Psychology Laboratory
Çankaya University Psychology Laboratory (PsychayaLab) was founded with the financial support of the Deanery of Çankaya University – Art and Sciences Faculty. Research in the PsychayaLab was conducted in two branches of psychology: cognitive and clinical psychology.
The Cognitive Use of Psychology Laboratory
In cognitive psychology studies, stimuli were presented on computer screen and behavioral data (responses and reaction times) were recorded. To do so, E-prime and SuperLab programmes are used to present stimuli to participants and to record their responses in our experiments. Besides, participants make their choices by pressing the related button on the response pad via E-prime or SuperLab.
As stimuli, we’ve used either words or pictures. To select stimuli, the following databases are used in the lab:
Picture Database
Lang, P.J., Bradley, M.M. and Cuthbert, B.N. (2008). International affective picture system (IAPS): Affective ratings of pictures and instruction manual. Technical Report A-8. University of Florida, Gainesville, FL.
Turkish Words Databases
Tekcan, A. İ. and Göz, İ. (2005). Türkçe Kelime Normları. İstanbul: Boğaziçi Üniversitesi Yayınları.
Gökçay, D. and Smith, M. A. (2011). TÜDADEN: Türkçe’de Duygusal ve Anlamsal Değerlendirmeli Norm Veri Tabanı. Bilgi işleyen makine olarak beyin. Ed: Haluk Bingöl. Pan Yayıncılık: İstanbul.
Göz, İ. (2003). Yazılı Türkçenin kelime sıklığı sözlüğü. Ankara: Türk Dil Kurumu Yayınları.
In some of the departmental courses, such as PSY331-Testing and Measurement in Psychology and PSY410-Neuropsychological Tests; as well as for our researches, we’ve been using some neuropsychological tests such as Raven Standard Progressive Matrices (RSPM), IOWA Gambling Task (computerized version), Visual Aural Digit Span Test: VADS and Stroop Test TBAG form. In addition, we’ve used some screening tests in order to choose ‘healthy’ young and older adults for studies.
The Clinical Use of Psychology Laboratory
Psychology laboratory has double rooms, one-way mirror and a voice system. This laboratory is used for some clinical psychology disorders such as PSY 246 Observation and Interview Techniques and clinical psychology departmental elective courses to consolidate theoretical knowledge covered in classes. In other words, laboratory work enables students to practice clinical material covered in classes. Clinical materials are some psychological tests such as WISC-III-R (Wecshler Intelligence scale for Children-III-R),Rorschach Inkblot Test, Thematic Apperception Test, and Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory.
Students enrolled to related courses make some observations in the observers’ room. In the obervation room, the instructor makes standard clinical interview, applies clinical interview skills and applies psychological tests with volunteer participants. Voice and image system enables students to observe and monitor the clinical application conducted in the observation room; however, people in the observation room are not distracted by the image or the voice of the observers’ room. During the interview, observing students observe clinical application, take down notes, and give feedbacks to each other. In addition, students are able to make clinical applications in the observation room. In this case, the instructor gives feedbacks to the students about their applications. In short, in the scope of clinical psychology classes all psychology students are provided opportunity to apply their clinical knowledge and skills in real setting in order to reinforce theoretical clinical material.