PSY373 Psychology of Nonverbal Behaviours End-of-Course Assessment January Semester 2026 | SUSS, Singapore

PSY373 End-of-Course Assessment

INSTRUCTIONS TO STUDENTS:

1. This End-of-Course Assessment paper contains ONE (1) question and comprises SIX (6) pages (including the cover page).
2. You are to include the following particulars in your submission: Course Code, Title of the ECA, SUSS PI No., Your Name, and Submission Date.
3. Ensure that you submit your End-of-Course Assessment by the deadline. After the 12-hour grace period, 10% of the total End-of-Course Assessment mark will be deducted for each 24-hour block or part thereof by which your submission is late. Submissions with more than 50 marks deducted will be awarded 0 marks.
4. You are allowed multiple submissions to Turnitin before the deadline. After the deadline, only one submission is allowed, and only if you have not already made a prior submission.
5. If you fail to submit your End-of-Course Assessment, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course.

IMPORTANT NOTE

ECA Submission Deadline: 27 March 2026 (Friday) 12:00 Noon

Please read this information before you start working on your ECA.

This ECA carries 50% of the course marks and is a compulsory component.  It is to be done individually and not collaboratively with other students.  You must submit it on time.

Submission

You are to submit the end-of-course assignment (ECA) in exactly the same manner as your tutor-marked assignments (TMA), i.e., using Canvas. Submission in any other manner such as hardcopy or any other means will not be accepted. Ensure that you submit your ECA by the deadline. After the 12-hour grace period, 10% of the total ECA mark will be deducted for every 24-hour block or part thereof by which your submission is late. Submissions with more than 50 marks deducted will be awarded 0 marks. You are allowed multiple submissions to Turnitin before the deadline, after which only one submission is allowed, and only if you have not already previously submitted. If you fail to submit your ECA, you will be deemed to have withdrawn from the course.

You are reminded that electronic transmission is not always immediate.  It is possible that network traffic may be particularly heavy on the cut-off date, and connections to the system cannot be guaranteed.  Hence, you are advised to submit your work no later than the day before the cut-off date in order to make sure that the submission is accepted and in good time.

Once you have submitted your ECA, the status is displayed on the computer screen.  You will receive a digital acknowledgement message.  Please note that it is the digital time-stamp—and not the acknowledgement message—that indicates that you have submitted your ECA.  To ensure a timely submission and to have your ECAs marked, you should therefore not jeopardise your course result by submitting your ECA at the last minute.

For video assignments, please refer to the submission instructions posted in Canvas Announcements.

Videos that are not properly submitted following the instructions will be treated as nonsubmissions. Appeals for videos that are submitted past the deadline due to non-adherence to the instructions will not be considered. Please also ensure that you upload your videos in advance as it may take time for your video to be processed and uploaded successfully. Appeals for late submission due to the video processing time exceeding the grace period or failure to adhere to submission instructions will not be considered.

Do ensure that you have the correct files for submission. It is your responsibility to ensure that you have uploaded your file(s) completely and accurately to the correct submission link. All inaccurate submissions will be treated as a null submission. Any submission, extra files, missing appendices or corrections received separately after the submission of the ECA will not be considered in the grading of your ECA assignment.

Plagiarism and Collusion

The University takes a very serious view of plagiarism (passing off someone else’s ideas as your own; recycling of contents from your own earlier marked TMA from the same course or another course; or passing off AI-generated content as your own) and collusion (submitting an assignment which is the same or very similar to another student’s). Both are forms of cheating, and neither is acceptable in any form in a student’s work, including this ECA assignment.

Avoid plagiarism by giving yourself sufficient time to research and understand the material so that you can write up your assignment in your own words and ensure that you provide appropriate references when necessary. If AI is used, ensure that the AI tool is properly cited, and ensure that you write your response entirely using your own words. Even when paraphrased slightly, AI-generated text can still be flagged as plagiarism. You can avoid collusion by ensuring that your submission is based on your own individual effort.

Penalties for plagiarism and collusion are severe. Serious cases will normally result in the student being referred to SUSS’s Student Disciplinary Group. For other cases, significant marking penalties or expulsion from the course may be imposed. For more information about the University’s policies on plagiarism and collusion, refer to the Student Handbook (Section 5.2, paragraph 1.3).

ECA Submission Guidelines

Please follow the submission instructions stated below:

Please upload this assignment to Canvas by Friday, 27 March 2026, 12:00 noon. Resubmissions are allowed before this cut-off time.

Please submit TWO files for your ECA:

 Please ensure that you read and follow the video submission instructions in Canvas Announcements carefully. Failure to submit your video assignment properly will result in your submission being voided.

Answer ALL questions.

Question 1 (100 marks)

READ: Han, E., DeVeaux, C., Hancock, J. T., Ram, N., Harari, G. M., & Bailenson, J. N. (2024). The influence of spatial dimensions of virtual environments on attitudes and nonverbal behaviors during social interactions. Journal of Environmental Psychology, 95(6), Article 102269. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jenvp.2024.102269

Our environments can have an impact on our emotional, psychological, and social functioning. Han et al.(2024) used immersive virtual reality to study the effects of a specific spatial dimension in our environment: ceiling heights. The researchers found that environments with high ceilings were associated with positive affect (emotions) and increased social behaviours in participants.  

Taking reference from the paper by Han et al. (2024), conduct a similar observational study to examine your own and others’ nonverbal behaviours (NVBs) in environments with different ceiling heights.

• Visit two public locations – one with a high ceiling and another with a low ceiling. If you are unsure of where to visit, here are a few locations you may consider:
  • High ceilings:          The      Canopy            @        Geneo at         Singapore        Science

Park,  CapitaSpring Sky Garden (Green Oasis, Level 17-20), or Parkview Square lobby

• Low ceilings: Some basements of heartland malls, or basements of walkway malls linking underground MRT stations

• Examine the similarities and/or differences in (i) how you feel emotionally (your affect), (ii) your NVBs, and (iii) the NVBs of other people interacting with the environment and/or with one another between these two locations.
• At each location, find a spot to conduct your observation. The recommended duration of your observations at each location should be between 20 and 30 minutes.

Appraise the results of your observational study and answer the following research questions:

1. Would environments with high ceilings be associated with more positive affect and increased social interactions?
2. Would differences in ceiling height be associated with different NVBs?

Q1a. One-Page Research Poster (30 marks)

Analyse your results and support your answers with the scores obtained from each social interaction. Present your findings in a one-page research poster. Your poster should have these four headings:

1. Introduction
2. Method
3. Results
4. Discussion

Where appropriate, basic arithmetic (e.g., sums, averages) may be used. Statistical analysis is not necessary for this assessment.

Your poster should adhere to the following guidelines: 

• Created using MS Word document and within ONE page
• Default document margins
• Portrait orientation
• Single spacing, Font size should not be smaller than 10
• Use of other software (e.g., Canva/PPT) is not permitted
• Reference list should appear on a separate page, after your one-page poster

For Q1a, you will be graded based on the following grading rubric:

Q1b. 3-Minute-Thesis Presentation (70 marks)

Apply your knowledge of nonverbal behaviours to analyse the results of your experiment. Present your findings in a 3-minute thesis presentation video, following the guidelines for a 3minute thesis presentation (see https://threeminutethesis.uq.edu.au/about). NOTE: Your presentation should be targeted at a non-specialist audience.

• Present the results of your experiment in ONE
• This slide should feature in your video at an appropriate time, and note that this slide should not be the same as your poster in Q1a.
• The slide should be clear, concise, not wordy, and focused on the results of your experiment.

As a presenter, you must be visibly featured in the video, and you should recognise the importance of effective displays of nonverbal behaviours throughout your video presentation.

NOTE: Your upper torso should be clearly featured so that your facial expressions, posture, and gestures are clearly visible in the video; it should not be a small screen (i.e., Zoom presentation small screen). Likewise, the video should not be too zoomed in to your face only. The audio playback should not be sped up.

For Q1b, you will be assessed on the following grading rubric:

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