Mathematical Methods in Psychology

Spring 2023

Fridays 10:20 – 12:10 in Room 217, South Hall, Psychology Building

Instructor: Yung-Fong Hsu (yfhsu@ntu.edu.tw), S404, Tel: 3366-3114

Office hour: Thursdays 16-17 and by appointment.

COURSE DESCRIPTION

In this course we introduce a modeling approach (different from traditional data models such
as ANOVA and linear regression) in psychology. This approach is mainly concerned with
uncovering the structure within the black box; it aims to provide detailed and substantive accounts
of specific mental processes. We will show students how to write down the likelihood of models
and how to use computational techniques to maximize likelihood. We will discuss issues of model
selection based on nested likelihood and others. In the second part of the course, we will illustrate
the use of models with examples from psychophysics and other fields. Topics include threshold
models, signal detection theory, multinomial processing tree models, reinforcement learning
models, etc.
We will use R, a free software environment for statistical computing and graphics that can be
downloaded from the web page http://www.r-project.org/, for some of the homework problems.

COURSE REQUIREMENTS

Students are expected to participate actively in classroom discussion, read the course material
thoroughly and critically, and give presentations.

READINGS

All required readings are from book chapters and journal papers that will be distributed in
class.

GRADING

Course grades will be based on (i) homework problems (30%), (ii) final exam or report (20%),
and (iii) class presentation and participation (50%).

(TENTATIVE) SCHEDULE

Week 1 Introduction
Weeks 2 - 3 Probability, distributions, estimators
Weeks 4 - 5 Likelihood and goodness of fit
Weeks 6 - 8 Signal detection models
Weeks 9 - 11 Models of learning and memory
Weeks 12 - 14 Models of choice and decision making
Week 15 (TBD)
Week 16 (Final exam or report)