Spring 2027

Current Topics in Psychology

Graduate course on current psychology topics where students evaluate, critique, and defend research findings while generating and presenting new research ideas.

offering recorded2–3 credits
Recorded instructors · Spring 2027 Karen Schloss3.5/5Ar NelsonRichard Davidson

Summary

1 / 6

Past student reviews · Martha Alibali

One past student rated the course difficulty as 4 out of 5, indicating a challenging level of academic demand.

What you’ll be able to do

  • Evaluate and appropriately critique, implement, and/or defend research findings in the current topic of psychology.

  • Explore and be able to explain key research findings in multiple areas associated with the current topic of psychology that are outside of their major research focus.

  • Generate and present new research ideas relevant to the current topic of psychology via formal presentations, class discussions, discussion board posts, and/or question periods.

Source: UW Guide

Grade history

↗
average GPA
letter grades
A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

Graduate/professional standing

  • Graduate/professional standing
PSYCH 711

This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree
  • Graduate/professional standing

Professors

Spring 2027
Adjusted rating
RMP difficulty
captured reviews
About this rating

Raw average: 2.83/5 from 6 quality ratings. The adjusted rating blends this with the UW review average (3.66/5), weighted as 20 additional ratings. Smaller samples stay closer to that average. Each captured review is counted once in the prior; this does not correct who chooses to leave a review.

RMP profile ↗ · All captured review dates; profile matched by name.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2023: 3.64 GPA, 92.9% A/AB (n=14 letter grades); Fall 2024: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=12 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.88 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=8 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=9 letter grades).

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2018: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=9 letter grades); Spring 2019: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades); Spring 2022: 4.00 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=6 letter grades).

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

AR NELSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

KAREN SCHLOSS is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Fall 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

MARTHA ALIBALI is recorded teaching in Spring 2012, Fall 2015, Spring 2019, Spring 2024, Fall 2025. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

RICHARD DAVIDSON is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Fall 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014, Spring 2015, Fall 2016, Spring 2017, Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2022, Spring 2023, Spring 2024, Spring 2025, Spring 2026. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Spring 2027

Schedule loads here as you scroll.

SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist
LEC 001Classroom Instruction0 / 120
LEC 002Classroom Instruction0 / 250
LEC 006Classroom Instruction0 / 150

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections. Enrollment reflects scan time.

Meeting source records
Download part 1

Student experience

the class

Past student reviews · Martha Alibali

Past students described Professor Alibali as a dedicated and professional teacher who made them want to succeed. Her enthusiasm for psychology was appreciated by students in her mentorship.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2025: 3.91 GPA, 94.1% A/AB (n=17 letter grades); Fall 2025: 3.96 GPA, 100.0% A/AB (n=27 letter grades); Spring 2026: 3.88 GPA, 93.0% A/AB (n=43 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Past student reviews · Martha Alibali

One past student rated the course difficulty as 4 out of 5, indicating a challenging level of academic demand.

Past student reviews · Martha Alibali

Students valued the leadership and mentorship provided, noting that the instructor’s professional approach and passion for the subject were highly regarded.

Topics

  • Current topics in psychology
  • Evaluation and critique of research findings
  • Key research findings across multiple psychology areas

Skills

  • Evaluate, critique, implement, and defend research findings
  • Explain key research findings across multiple psychology areas
  • Generate and present new research ideas through formal presentations and discussions

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2026— not enough history to project Spring 2027.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2026

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2026 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1280 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

Download part 1
Selected offering source records
PSYCH 711 · Spring 2027

Current Topics in Psychology

Recorded 2026-10-14
PSYCH 711 · Spring 2027

Emotion Symposium

Recorded 2026-10-14
PSYCH 711 · Spring 2027

Information Visualization

Recorded 2026-10-14
PSYCH 711 · Spring 2027

Reproducible Sci Publishing

Recorded 2026-10-14
Raw records 
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Rate My Professors

Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

Read original reviews
Download part 1
Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

Explore recorded grades
Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-10-14

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B
LLM outputs across runs
Download part 1
Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

Download part 1
Model & dataset provenance 
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  "model": "Qwen/Qwen3.8-27B",
  "model_revision": "1d4bf0f2ff6012fd82039f2fa52739d0dd7c60c0",
  "task_version": "17",
  "output_id": "a3ea7679dc8761750abbe101f662181902fd5dd8ae4043e52c8dec1f312050cd",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "fc1811fa52e581ea57a35c0cf3343f8740a8ffbf",
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}