position through and back it up with logical, well-thought-out statements. And BE SPECIFIC!

Your paper should be 2 pages double space, 12 font, and times New Roman.

Do not use references, please don't use quotes. NO, plagiarism.... USE YOUR OWN WORDS in your discussion. You can also use slides to help in your paper.

· NO group work

· Make sure your paper is uploaded as a Word document

· No need for title or reference pages

· Make sure you are answering the question I am asking. DO NOT include in your discussion whether cognitive psychology can help a specific group of people – e.g., students. This is NOT what I am asking. Keep the person general – we don’t know anything about him or her.

On iCollege I have enabled you to see the amount of overlap between your submitted paper and other sources. Use it! The percentage displayed is the amount of overlap. A small amount of overlap is usually not problematic, but try to keep your percentage as close to zero as possible . If you ask me to grade a paper that has more than 20% overlap, you will receive a zero on that assignment. No questions asked.

Your paper should be uploaded to the ‘Who Cares?’ Dropbox on iCollege by 6:00 pm on Sunday, June 18th.

*If you submit a file I cannot read, you will receive a zero for that assignment/paper.*

Michael Smith: I WANT THIS PAPER TO BE ON ATTENTION. I will upload the slides you can add examples but we can not use quotes. The paper needs to be on why do people need attention.