PSYCH 302 / 305

Class meetings

Twelve Wednesday evenings, 18:00–21:00. Each week has one computing tool and one ordinary psychology example. The University is closed 30 September. Reading Week includes 11 November. Weekly reports (weeks 1–9) are due the following Tuesday at 17:00; drop the lowest. Each week’s report is README.md in that week’s folder.

50% weekly reports · 15% midterm · 35% final No graded group project. No graded peer review.

Week 0 · Wednesday 2 September 2026, first hour

Week 0 on Canvas

Tool: GitHub account

We catch everyone up on the GitHub form before the playground. Create an account, start Education, paste the six-line form. Do not buy Copilot. Complete / incomplete. Due tonight 21:00.

Week 1 · same night, after GitHub

playground.html

Tool: own repo, Pages, fork, then a pull request

Customize the starter page in three ways. Then, in order: your own repo with index.html, GitHub Pages on that repo, the same file as the default index.html on a fork of the entire class repository (kylemath/Psych302-305-KyleMathewson), and a pull request from that fork back to the class repo. The instructor will keep the strongest pages on the class homepage.

18:00 GitHub account: Week 0 form on Canvas. Neighbours help. No credit card.
Then demonstration: Open the past course projects on the homepage (Brain Games, Brainimation, p5.eegedu, the PSYCH 403 portfolios, and kylemathewson.com), then customize the playground, save index.html, create a repo, turn on Pages, fork the whole class repo, replace that fork’s index.html, and open a PR. Two of those pages stay on the class homepage (scroll past the handbook).
Exercise: Three personal changes, then all four GitHub steps.

Results: Paste own-repo, Pages, fork, and PR URLs on the Week 1 Canvas assignment. List the three changes.
Modification: Arts: how it feels. Science: one change can be a number or a time. Disclose any AI use.
20:45 Discussion: Agentic coding: you stay the author; an assistant may propose an edit; you run it, read it, and keep or change it. Do not paste classmate data. Do not buy a plan. Full note on the Computing page. Week 4 is the first graded loop.
Preparation: Laptop. A GitHub login, or time in the first hour to make one.

Week 1 report: own-repo URL, Pages URL, fork URL, PR URL, three customizations, disclosure. Due Tuesday 8 September, 17:00.

Week 2 · Wednesday 9 September 2026

p5.html · rt.html

Tool: p5.js pieces, then a timed response and a CSV

First hour: six short p5.js sketches (pixels, refresh rate, variables, a stimulus, buttons, one timed click). Then the real instrument: a simple reaction-time sandbox you remix in p5. Anticipations under 150 ms and lapses over 2500 ms are excluded from the mean.

18:00 Introduction: A program is input, memory, and a display. We name the parts before we measure.
18:10 Studio: Walk p5.html in order. Remix a number or a string and Run.
19:15 Break: Write a predicted mean for the real block before the first trial.

19:25 Instrument: Instructor demo on the rt.html sandbox, then a simple-RT block. Export the CSV.
20:05 Modification: Personalize the task on rt.html, copy the sketch, paste into VS Code rt/rt.html.
20:45 Discussion: Toy trial vs instrument: exclusions and a file. The number comes from the export, not a chatbot.
Reading: A short note on Donders (1868). Skim.

Report: in VS Code, personalize rt/rt.html, write a predicted mean, run Simple RT on that page (http://127.0.0.1:8765/rt/rt.html), put the CSV in data/. Same assignment for everyone. VS Code walkthrough.

Week 3 · Wednesday 16 September 2026

inventory.html

Tool: VS Code folders, then edit a hardcoded instrument

First hour: clone the private repo and move Week 2 into week02-rt/. Then a ten-item teaching inventory — but every student edits their own copy (week03-inventory/inventory.html + inventory.css, already in the repo) so all ten items are their own wording. Likert responses, reverse scoring, subscale means, CSV. Classroom instrument, not a clinical scale.

18:00 VS Code: Install if needed. Clone kylemath/psych302-305-YOURUSERNAME (not a handbook fork). Rearrange Week 2 into week02-rt/.
18:40 Introduction: Self-report as data, not as a diagnosis. Open week03-inventory/inventory.html and find the ITEMS array — a hardcoded list, not a database.
19:00 Demonstration: Complete the class version once as a walk-through (inventory.html). Then rewrite one item live to show the edit-save-reload loop.

19:25 Exercise: Rewrite all ten items in your own copy (5 domains, 2 items, one reverse per pair). Write the prediction in README.md before scoring your own version.
20:05 Modification: Discussion prompt while you finish: was hand-editing ten strings inside a script tag tedious? What would you rather the items lived in?
20:45 Discussion: Commit, Sync — both inventory.html and inventory.css — and where the Canvas paste goes (due Tuesday).

Report: write week03-inventory/README.md (prediction first, then your own domain, item count, one limitation, and a tedium note). Rewritten inventory.html + inventory.css + CSV in that same folder. VS Code walkthrough.

Week 4 · Wednesday 23 September 2026

report.html

Tool: a report from Python and Typst

Example: your Week 2 reaction times or Week 3 inventory scores. In week04-report/, write the paper in main.typ, analyze the CSV and draw a figure with scripts/summarize.py, compile with typst compile. Run, read the PDF, change, run again. Do not type the mean by hand.

18:00 Introduction: A report is a pipeline. The number in the PDF must come from a file the script can read again.
18:25 Demonstration: Instructor runs build.sh on a sample CSV, opens the PDF, changes one line, compiles again.
18:40 Exercise: Install Typst if needed. First build on the sample. Then point the script at your CSV. Write the prediction first.

19:25 Results: The PDF (or the generated table) and one limitation. No draft exchange.
20:05 Modification: Rewrite the sentences until a stranger can state the claim, then change the exclusion rule or add a second descriptive and rebuild the PDF.
Reading: report/README.md and agentic coding.

Report: paths to the README, main.typ, the generated snippet, the figure, and output/main.pdf. The CSV you used. Name one iteration. Due Tuesday 29 September (no class on the 30th).

No class · Wednesday 30 September 2026

National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

University closed. Week 4 report remains due 29 September. No new work assigned.

Week 5 · Wednesday 7 October 2026

compare.html

Tool: a two-condition comparison

Edit your Week 2 reaction-time page so it runs two conditions, A and B. Predict which is slower, run both, and compare. Three steps: everyone does Step 1 (code edit), Step 2 makes B a choice task, Step 3 does the comparison in Python.

18:00 Why compare?: A difference means something only with a prediction and a spread. Write your prediction.
18:20 Demo: The sample file on the lab page, and what the overlap number means.
18:35 Step 1: Edit the code, run both blocks, load the CSV.

19:35 Steps 2 and 3: Go as far as you can. Finish at home.
20:15 Project ideas: Bring one question you could answer with something from Weeks 2–5. Small-group talk. Nothing to hand in.

Report: week05-compare/ with your edited rt.html, CSV, and README.md (prediction committed before the code change, the table, overlap, one limitation). Due Tuesday 13 October.

Week 6 · Wednesday 14 October 2026

cite.html

Tool: find, cite, and summarize papers, by hand and with a tool

Guest: Devon Yanitski (U of A Psychology PhD student) on AP-RAG, a tool that answers only from papers on disk, with page-level citations. Part 1: summarize one paper yourself. Part 2: summarize five with an automated tool and check it against your own.

18:00 Introduction: What belongs in a citation. Library search, not a chatbot bibliography.
18:20 Guest: Devon Yanitski: building AP-RAG, then questions.
19:15 Exercise: Citation audit of three chatbot references, then Part 1: find, file, and summarize one paper.

20:00 Results: Finish Part 1 on your own: question, method, one limit.
20:25 Modification: Name the dependent measure in numbers. Commit Part 1, then start Part 2.
Preparation: Library access.

Report: week06-cite/README.md (Part 1, with the PDF or URL) and week06-cite/auto-summaries.md (Part 2). Individual work. Due Tuesday 20 October.

Week 7 · Wednesday 21 October 2026

methods.html

Tool: Methods forward and backward

Part 1: write a Stroop Methods, then build it from the Week 2 rt.html template and run it on yourself. Part 2: guess the Methods of Hedge, Powell & Sumner (2018) from their result, check the paper, and rerun their open Stroop data.

18:00 The paradox: A robust effect that still fails to rank people.
18:15 Part 1: write: Stroop Methods with numbers, committed before any code.
18:35 Part 1: build and run: Turn rt.html into the Stroop your Methods describes. Export the CSV.

19:35 Part 2: guess and reveal: Write Hedge's Methods from their result, then read the real ones.
20:00 Part 2: reanalyse: analyze_stroop.py on their data and yours; swap the exclusion rule.
Reading: None before class. The paper is opened in Part 2.

Report: week07-methods/README.md in the repository. Individual work. Due Tuesday 27 October.

Week 8 · Wednesday 28 October 2026

midterm check-in · 15%

Tool: a results webpage

Example: one claim from your data, a figure, and a paragraph. The midterm project plan is also handed in tonight. Instructions and marks: project.html.

18:00 Introduction: A result is a sentence plus a figure, not a gallery of charts.
18:25 Demonstration: A page that states a claim and one that does not.
18:40 Exercise: Build a short HTML results page from an existing CSV. Complete the check-in file.

19:25 Results: Instructor reads each project plan with you.
20:05 Modification: Narrow the plan to one question and one comparison.
Preparation: Bring a CSV and a one-sentence project idea.

Due in class: the midterm project plan (project.html). Weekly report: path to the results page in week08-results/ and the claim.

Week 9 · Wednesday 4 November 2026

last weekly report

Tool: a browser game that studies a question

Example: play or remix the go/no-go instrument on game.html. Write the question first. Last weekly report. Tonight’s n is still small; that is not the week’s lesson.

18:00 Introduction: A game is an instrument if it records a comparison you stated first.
18:25 Demonstration: Play eight practice trials. Write a predicted false-alarm rate.
18:40 Exercise: Run a scored block and export the CSV into week09-game/.

19:25 Results: One sentence: condition, n, and what you will not claim.
20:05 Modification: Log one extra variable. You may also change the feel and theme of the mark.
Reading: The laboratory on game.html. Optional extra: sample.html.

Report: path to the exported CSV, the question you studied, and one limit. Use Reading Week to begin the final page.

No class · 9–13 November 2026

Reading Week

Work on the individual final. Do not collect classmate data over the break. Self as participant is the default.

Week 10 · Wednesday 18 November 2026

project.html

Tool: turn the plan into a page

Work session for the individual project. What is allowed and how it is marked: project.html.

18:00 Introduction: Common failures: no prediction, no file, appearance without a result.
18:25 Demonstration: A thin page that still states a claim.
18:40 Exercise: Build. Instructor circulates. No peer review.

19:25–20:45 Laboratory: Keep the project to one comparison.
Preparation: Bring your midterm plan and at least one CSV.

Due: none tonight. Final is 2 December.

Week 11 · Wednesday 25 November 2026

project.html

Project laboratory

Can someone who is not you open the page and state the measure or the claim?

18:00 Introduction: Go through the final checklist on project.html.
18:25–20:30 Laboratory time: Individual work. Instructor circulates.
20:45 Discussion: What is still missing. No graded peer run.

Shared check: Can a stranger read the page, and is there a number or a documented method and a saved file?
Preparation: Come with a page that already runs.

Due next week: the final project (project.html).

Week 12 · Wednesday 2 December 2026

final project · presentations · last meeting

Present the page

Last meeting: final project presentations, not a written exam. Instructions and marks: project.html.

18:00: Push your page and week10-project/FINAL.md.
18:15–20:45: 3-minute presentations. Everyone presents.
20:45–21:00: Confirm your Canvas paste. ZIP only if git is unavailable.

Due dates

Assessment against the calendar

50% laboratory reports, weeks 1–9, Tuesday 17:00. Drop the lowest. Week 4 is due 29 September.

15% midterm project plan: 28 October, in class.

35% final project and presentation: 2 December.

Details for both: project.html.

Catalogue dates: 1 September–8 December 2026, Wednesday 18:00–21:00. Closed: 30 September and 11 November.