Once upon a time, being able to do statistics was the only technical skill required of a psychologist. All psychology departments require their students to learn statistics. The logic behind the stats requirement is that it provides us with a set of tools that may be useful at different times down the road (even if they're not now). Having more tools in your conceptual tool-box makes you a better scientist - it affords more flexibility and creativity to how you approach questions, and in general is an all-around good thing.

So far so good. But statistics is no longer the only technical skill that psychologists use. We write programs to run our experiments, we use eye-trackers, fMRI, EEGs, and physio equipment, etc etc. All of these are tools. Just as with stats, having a hands-on familiarity with these tools affords greater flexibility in how you as a scientist can approach questions. I know several people for whom something as simple as learning how to use PsyScope to run their experiments has revolutionized their research programs (it helped them overcome what before seemed like a sea of technical impossibilities).

This graduate methods course was created this year on the request of the students. It will be organized by a senior graduate student with a more junior student assisting and preparing to continue the tradition in the following year. Most of the teaching will be done by guest-presenters (many of whom are themselves students and may even be students in the class). Here's some hype....

Topics to be covered: