Matthew Schulkind
Office: SCCE D213
Office Hours: Tuesday 2:00-4:00; Friday 1:00-3:00 or by appointment
Email: mdschulkind@amherst.edu

Let’s quantify the MAGIC!!
~ Anonymous

The chief enemy of creativity is ‘good’ sense.
~ Pablo Picasso

You can’t use up creativity. The more you use, the more you have.
~ Maya Angelou

Overview and Goals: This course will be a research seminar exploring human creativity.  The primary aim of the course is to give you hands-on experience with conducting a novel research project of your own choosing. Although you have all read about psychological research, most of you have not had the opportunity to put the tools of behavioral research into practice, at least not in as rigorous a way as we will do in this class.  Over the course of the semester, you will engage in each of the following ‘steps’:

• Informal observation
• Proposing an experimental question
• Searching the scientific literature for work relevant to your question
• Critical reading of the literature to refine your question
• Creating a research design
• Developing/borrowing relevant materials
• Submitting an IRB proposal
• Providing feedback on that IRB proposal
• Collecting data
• Coding and analyzing the data
• Oral and written presentations of your experiment

I chose creativity as the topic for the seminar because creativity is a fundamental aspect of human cognition that can be observed in ideas, objects, people, and social groups.  It can be credited/implicated in the best/worst things that people have done on this earth.  Thus, creativity is not only interesting, but will provide a fertile ground for proposing a wide variety of engaging research projects. 

Attendance: You must come to every scheduled class.  This is not a joke.  Much of the work needed to propel your project forward will be completed in class.  Missing class will set you behind with no obvious way to catch up.  You will also be letting the other members of your group down.  Things happen that may require you to miss a class.  That is unavoidable, but please think carefully about what is and is not an unavoidable absence.  Do NOT be late!  Late is better than absent, but not nearly as good as ‘on time’.  It’s not that difficult! If there is a reason why you will not be able to arrive to class on time, please contact me so that we can discuss it. Short of that, please arrive to class on time.

Website: The course website contains all of the information in the syllabus including the schedule.  The main website is linked to the Moodle page, but you will not need to use the Moodle page once you have located the main course website.

Written assignments: As you can see from the course schedule, written assignments will be due almost weekly throughout the semester.  Information about the requirements for each assignment will be available on the website and discussed thoroughly in class.  These assignments are important for making sure that we stay on track.  Falling behind is not an option in this class; again, there is no obvious way to make up for missed assignments.

Office Hours: My office hours are listed at the top of the syllabus.  If these times are not convenient, please come see me after class and we can schedule an appointment.  You can also email me to set up an appointment, but that system often leads to round after round of "Email-tag".  One of my favorite parts of this job is meeting with students so please stop by even if you don't have a major problem.

Final Grades:Your final grade will be determined as follows:

Grading Philosophy: My primary goal in this class is to make each of you better readers, writers, and thinkers. Grades are a tool that I use in service of that goal. They are an evaluation of the work that has been submitted; they are not assessments of the individual who submitted the work. Nor are they an assessment of the effort used to produce an assignment; that is, working hard on an assignment or coming to office hours does not ensure a high grade.

Because Amherst College is a highly competitive academic institution, expectations are high. I will do my best to communicate my expectations for each assignment across the semester. Meeting the expectations for an assignment will not ensure a high grade; my expectations for an assignment define sufficiency rather than excellence. Excellence implies a level of novelty or sophistication that is hard to achieve.

I adopt a growth mindset when evaluating work; I encourage you to adopt a growth mindset when evaluating your grades. Falling short of a particular grade on an assignment is not an indication of failure. It represents an opportunity for reflection and growth. Part of my job is to help you reflect on your work and realize opportunities for growth, no matter what grade you have received on an assignment. That does not imply that I have a responsibility to help you achieve a particular grade. It is also worth noting that the higher up the grade scale you rise, the harder it is to achieve growth. In other words, rising from a C+ to a B+ is much easier than rising from a B+ to an A-, which is much easier than rising from an A- to an A.

Similarly, falling short of a particular grade for the semester is also not an indication of failure, for either you or me. Progress is not a steady straight line and education is decidedly inefficient. If you do not progress to a certain grade by the end of the semester, it does not mean that you did not work hard enough, nor does it mean that I have not provided you with appropriate feedback. I believe that the work that you do this semester will pay dividends for you down the road, but I cannot predict when you will cash those dividends. It may be by the end of the semester; it may be in future semesters. The benefits may not be realized until after graduation. Again, it is not my goal to get you to a certain grade by the end of the semester. My primary goal in this class is to make each of you better readers, writers, and thinkers. The grades you earn are nothing more or less than a tool that I use in service of that goal.

Generative AI Policy: You may not use generative AI for any purpose at any time in this class. There are two reasons for this policy. First, my values actively conflict with those of generative AI. I design assignments with the goal of helping you become better readers, writers, and thinkers. Along the path to those goals, my core values include independence, novelty, and depth of analysis. Generative AI has a different set of values. The technology seems to value efficiency (how quickly can it generate a response to a prompt) and probability (what is most likely to come next). Efficiency undermines independence and depth of analysis; probability undermines all three.

Second, research indicates that if you want a group to follow a policy or law, it is best to make that policy or law as simple to follow as possible. I have tried more ‘common sense’ approaches to generative AI but was forced to abandon them because students could not easily determine what was and was not permissible; students also failed to disclose their use of generative AI tools.

Any suspected use of AI will be referred to the Student Affairs Office. Depending on the context and type of use, the penalty for violation of this policy may include a failing grade or a grade of zero on the assignment in question. Failure in the course is also a possibility, again, depending on the nature of the offense. Given the shifting nature of the AI space, I cannot provide a list of all possible programs and/or activities that might be considered a violation of this policy but given that the College has purchased and distributed Grammarly to the student body, I do want to comment on the use of this product. You are allowed to use the version of Grammarly covered by the College’s license, but you may not use GrammarlyGo (which is not included in the College’s license) for any work submitted for this class.

Accomodations: If you have a documented disability that requires accommodations, you will need to register with Accessibility Services for coordination of your academic accommodations. You can reach them via email at accessibility@amherst.edu, or via phone at 413-542-2337. Once you have your accommodations in place, I will be glad to meet with you privately during my office hours or at another agreed upon time to discuss the best implementation of your accommodations.

Policy on video/audio recordings and sharing of online materials: You may not record any part of this class without written consent of the instructor. You also may not share online materials with anyone outside of this class without written consent of the instructor.

Course Schedule