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Dept. of Psychology

Class Participation
Students are expected to contribute to class discussion. One of the main purposes of a seminar course is for students to have the opportunity to speak with the instructor and other students about the course subject. 15% of a student's grade will be based upon their class participation.

Critical Evaluations
The ability to critically evaluate research articles is crucial for anyone working in the field of science. There are two assignments within this category:

• Short oral presentation (15%): A 10-12 minute oral presentation (i.e., a talk) critically describing and evaluating an assigned research article. Click here for more information and a list of the articles you can choose from.
• Short critical review paper (15%): A 3 page paper critically describing and evaluating a research article in the field of navigation. Click here for more information on the purpose of this assignment, selecting an article to write on, and writing the review.

Research Topic
This is to be an in-depth review of some area of the study of navigation, spatial representation, or wayfinding that you find intertesting. There are three elements in this category:

• Research proposal (5%): a brief (i.e., one page) proposal of your research topic, including a short bibliography of relevant articles. Click here for more details on this assignment.
• Research presentation (20%): A 20-25 minute class presentation on your research topic. You get to be the instructor and teach the rest of us about a topic you have become an expert in! Click here for more information.
• Hypertext paper (30%): Essentially, a 10-15 page detailed research paper on the topic you have been researching, but with a twist. Instead of handing in their paper in the traditional hard-copy format, students will present the information as a web page. Click here for more details on this assignment.

Student Evaluation
This course is not marked on a curve. Rather, grades are assigned based on absolute scores. The reasons for this are threefold: First, the class size is too small to allow for a normal distribution (required for marking on a curve). Second, one does not expect a normal distribution at the fourth year level. Third, I do not want students competing amongst themselves for nines; challenge yourself and get along with your classmates.

Policy on Late Assignments
Generally, I am not impressed when I receive assignments late. That being said, I am also well aware of the time constraints put upon students these days. So here is how I am going to work it for your written assignments (the research proposal, short paper, and hypertext paper): You can get one day of grace on an assignment for every day before the assignment is due that you notify me that your assignment will be late, up to five days.

For example, all assignments are due in class on Wednesday. So, if you notify me on Monday that your assignment will not be available on Wednesday, you will have until Friday at 1630 hours (when the Psychology office closes) to get the work in. If you had notified me on the previous Friday you would have had until the Monday after the assignment was due (i.e., five days).

If you fail to notify me that your work will be late, or if you subsequently exceed the time extension, you will lose 10% of the assignment's grade per day that it is late.

Sorry, but this offer does not apply to the oral presentations. Because of the time constraints during the course, a student must give their oral presentations on the appropriate days.

Of course, the standard rules for missing assignments concerning death in the family, major illness (i.e., not the sniffles), and the like apply. Medical forms will be required. In the case of missed presentations they will be rescheduled at my discretion.
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Policy on Plagarism
Simply put, plagiarism will not be tolerated. It is, in essence, intellectual theft. Plagiarism occurs when a person passes off the words, ideas, images, or data of another person as their own (see section 26.1.4.1 of the University Calendar for more details). When writing your papers make sure you use references properly. If you are unsure of what you have to reference, or how to do it, ask the instructor.

Plagiarism is viewed as a serious academic offence by the University and by the Campus Law Review Committee of General Faculties Council. Penalties for plagiarism offenses range from a reprimand to expulsion from the University.
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