The New Colleague (Again)

In 2010, Dr. Doug Wardell, who regularly taught the Department of Psychology's very popular courses in abnormal and clinical psychology, retired. Even though there was funding for his Faculty Lecturer position (obviously), after he retired, the Faculty of Arts did not provide funding to hire a replacement--which is kind of strange. (There have been a lot of budgetary ups and downs over the past decades.)

After a few years, though, funding did come through. The Department went through the arduous hiring process, and we found a great candidate. Unfortunately, literally the day after the offer was made to her, the Government of Alberta introduced their infamous slash-and-burn budget that brutally cut funding to post-secondary education. Understandably, the candidate said "no thanks" and did not join the University of Alberta.

The next year, we went through the process again. And then again the year after that. It's not easy to find someone who has clinical qualifications and also wants to teach. (Plus, you don't become a university instructor to get rich!) Happily, last year we were able to find someone who was in the process of graduating and we hired her. (In an it's-a-small-world twist, she was the wife of an old friend of mine from high school/university days.) Unfortunately, she was presented with a great opportunity elsewhere, and only taught for us for one semester. So...back to square one.

Going through the hiring process is not trivial. An ad has to be worked up and approved. You then get applications from people from all over the world (including some people with no psychology qualifications whatsoever). A screening committee has to do their due diligence and read through every one of these (cover letter, teaching statement, teaching evaluations, sample syllabi, multiple letters of reference) to come up with a shortlist. The shortlist is then scrutinized by the actual hiring committee. A small number of candidates will be invited to give a talk, a sample lecture, and be interviewed. Doing this for the third time is exhausting.But, third time's the charm, apparently. (No endorsement of superstitious beliefs is made or implied. Void where prohibited.)

I'm happy to introduce the Department of Psychology's new Faculty Lecturer, Dr. Jay Brinker. She comes to us from Calgary via Australia. (Don't hold the Calgary thing against her.) Dr. Brinker will be teaching courses like PSYCO 239: Abnormal Psychology, and PSYCO 335: Introduction to Clinical Psychology.

Please give her a warm welcome!

In other news, the Department also has a new Chair: Dr Chris Sturdy. He's not new to the Department, which is a good thing. There are deep, divisive issues facing the Department. Dr. Sturdy is going to need all the help he can get. I'm glad to see that he's prepared himself well over the summer, er, spending some time in Hawaii. Hey, everyone deserves some rest & relaxation before they get chewed up and spit out. Um, what I mean to say is, Good luck, Dr. Sturdy.



Why aren't you studying?

The Calendar

Although I've written about my use of Google Calendar before, I want to revisit this topic to clarify some things, help you use it better, and offer a cautionary tale.

I am still using Google Calendar a lot. It helps me keep track of where I need to be, where I am, and where I was. Yup, where I was. Like, when was the last time I saw my dentist (Dr Xing Wu, highly recommended, BTW) for a cleaning? I look it up in my calendar. Last oil change? Look it up. Last haircut? It's all in there.

But most of the time, I don't actually go to calendar.google.com.

Although the events in my personal calendar live somewhere in Google's cosy cloud data centres, the calendar itself can be accessed as a standard ICAL (.ics format) calendar. That means you can use whatever app you want to access your Google Calendar--or any other publicly accessible calendar.

For example, in addition to my personal and family calendars, also I subscribe to CanadaHolidays. To see my calendars on my phone, I use Calendars 5 by Readdle, which shows all of my personal and subscribed calendars. On my computers, though, I prefer to use Thunderbird with the Lightning Calendar add-on. Or, yes, sometimes I go to Google's calendar website. But I don't have to.

Subscribing to a calendar is not hard. You just need a link to the ICAL URL. Here, Google tells you how to Add someone else's Google calendar, if you're using Google calendar yourself. No? S'ok, there are also instructions on how to Sync calendar with a phone or tablet (Android or iOS). One of the greatest strengths of subscribing to another calendar is that you can get notifications of events via SMS texts or email.

For a few years, I've been creating a custom calendar for each class I teach. You can subscribe to it, and get notifications of exams and assignments. Useful! If you don't use a calendar app, or don't subscribe to the course calendar, well, you won't get notifications and will have to rely on your brain.

Here's the cautionary tale. This past term, despite information on my syllabus, in Bear Tracks, in eClass, in my course calendar, and even in an email reminder I sent out, a student missed the final exam, thinking it was the next day. Oops. Your Faculty is not going to approve a deferred exam for that reason, and you will end up getting a zero on the final--and maybe even failing the course.

Why not just figure out how to subscribe to calendars? If any of your courses don't have custom calendars, you can manually enter important dates and events, set up your own reminders, and never miss an assignment again--or a dental appointment.

(I've written a bit of Javascript that updates the calendar icon on some of my course pages. Now the icon will show what day of the month it is. Sorry, it doesn't show the month. Or the year. You're on your own there.)

Why aren't you studying?

The Software Licensing (or, Thanks for Nothing, IST)


I got this message in my email today from IST (Information Services and Technology), which at first I thought was from Mordac the Preventer of Information Services:

Hello,

You have been identified as an individual who has purchased or installed Adobe Creative Cloud, Acrobat DC or the Adobe work at home license through the Adobe Enterprise Term Licensing Agreement. Due to rising licensing costs for Adobe’s Creative Cloud software suite, Information Services & Technology (IST) has decided not to renew the Adobe Enterprise Term Licensing Agreement.

As a result of this change, you are required to take the following action by May 31st:

If you have installed a license through the Enterprise Term Licensing Agreement (ETLA) these installations will no longer be in effect after May 30 and must be uninstalled from your computer. This includes purchases and installations of Adobe Creative Cloud, Acrobat DC and the Adobe work at home license.

In order to comply with Adobe’s end of license terms, IST must receive confirmation the above outlined Adobe products have been uninstalled by May 31.

Please provide confirmation through the following link: Yes, by submitting my CCID I confirm all instances of Adobe Creative Cloud, Acrobat DC or the Adobe work at home license purchased or installed through the Adobe Enterprise Term Licensing Agreement have been uninstalled.

Note:
Content stored in Adobe Creative Cloud, Acrobat DC or the Adobe work at home license will not be accessible after the license expiry date. As such, important files should be downloaded prior to the expiry date of May 30.

For more information on the above licensing changes, please contact IST at ist@ualberta.ca or visit https://ist.ualberta.ca/blog/news/adobe-creative-cloud-licensing-changes.
So, seriously?

Literally in the middle of term, at the end of the day on a Friday, you send this out? I have to uninstall Acrobat from my home and work computers in 4 days? Seriously?

Yup, this will result in “significant cost savings to the university.” But, hey, so will cutting off our connection to the Internet. Or removing all computers from campus. Think of the savings.

Although you consider keeping Acrobat on computers in the Knowledge Common is “still providing access to core users,” that's not really true. Every time that I need to use Acrobat, I've got to walk from my office to the basement of Cameron Library, with a USB stick? Yeah, that's “providing access”...I guess. But then, setting up a computer with Acrobat for us to use somewhere in Stanley Park behind a tree would also be (technically) “still providing access.” LOL.

The alternatives you mention in your blog post do not include alternatives to Acrobat (the only Adobe software that I use). What do you recommend instead of that? I need something that has excellent usability, is cheap, will work with all my software, and won’t get in the way of my workflow. Oh, and I need it by, um, May 31. (Speaking of your blog, it’s curious that you do not allow comments to be posted on your blog. You do get what a blog is, right? Not just a data dump, but a forum--a place where people can share ideas. But then, you’re not big on the whole back-and-forth interactive discussion thing, are you? Never mind: Rhetorical question.)

Once again, you've gone ahead and made a decision without consulting the stakeholders--at all. The first I hear about this is a notice to remove this software from my computers? Not cool. You have a history of doing that; I shouldn’t be surprised. But then, in making a decision like this that impacts so many users, you must have thought through all the implications. Right?

You do know that some units on campus essentially require the use of Acrobat, right? Like SAS? I have to submit my exams to them in PDF format. Well, nope--not any more. Maybe you could break the news to them that instructors are no longer able to use Acrobat. (Do it soon, though. I have two students writing a midterm on Friday. It’s, you know, the middle of term.)

I know, I know: I'm not forbidden from using Adobe Acrobat or anything. I just have to hurry up and buy licenses for my computers: 1 university office computer, 2 home computers. I'm on the hook for $500 now. Um, explain “significant cost savings” to me again, please. (Also: I just bought new Adobe Acrobat DC licenses for my computers in November, a mere 6 months ago. Do I get a refund for those? Can you understand why I'm upset? Can you?)

So, in sum: A poor decision. Made in a poor fashion. Presented poorly.

Thanks for nothing, IST.

The Teaching Schedule

One of the most important aspects of my job is the classes that I'm assigned to teach. This really defines my life for that whole (4-month or 6-week) term, and what I do in advance of that to prepare for my assigned courses. So: important. This is how it works. In the summer, people in each research/teaching area have a meeting to discuss what courses will be offered, and who wants to teach them. I’ve been put into the Comparative Cognition and Behaviour group because I teach the high-demand PSYCO 282: Behavior Modification course, even though my other courses fit into different research/teaching areas (perception courses are part of Behaviour, Systems and Cognitive Neuroscience, and my human factors & ergonomics course is closest to Cognition). We don’t plan for the academic year that is about to begin, but for the year after that. (Yes, things are planned over a year in advance. There are implications of a professor taking a sabbatical, for example.)

In August, I submit my teaching preferences. However, as the term progressed, I realized that teaching two 400-level courses (Advanced Perception, and Human Factors & Ergonomics) in the same term results in a really high workload for me, because I do most of the marking of the short-answer/essay exams. So I asked that, in 2016/2017 my Advanced Perception course be replaced by PSYCO 367: Perception. The response: Sure, no problem. However, things are not a simple as that.

Many factors have to be considered by a department when deciding what courses to offer. Are there enough sections of each course satisfy demand? Are there too many sections? If someone is going on sabbatical, who is available (and capable) of taking over their courses? And then there’s the pecking order (I hate that term, but the only other alternative I could find was “dominance hierarchy,” which doesn’t sound right either).

Here’s how it works: professors get first choice of what to teach. Then come Faculty Lecturers, and then everyone else (i.e., other Contract Academic Staff: Teaching or “sessionals” and graduate students). This means that if I want to teach a certain course which has low demand, but there’s a professor who also wants to teach it, I’ll get bumped. It’s happened before a few times, like in the upcoming Spring term. In addition to PSYCO 258: Cognitive Psychology, I asked to teach PSYCO 367, but there’s a professor who wanted to teach it, so I got bumped. There’s not enough demand to fill two sections of that class. So then I asked for PSYCO 104. Strangely, though, I did not bump out the sessional who had been assigned to that class. Instead, the department created a new PSYCO 104 course section. This is pretty unusual to do--there is really not enough demand for two daytime PSYCO 104 sections (plus one night class) in Spring term. OK, well, whatever. (I want to be clear that I am not happy to “bump” any of my CAS:T colleagues. Work is hard to find, and the economy is not great. Costing someone a teaching assignment is not my choice; it’s the way Department policy works. I would be perfectly happy teaching Perception and Cognitive Psychology every Spring term, as I’ve done for many years, and not bumping anyone.)

Last week, I finally got access to my 2016/2017 teaching schedule in Bear Tracks--after students had already been granted access. I was shocked to see that the 300-level perception course was not on my schedule, but the 400-level advanced perception course was--and there were people already registered in it. What the...? So this time, I got bumped again--even though there is enough demand to support two sections of PSYCO 367 in Fall term. Clearly, there is some inconsistency in how policy is being applied.

Now don’t get me wrong: I’m not going to hate teaching Advanced Perception. I like it. But I had been spending my extra time since September working on developing PSYCO 367 instead. I wanted a year to rethink and restructure Advanced Perception. (I’ve been developing a new lecture on Illusion, Magic, and Perception, which is really fun--but it won’t be ready for this fall.)

So, what about my preferences for what times and teach, and in what rooms? Don’t get me started.

Why aren’t you studying?

On Being Picky

Some students consider me to be very picky, focusing on subtle, minute differences between words and phrases on exams and in marking, to the point of seeming almost completely arbitrary. For instance, the difference between the words since and because. They’re the same, right? In common usage, since is frequently used in place of because. “Since I am allergic to nuts, I cannot eat peanut butter.” Substituting the word because wouldn’t change the meaning at all: “Because I am allergic to nuts, I cannot eat peanut butter.” So, they’re synonyms, right?

What about this sentence: “I haven’t eaten anything since noon.” Substitute the (apparent) synonym, and... Wait, this makes no sense: “I haven’t eaten anything because noon.” The word since refers to the passage of time; the word because is used to indicate causality. In scientific writing, precision is very important, and selecting the proper word is essential when trying to explain something accurately.

Exam questions also frequently depend on particular meanings of words. If you change one word in a definition, it can completely change the meaning of the term. Take a look at this sample exam question:
Who is considered to be the father of psychology?
    a) William James
    b) Sigmund Freud
    c) Willhelm Wundt
    d) Ivan Pavlov
Know the answer? Some students will argue about a question like this. They’ll point out that there is no such person as “Willhelm Wundt”--it’s actually spelled “Wilhelm.” Thinking that it’s a trick, these students then pick anything other than choice (c), and come up with a rationale for their choice. (The answer actually is (c), but it contains a typo--it’s not a trick.) Faced with a situation like this, what should I do? Should I mark their answer as correct, because some random website somewhere supports their choice? (There are websites that support James, Freud, and Pavlov as being the the “father of American psychology.” the “father of modern psychology,” and the “father of Russian physiology,” respectively.) Should I reward their careful attention to detail and critical thinking skills? Or, come on, the answer is actually (c), and they should not get a mark for picking anything else.

Is this issue all about a simple misspelling? Or is the underlying problem really about the question being far too general? So maybe after fixing the typo, I’ll change the stem of the question to read: “According to the textbook, who is considered to be the father of psychology?” Or maybe even: “According to chapter 1 of the textbook, who is considered to be the father of experimental psychology?” (Wanna try, “According to page 6 in chapter 1 of the textbook, who is considered to be the father of experimental psychology?”) As you can see, the question becomes increasingly specific with every iteration. The advantage is that there is less wiggle room for students to criticize the question--but the disadvantage is that the question is becoming highly specific and, well, picky.

The result is that students will no longer argue about the structure of the question, but will complain that there’s no way that they can memorize the entire textbook. Now imagine that this happens with most of the questions on every single exam. Nit-picking forces me to refine my questions over and over, making them more and more specific. There are no longer any general questions, which are the most prone to interpretation and criticism. There are extremely few application questions, which people complain are subjective and arbitrary (even though they are not). The exam is now full of highly specific definition-based memorization questions.

Learning the meanings of and being able to correctly apply terminology is an important aspect of psychological science. In writing my lectures and exams, I select words incredibly carefully for utmost consistency, clarity, and accuracy. But over time, I have also made my exams far more picky than they were to begin with, because my behaviour has been shaped by students. So if I appear to be excessively picky (and, according to RateMyProfessors.com, I apparently am), you can thank the students who previously took my exams...and were very picky.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Quote (Revenge Ratings)

Image: Marie Espenido, The Gateway

I don't appear in the media very often. Occasionally, there's a mass email that goes out to Department of Psychology members, asking if anyone with a certain kind of expertise would mind talking to a reporter. A lot of the time, none of us are expert in what they're looking for. More often, you'll see a story on some of great research being done by UAlberta psychology researchers. Want to know the truth about "midlife crisis""? Maybe geographical differences in bird behaviours? Or why snunkoople is funny? Is the psychology of leadership your thing? Effects of screen time on young children?

I've been mentioned in the Gateway once or twice. There was the memorable front-page story about me proposing to my now-wife--in class. (I'm not going to do that ever again...) I also had a little story published in 1989 or 1990 about my experience getting to campus in the middle of a massive snowstorm (called "Black Friday" I believe).

Recently, I was approached by a student who writes for the Gateway. She wanted my opinions on the topic of "revenge ratings", online postings made by disgruntled students that trash their instructors. In particular, the article mentioned RateMyProfessors.com and how their policies (and postings) seem to have changed recently.

I had a nice chat with the writer--about 20 minutes long. I thought I had lots of really quotable things to say--but then, I always think that. She ended up using one line of mine in the article, published January 19.It's a good read, if you're interested: Rate My Prof’s “revenge ratings” offer nothing constructive.

Why aren't you studying?

The Sunshine List

You've probably heard that the Government of Alberta has a "sunshine list" that discloses the names and salaries of government employees who make more than $100,000 per year. (This number is indexed to inflation, and is now at $104,754.) The idea behind it is to disclose who is making what, and (presumably) to allow the public to speculate on whether the person receiving their hefty salary is worth it.

The Government, however, now wants to expand the sunshine list to include publicly funded people like doctors. The point of doing this is not clear to me. You can find physicians' fee schedules online. Want to know how much your family doctor is getting to do your annual complete physical? It's in there. Why would you need to know how much they're getting paid per year? What difference does that make to you, as a patient? If a doctor is getting paid more, is that better? Or worse somehow? If they're earning more, that means they're seeing more patients, working longer hours, working more days. The sunshine list data only gives the doctors' billings, it doesn't show what their overhead is. It's the doctors who have to pay their receptionists and nurses, pay the rent, update their equipment. But all you'll see on the sunshine list is their gross, not net, income.

Worse yet, the Government also wants to reveal the salaries of employees of post-secondary institutions. That means--yes--your instructors could find their salaries posted online. I'm okay with seeing how much the higher-ups in central admin are earning. This data has been discussed in the news before; it's not private, confidential information. And if you want to know how much academic staff, support staff, or graduate students make, the salary scales are easily available online (this includes my pay scale, for CAST). True, this data doesn't tell you how much a given individual makes--that depends on the merit increases they have accumulated over their careers, and and "top-up" funds that are often given when hiring academic superstars. But do you need to know how much your chem prof is making? Or your English TA? Do you care? Does it matter? Aren't there other data that are more relevant, like maybe USRIs? Or number of publications?

The Arts Squared blog has pointed out that the legislation contains no rationale for exposing professors' salaries, and that Alberta post-secondary institutions have been chronically underfunded for years. Are profs being overpaid here? Not compared to other universities in Canada: UAlberta (Full Professor, minimum) salaries are a pitiful 17th overall (see section 2)--awfully low for the 5th-ranked university in Canada. (It's also interesting to see how much less lecturers get than full professors.) If you want to shed sunshine on some numbers, it looks like we're substantially underpaid. What's more, some research suggests that sunshine lists will actually end up increasing salaries. (Incidentally, I'm happy with my salary. I love my job, and I'm not complaining. Academics, though, will leave a job if they can get paid more somewhere else. That will end up affecting the quality of teaching and research, and in a bad way.)

To me, it looks like this is a bad case of governmentitis: "Hey, this worked over here! Let's try it over there!" Seeing how much Alberta public servants make is one thing. Applying it outside of public workers makes no sense. There's no good reason for it. In fact, there's no reason for it at all.

Why aren't you studying?

What I Did on my Winter Vacation (2015 edition)

Happy holidays! That is, I hope your holidays were happy. Me? Nothing as exciting as last year. I went through most of November and December with a persistent cold that I couldn’t shake. Congestion, cough, and a sore throat that lasted 6 weeks. Bleah. That’s why these posts have been scarce lately. By Christmas, I was starting to feel (and sound) better.

If it seemed like last term dragged on longer than usual, it did. The new Reading Week prolonged Fall term by 3 days. Not a lot, but enough to notice. It seemed like I went directly from marking term papers to marking exams to prepping for Winter term. Although it was nice to have a break in the middle of term, I think I prefer being done earlier.

Hey, here are some pictures of Quad that I took in late November, coming back to get my car after going to dinner and a concert with some of my friends. Even though there’s no snow, I loved how it looked.




On Christmas Eve, my family was invited to a friend’s house for their annual Christmas party. There was lots of food, a lot of people, and a white elephant gift exchange. Much to our relief, the gift exchange all worked out okay in the end. I got a USB charging station, my elder daughter and wife ended up with the gift cards they wanted, and my youngest daughter stole the big box of chocolates/candies/treats that was one of the gifts we brought--and no one dared to steal it away from her.



A. Lot. Of. Chocolates.

Speaking of treats, some of my wife’s patients gave her boxes chocolates, candies, or cookies for Christmas, which was very generous of them. Um, too generous? I counted 12 boxes--and that doesn’t include the treats we got from my parents, sister-in-law, and Santa, or the two gifts-from-patients that haven’t been unwrapped yet, but sure sound like boxes of chocolates when you shake them. Hey, I do like sweet treats (I handed out over 200 chocolate chip cookies to one of my classes at their final exam last term), but I don’t want to end up in a hyperglycemic coma. These boxes of chocolates (the unopened ones) are going to find good homes, thanks to the Edmonton Food Bank.

Going out to visit friends and share a meal is a usual part of the holidays, and this year was no different. But we also have two birthdays to celebrate--which means going out for special dinners. All that food and lots of sitting around (I’ve barely broken 10,000 steps on my Fitbit in a month) mean that I’m going to resolve to...actually, I don’t make new year’s resolutions. But I better try harder to hit my goal of 10,000 steps a day if I want to fit into my Speedos by summer. (Just kidding about the Speedos. It’s a thong.) (Just kidding about the thong. I go to nudist resorts.)

Amidst the holidays were a couple of disappointments. Our furnace gave out (again). That’s our third inducer motor in 6 years. Grr! Oh, and I saw Star Wars: The Force Awakens. Yes, it was a disappointment. Not just for all the many plot holes, but because it made me feel old, obsolete, and irrelevant--like Han, Leia, and Luke. (Did I mention I also had a birthday over the holidays?) My eldest daughter thoroughly enjoyed it, however. Hmm, maybe it’s time to pass my lightsaber on to the next generation...

Did the Force rock your world? Did you go anywhere exotic over the holidays? Ah, never mind. Keep it to yourself. No one posts comments anyway.

Why aren’t you studying?

The Universal Grade Change Form

Universal Grade Change Form
 
To: (professor/teacher)__________
From:_______________
I think my grade in your course,__________, should be changed from___to___for the following reason(s) [check all that apply]:
  1. The persons who copied my paper made a higher grade than I did.
  2. The person whose paper I copied made a higher grade than I did.
  3. This course will lower my GPA and I won't get into: 
    __Med School __Law School __Grad School
  4. I have to get an A in this course to balance the F in ___________.
  5. I'll lose my scholarship.
  6. I'm on a varsity sports team and my coach couldn't find a copy of your exam.
  7. I didn't come to class and the person whose notes I used did not cover the material asked for on the exam.
  8. I studied the basic principles and the exam wanted only facts.
  9. I studied the facts and definitions but the exam asked about general principles.
  10. You are prejudiced against: 
    __ Males
    __ Females
    __ Minorities
    __ Poor people
    __ Rich people
  11. If I flunk out of school my father will disinherit me or at least cut my allowance.
  12. I was unable to do well in this course because of : 
    __ mono
    __ acute alcoholism
    __ drug addiction
    __ VD/STD 
    __ broken baby finger
    __ pregnancy
    __ fatherhood
  13. You told us to be creative but you didn't tell us exactly how you wanted that done.
  14. I was being creative and you didn't appreciate it.
  15. Your lectures were: 
    __ too detailed to pick out important points
    __ too boring 
    __ not explained in sufficient detail
    __ all jokes and no material
  16. Some of the questions in your exams were not covered in the lectures.
  17. I was always prepared except for the few times you called upon me in class.
  18. This course was scheduled: 
    __ too early
    __ too late
    __ before gym 
    __ after gym
    __ before lunch
    __ after lunch.
  19. My (dog, cat, gerbil, baby sister, baby brother) (ate, wet on, threw up on) my (book, notes, paper) for this course.
  20. I don't have a reason; I just want a higher grade.
(credit/blame: Ed Reilly )

Why aren't you studying?

The Reading Week Reading List (Fall, 2015)

Welcome to the (new) Fall Term reading week! If you've got all your work done (ha!) and are looking for some good reads, I've got ya covered.

BTW, these are not the books I'm reading this week. These are leftovers from my summer reading list. Wait, that sounds bad--like I'm not reading all the time. I read constantly, either book-books or ebooks or audiobooks. Listening to an audiobook is a great way to make the commute go a lot faster. Time travel? Nope. Psychology!

So, in no particular order...


Thinking, Fast and Slow
This book has been on my to-read list since it came out in 2011. Daniel Kahneman is one of the few psychologists to have won the Nobel prize (in Economic Sciences). He gave a talk at UAlberta a few years ago. Totally worth cancelling my class for. In this book, Kahneman describes his research, which includes behavioural economics, judgment and decision-making, and subjective well-being. Along the way, he generously gives props to his colleague Amos Tversky, who died in 1996. Kahneman's work (and this book) is broadly applicable to everyone--it's not esoteric, inaccessible academic blatherings. Read this if you have a mind and want to know how it works.

The Marshmallow Test: Mastering Self-Control
Mischel is best known for his research study that has come to be known as "the marshmallow experiment." You know, put a kid in a room with a marshmallow--if they can resist eating it, they get two marshmallows. Waiting is taken as an index of self-control. Years later, Mischel started to wonder about these kids, and what their lives were like. The follow-up research showed that high self-control is predictive of a staggering array of life outcomes, including increased educational attainment, longer-term marriages, higher incomes, greater career satisfaction, better health, lower incidence of drug use, and more fulfilling lives. Mischel even consulted with Sesame Workshop on the application of his research in episodes of Sesame Street. Mischel describes some good self-control strategies in later chapters.
Better Than Before: Mastering the Habits of Our Everyday Lives
Gretchen Rubin is not a scientist...and it shows. I was eagerly waiting for this book, stoked by Rubin's frequent blog posts about the book's progress. Teaching behaviour modification (which includes habits), this book seemed to be right up my alley. Unfortunately, I ended up disappointed by this hot mess of anecdotes and personal stories, with supporting research only tossed in briefly if and when it supports the anecdotes. Looking for a better book on changing your bad habits? Try Charles Duhigg's The Power of Habit. Or Jeremy Dean's Making Habits, Breaking Habits. Or even Kelly McGonigal's The Willpower Instinct. Or Roy Baumeister & John Tierney's excellent Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength.
We Don't Need Roads: The Making of the Back to the Future Trilogy
In my first ever post on this blog, I admitted my fondness for behind-the-scenes director's commentaries. As if there's not enough goodies in the new Blu-ray BTTF set (for the record, that's a triple-dip for me: the third time I've bought Back to the Future discs), this book has loads of interviews with and stories from Bob Gale, Robert Zemeckis, Neil Canton, Dean Cundey, and actor people like Christopher Lloyd, Michael J. Fox, Lea Thompson... It's a love letter to the movies and fans; don't expect a lot of trash talk. Well, maybe a little about Crispin Glover.
Armada
Finally, we come to my guilty pleasure read of the summer. (No, the previous book was not a guilty pleasure. What's guilty about it?) Ernest Cline wrote one of my favourite fiction novels of the past few years, so I was hoping for, well, more of the same. I got it--sort of. Once again, it's a book bursting with 1980s pop-culture references to movies, music, and computer games. Just the thing for a middle-aged guy like me. But it's a bit harder to justify some of the more implausible twists when the characters are not in a "game-world," but are in the "real world." Not as much a page-turner as Ready Player One, but it was an okay summer read. Even I have to turn my brain function down to "low" sometimes.

What have you been reading lately?

Why aren't you studying?

The Cheeps

I've got a bunch of items, but none of them deserve an entire blog post because they're too short. If only there were some way of sharing these. Maybe I can create a new kind of social network for these--call it "Chrpr," and people can sent out "cheeps". I'll work on it. In the meantime...

  • A big WELCOME to the Department of Psychology's new Faculty Lecturer, Karon Dragon! She will be teaching courses like intro psych (PSYCO 105), personality, and clinical psychology. We've been trying to hire someone for this position for years, and we're very glad Karon is joining us. (Interesting personal connection: I went to high school and university with her husband, and we still keep in touch!)
  • I had to get a new ONECard, because I just noticed that mine expired. In 2012. (My account hadn't expired, just the card. I could still use it to check out library books, but I would have been in trouble if I had tried to use it to take the LRT.) If the card expired in 2012, that means I got it in 2007. That explains why, in the photo, I had a lot less gray hair.
  • Speaking of 2007, it's been a long, long time since a provincial budget came out that didn't make me worry about my job. Cuts to the Campus Alberta grant reversed? Check. Tuition freeze? Check. I'm just waiting to see what the "trickle-down" to Faculties and Departments will be.
  • Earlier this year, the Supreme Court of Canada ruled that the Right to Strike is fundamental to the collective bargaining process and is constitutionally protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. Why is this relevant? Under the Alberta government's Post-Secondary Learning Act (PSLA), staff associations (like the UofA's AASUA and NASA) do NOT have the right to strike. Our new government is going to have to make legislative changes by March 31, 2016. (Not that I ever want to go on strike. Or be locked out.)
  • Speaking of acrimony about contracts... There was a letter to the Gateway in September that claimed, "It’s...the first year in our history that the Fall academic term has begun without a contract between professors and administration." What the--? Shocking, right? (There was, as usual, a bunch of crap in the comments section like, "These professors who have no motivation to excel without raises and bonuses should look into changing professions." Sure. Try to hire top-notch people in a field and promise them no raises. Go ahead. Try.) Don't worry everypony, your instructors still have a contract in place with the University. According to the AASUA, the old contract doesn't "expire," it just continues to be applied--but there are no cost-of-living increases or changes to anything like benefits. A bigger problem is that many AASUA members were due raises in July, which are being withheld by the University until all the disputes surrounding negotiations are resolved. This may take a while, as there are grievances and lawsuits flying back and forth. President Turpin has yet to comment on this situation, which is disappointing.
  • The Department of Psychology, as you may know, is in both the Faculty of Arts and the Faculty of Science. This is awfully confusing for students, and it necessitates a lot of work on several fronts. For example, the Department Chair has to sit though two rounds of FEC (Faculty Evaluation Committee) meetings, which take up a huge amount of time. This is particularly relevant this year, as our current Chair, Prof. Jeff Bisanz, is ending his term and we will be searching for a new Chair. The position is much less appealing with such a high workload. That's why there's a discussion underway about "consolidation": moving the Department to a single Faculty (either Arts or Science). This is the third time that this issue has been examined in the past decade or so. Don't freak out: if it does happen, it would be years away, and you'll still be able to get a BA or BSc in Psychology. However, not all professors are keen to change Faculties.
  • Did you know there's a reading week this term, for the first time ever? Here's a tip: don't put off all your studying and paper-writing until then. You won't get it all done. Your SU proposed this week as a breather to help ease the stress and improve mental health. If you pull all-nighters and wear yourself down, you'll only make things worse.
Why aren't you studying?

The Edmonton Comic and Entertainment Expo (2015 edition)

This past weekend was an important event for my people: The Edmonton Comic & Entertainment Expo. As usual, I had my weekend "Celebrity Fast Pass" and was ready to get my geek on!

Stan Lee was there. I mean, Stan Lee. He's very funny. No, I'm not going to qualify that with "for his age." He's just a funny guy. To create so many alliterative character names (including Fin Fang Foom), he must have a pretty good sense of humour.
A very small Stan Lee.
Autographed, NIP.

But, it's just...the con (sorry, I can't help but call it that) was a bit disappointing this year. To ensure you get a Fast Pass, you have to buy it months before most of the guests are announced, so you have to hope there will be a lot who you want to see. And this year? Yeah, not so much.

I mean, look at the guests at the Salt Lake Comic Con, also held this past weekend: Chris Evans! Anthony Daniels! Walter Koenig! Marina Sirtis! Richard Hatch! James & Oliver Phelps! Felicia Day! Maurice LaMarche! Tress MacNeille! (Shame on you if you don't know the last two. Gasp! Call yerself a nerd?) And more!

It was nice that the Edmonton Expo took over the whole, er, Edmonton Expo Centre this year for the first time. That must've cost. And the weak Canadian dollar isn't helping. But when you see amazing things happening down the road at the Calgary Comic & Entertainment Expo (Aliens reunion! ST: TNG reunion!), you gotta wonder. After getting past the "big names" of Stan Lee, and Michael Dorn (trivia: has played his Star Trek character more times that anyone else in the Trek universe), I wasn't too excited. I don't have a lot of time to watch TV, so I didn't really know most of the media guests. Yeah, I went to interesting panels by Natalia Tena and Jenna Coleman--but I don't even watch Game of Thrones or Doctor Who. (Gasp! Call yerself a nerd?) No, I don't watch those shows. Hey, having two demanding kids, a demanding job, and a demanding wife takes a lot of my time. Like, a lot a lot.

Did you know it was also Alumni Weekend this past weekend? When the University of Alberta puts on an insane number of "homecoming" (the American term) activities? Like, say, special 25-year reunions of the graduating class of 1990? Which is when I got my B.Sc. But, more importantly, it was also when my wife graduated med school. Dilemma: Comic con weekend is the same weekend as my wife's reunion. Unless I want the locks on my house changed, it's no contest: I will leave the comic expo (um, right after Stan Lee's panel), swap my con lanyard for a reunion lanyard, and be arm candy for my demanding wife at her reunion dinner held at the Royal Mayfair Golf Club. I know: tough life. (BTW: No, I didn't go to my reunion events. I literally don't know anyone else who graduated in 1990.)
My wife with a couple of other doctors.
(My wife is the one in the middle.)


Did I mention a demanding job? So while waiting in line at the comic expo, during lulls in panels, and during the hors d'oeuvres at my wife's reunion, I madly checked and answered emails. See, there was an assignment due Monday, and a few students had questions. A few. Like, 52. Not that I was counting. My phone did that for me.

Did I mention two demanding kids? I nabbed a couple of sweet MLP scarves for my daughters (Derpy and Rainbow Dash). (No, I did not name my daughters after ponies. I bought my daughters scarves with the cutie marks of Derpy and Rainbow Dash on them. Clear?) There was much of the squealing and the hugging and celebrating of the Daddy when I got home. As for myself, well...there was this comic that caught my eye. (I know, right? An actual comic at a comic con!) Sandman #1, signed by Neil Gaiman himself. (Don't tell my wife. Srsly.) Sadly, Neil wasn't at the con. Now that would have been swoon-inducing. Maybe next year?
The Sandman #1. Signed by Neil Gaiman.
Quest complete.

Although there was "free" Celebrity Fast Pass swag to be had, I'm going to be keeping it this year. There was a nifty T-shirt (that actually fit me for once), a bag (as always, but nicer this year), and a pair of...socks. That, right. Socks. Is that some kind of message to nerd-dom? You. Need. Fresh. Socks. I'm keeping them. I may even wear them, you know, ironically.

Selfie time!

Did you go to the Comic Expo? Did you wear a costume? Did you email me questions about your self-management project from the Comic Expo? (I did bump into one student who recognized me...in the bathroom. This is what it is like being a very, very, very, very minor celebrity.) Excelsior!

Why aren't you studying?

The Bookstore (Again)

When last I wrote about the Bookstore, I complained about some problems caused by their seeming lack of organization. As a result, coursepacks for one of my classes were misplaced. (They were found in a box outside the manager's door.) That was in February of 2012. How are things going now? I think this picture of an empty shelf where my PSYCO 282 textbook should be tells the story.

This term, I'm teaching three courses. In total, the required readings are: one textbook and three coursepacks. The Bookstore was short: one textbook and two coursepacks. Well, one out of four, hey? At least it's not zero, amirite?

I took this photo yesterday, in the third week of classes. Yesterday, when my PSYCO 282 class had their first assignment due. Empty shelf. At least there are now copies of the coursepack for my other two classes, but some students in one of my other classes did not have the readings last week, when there was a quiz based on the coursepack readings.

I know I'm certainly frustrated, and I'm sure my students aren't thrilled either.

When I order textbooks, there is a form that asks how many copies the Bookstore should stock. I leave that blank. I used to fill it out, until I realized I was wasting my time. It was taken as a suggestion. And, really, I don't know how many copies they should have. Some students don't buy the textbook. Some buy the ebook. Some buy the book used. If there's an oversupply, that costs money. I get all that. So it's up to the expertise of those in the Bookstore to do their calculations and make sure there are enough books. Let me just repeat the last bit for emphasis: make sure there are enough books.

After much complaining, here's the response I got today from the Bookstore:
"We take very seriously our role in serving the campus community, both students and faculty.  Never would we purposely do anything to interfere with your teaching schedule or your students ability to complete their scheduled assignments.  Unfortunately in this case we received a late request from the other section, and had to order more books in August to compensate for this.  In addition there was an enrolment spike so we had to re-order yet again.  For such circumstances we always request that the publisher rush the orders, and we pay for air shipping to cause the least amount of disruption.  For our latest order Nelson was not able to get the book as quickly as we would have liked and did not get them shipped out until last Friday.  We should see them in the next couple of days.

"I apologize for the frustration that this has caused you and your class and hope that our performance will have no such impact going forward."
So there's the explanation for what happened in my PSYCO 282 class. The textbook is in a new edition, so there are no used copies available. But what about my other classes? And the classes that my colleagues are teaching? I sent out an email request asking what problems others have encountered, and it looks like I'm definitely not alone.

In my post of February 2012, I was told:
"Under our new director, the Bookstore is working on several course material improvements including an enhanced web-based ordering service."
Did they "enhance" anything? Nope, not yet. Well, they did just put up a whizzy new website--with the message "Some areas of our new website are still under construction; our apologies for any inconvenience." Er, what? When do you put up a new (incomplete) website? During your busiest time of year? Have there been "improvements"? No--things are worse than ever. (The new website currently lacks any way for me to order textbooks. Apologies in advance what whatever happens to my textbooks next term.)

Have any horror stories about not being able to get textbooks or coursepacks from the Bookstore? Tell me your story below.

Why aren't you studying?

The Textbook Question

Are you in a course that has a newly updated textbook? I know there’s a question you want to ask. Go ahead, ask. Here’s the short answer to your question: Yes.

This is the question you’re asking:
“Do I need the new edition of the textbook? Because my friend/brother/grandmother has the old edition and they gave it to me for free/for a discount/for a bottle of moonshine.”
So the answer is: Yes. Yes, you need the new edition.

Put it this way: Do you want to get the best possible grade in the course? Or do you want to save money?

I know that’s a facile dichotomy. Textbooks are expensive. When a new edition comes out, there are no (much-cheaper) used copies available yet. Saving some money on a textbook is not trivial--and if you can get one free from a friend, that’s great. Some students literally do not have the money to buy new copies of the textbook for every course they’re taking. I am sensitive to the high cost of textbooks, and it’s an important factor when I’m choosing the textbook for a course.

On the other hand, textbooks (especially in science) are continually being updated with new research findings and theories. And there are exam questions drawn on newly updated material. If you don’t have the current edition of the textbook, you’ll just be guessing on those questions. They make up only a small portion of the exam (in my courses, anyway), but every mark counts.

All publishers have a “What’s New” section for every newly updated textbook they publish. This is for instructors mostly, but I encourage you to take a look at what has been changed before you make your purchase decision. Here’s what’s new in the updated textbook I’m using in my PSYCO 282: Behaviour Modification course starting in fall, 2015. It’s a fairly substantial list of changes, compared to other textbooks I use in other courses.

If you are short on funds, the good news is that the University of Alberta Libraries have started a new purchase program for reserve materials. If there are at least 100 students in a course, an instructor may ask the library to purchase the textbook for the course and make it available from their reserve room(s). (For my PSYCO 282 course, the UAlberta Libraries actually bought four copies of the new textbook, and placed them on reserve in Cameron Library.) If you can’t afford to buy a textbook, you can check the textbook out for 2 hours at a time. So you can potentially read the old edition, and check out the new one to read the updates.

Why aren’t you studying?

What I Did on my Summer Vacation (2015 edition)

Last year, the theme for my Summer Vacation post was: Soccer. This year, the theme will definitely not be: Soccer. Things started out soccer-ish. I had tickets to go to some FIFA Women’s World Cup games with my dad and eldest daughter. Unfortunately, we discovered just how difficult it is to get around Commonwealth Stadium when you’re on crutches.

See, in an early-season soccer game, my daughter was brutally tripped by an opposing player. It was either a malicious act, or one of sheer clumsiness; either way, the referee should have taken some action, but he didn’t. You know what they say about mama bears and their cubs? Well, don’t get between a papa bear and his cubs, either. Grr! (No, I didn’t commit any physical violence--but I did get this year’s soccer fees refunded. And EMSA sent her a box of chocolate-covered strawberries. ) My eldest daughter was on crutches for a month. Not only was she out for the season, she doesn’t want to play soccer again. Ever.
 
Ouch!

And then the Canadian and German women's soccer teams crashed and burned, so yeah. Not the summer of soccer.

What we needed was a nice vacation. Like, going to Jasper National Park maybe? That sounds relaxing. But no camping; I don’t do camping. The first day, things started off promising--we went to Pyramid Lake and rented a paddleboat, then the kids took a dip in the lake. That’s when things started to go downhill. My youngest daughter stepped on...something. Poison plant? Black fly? Radioactive spider? She got a severe allergic reaction on the bottom of her foot. This prevented her from walking. It’s pretty challenging to be on vacation in the mountains if you can’t walk.

On subsequent days, I had to stay with her in the vehicle as the rest of the family went to Mount Edith Cavell to see the Angel Glacier. I had to carry her to the Columbia Icefield (where we waited 4 hours to get on an Ice Explorer. You suck, Brewster Travel Canada. You suck.). And then I got a gash in my arm from an overenthusiastic spring-loaded outhouse door at Patricia Lake. Great. No more carrying anybody.


Blurry, dark blob.

Four days into our trip, at Lake Louise, the clouds opened up and it poured rain. We did manage to go up the Lake Louise Gondola without getting soaked, and we did see an actual grizzly bear (see blurry, dark blob in photo). But we decided that we had had enough vacation; we would cut our trip short and go directly home. And then, on a stretch of highway 11, 50 km west of Rocky Mountain house, where there is no cell phone reception, we hit a deer.
Front-end damage.

Fortunately, aside from the deer and my wife’s van (which I was driving) there were no injuries. A good Samaritan named Kelly Black took my family into town while I waited beside the crippled van, its radiator leaking fluid. Somehow, we got the van and ourselves to, um The Town That Shall Not Be Named In Front Of My Children, extending our vacation by another miserable day. Red De--, er...this city had just suffered a major hailstorm which damaged most of the vehicles at the rental car place, so our only options were: a Lilliputian Kia Rio, or a gargantuan Dodge Ram 1500. The Rio could have fit in the bed of the Ram. We opted for the truck, which made us feel nearly invincible. However, our luggage had to go in the bed of the truck, which got rained on as we drove home.
Guts. Glory. RAM.

The summer wasn’t all bad. My cousin Martin and his family from Germany visited us, which was nice. (They also gave us gummy bears and chocolate which was really nice.) My youngest daughter had a dance recital. My eldest daughter built and flew her first model rocket. And we went to the Leduc #1 Energy Discovery Centre. (Fun trivia: the Atlantic #3 well that burned spectacularly in 1948 was drilled on my wife’s grandfather’s property!)



Atlantic #3--on fire!


It wasn’t all fun and vacations: most of my time was spent working and on improving my courses. And I also spent weeks working on a major project, an Instructor’s Resource Manual for new (and “old”!) instructors in the Department of Psychology. I took this project on a year ago, and dedicated myself to finishing it on time and on budget. (Budget: $0. It was a “service,” or volunteer project.) Sorry I can’t show you the manual; it’s locked inside the department’s intranet. So instead, here are pictures of deep-fried Twinkies from K-Days, and a blueberry pie I baked!

How was your summer?

Why aren’t you studying?

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