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PSYCHOMETRICS FOR COGNITIVE AND CLINICAL SCIENCES Single discipline educational activity
Course Sheet Academic Year of enrolment:
Professor and Collaborators:
Hours of classroom activity:
Prerequisites:
Systematic and unjustified hatred towards formulas, numbers, data, and graphs is discouraged. Basic statistics notions are a desirable prerequisite.
Also, please install the open-source software JASP in advance.
Objectives
Contents The course aims at providing an in-depth knowledge of psychometric and neuroscientific methodologies used in computational cognitive sciences. Emphasis will be placed on methodological aspects, recognition of errors/biases, and the quality of presenting results in reports & scientific articles.
Extended Syllabus I. Psychometric Techniques
(1) Introduction: Definition and history of psychometrics, Measurement, Measurement scales, Method, Validity, Sample size, Applications of psychometrics in neuroscience and computational cognitive sciences, Ethics in psychometric research
(2) Tests: Cognitive tests, Non-cognitive tests, Stages of test development, Norms and standardization, Bias
(3) Construction and Validation of Instruments: Classical method; Item Response Theory (IRT)
II. Psychometric Techniques in Cognitive and Clinical Research
(4) Applied Experimental Statistics I: Means, T-tests, Correlation, ANOVA, ANCOVA, Regression.
(5) Applied Experimental Statistics II: Factor analysis, Cluster analysis, Structural equation models, MultiLevel Modeling (MLM) techniques.
(6) Psychometrics in research environments: application of the methods in (4) and (5) through (i) critical reading of scientific studies and (ii) the drafting of fictitious scientific papers
III. Computational Psychometric Techniques in Cognitive and Clinical Research
(7) Simulations: Why simulations? Synthetic data, Monte Carlo simulations, Bootstrap techniques, Genetic and evolutionary algorithms
(8) Data Visualization, Pre-Methodology, Multiverse Analysis, Critical Thinking and Creativity in Scientific Problem-Solving.
(9) Cognitive/clinical research: from the development of psychometric tools to the draft review
The lessons will be accompanied by interactive practical exercises and the critical reading of scientific articles, with a focus on methodological aspects.
Recommended Bibliography Slides, texts, and articles will be provided by the professor.
Methods of Provision
Teaching Methods The 64-hour teaching will be divided between:
Lectures
Discussion of scientific articles
Practical laboratories
Exercises
Attendance is not mandatory but is HIGHLY recommended.
Evaluation methods Verification of learning:
There will be a written test and a oral/practical exam.
The written test will consist of 20 multiple-choice questions on theory (10 points).
The oral practical exam will be divided into an exposition phase and an interpretation phase.
In the interpretation phase, each student, individually, will interpret an output of a fictitious scientific study including methods and results sections (10 points).
In the exposition phase, the student(s) (eventually in groups of 2-4) will present an analysis pipeline for a given experimental goal, highlighting pros and cons (12 points).
The subject of the exposition will be agreed upon with the professor in advance, who will follow the groups during the course with periodic reviews. The final grade will be the sum of the grades in the three tests.
Contacts/More Information Additional, non-mandatory readings:
“Discourse on the Method”, René Descartes
“Against Method”, Karl Feyerabend
“The Structure of Scientific Revolutions”, Thomas Kuhn