practice investigation experimental

PRACTICE INVESTIGATIONEXPERIMENTAL

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AIMS & HYPOTHESESWe are going to investigate the effects of imagery on memory

(Craik & Lockhart – Levels of processing).

HYPOTHESISThe group of participants shown words and pictures of items will recall significantly more of them than the group just shown words.

NULL HYPOTHESIS There will be no significant difference in the number of items recalled between the groups shown words and the group shown words and pictures. Any difference is due to chance.

PLANNINGIV = Words and images

DV = Number of items correctly recalled

INDEPENDENT MEASURES DESIGNGroup A will be show just words and group B will be shown words and corresponding images.

OPPORTUNITY SAMPLE10 males and 10 females, split into two equal groups

ETHICSWhat ethical issues could arise? How will you deal with them?

DESIGN OF STIMULUS MATERIALWe need to devise a list of 20 common words and corresponding images

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PROCEDURESTANDARDISED INSTRUCTIONS (GROUP A)

Thank you for agreeing to take part in our research. In a moment you are going to be shown a list of words. Your task is to memorise them. Please don’t confer and don’t write anything down until you are told to. Please complete this task in silence, so as not to distract the other participants.

Do you have any questions?

Please write down all the words you can remember without conferring

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STIMULUS GROUP A - 1

TRAIN APPLE

DOG TABLE

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CAT ORANGE

CAR CHAIR

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TELEPHONE BIRD

PLANE TREE

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TOMATO LORRY

FISH DOOR

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GRAPES WINDOW

FLOWER KETTLE

PROCEDURESTANDARDISED INSTRUCTIONS (GROUP B)

Thank you for agreeing to take part in our research. In a moment you are going to be shown a list of words and images. Your task is to memorise them. Please don’t confer and don’t write anything down until you are told to. Please complete this task in silence, so as not to distract the other participants.


Please write down all the words you can remember without conferring

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TRAIN APPLE

DOG TABLE

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STIMULUS GROUP B - 1

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CAT ORANGE

CAR CHAIR

TELEPHONE BIRD

PLANE TREE

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TOMATO LORRY

FISH DOOR

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GRAPES WINDOW

FLOWER KETTLE

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DEBRIEFThank you for your co-operation. This experiment was testing the idea that imagery aids memory recall. It was expected that the group that were given words and images would remember more items, than the group who just had words.


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PROCEDUREWRITE UP THE PROCEDURE

• What – 20 words and pictures, give examples

• Where – Classroom

• When – e.g. Friday period 4

• Who – Opportunity sample of (No:) students

• How – Independent measures design – This part is the method. Include lots of detail, the aim is that someone should be easily able to replicate this study. Don’t forget ethics, standardised instructions and debrief

• Last sentence – Results were collated and analysed

• Length – About a page long

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RESULTS

NAME WORDS WORDS & PICTURES

MEAN

STANDARD DEVIATION 18

RESULTS

Draw a bar chart

of the mean

scores for each

condition

Write a sentence to explain your results

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INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

• As this is a test of difference, with an independent measures design and generates ordinal data, the appropriate inferential statistical test is the Mann Whitney U Test

• After calculation we can see if are results are significant at the 5% and whether we can reject the Null Hypothesis

• There will be no significant difference in the number of items recalled between the groups shown words and the group shown words and pictures. Any difference is due to chance

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CONCLUSION

What do your

results actually

mean?

What do they tell us about the effects of imagery on memory?

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DISCUSSION

EVALUATE THIS STUDY

• What was good and bad about it?

• What would you change if you were to repeat it?

REFERENCECraik, F.I.M. & Lockhart, R.S. (1972). Levels of processing: A framework for memory research. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal behavior, 11, 671–684.

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Further ideas for

mini practicals

AIMS & HYPOTHESESWe are going to investigate the idea that males are more aggressive than females, using a self-report method. This research is inspired by Bandura, who discovered that girls tended to be more verbally aggressive and boys more physically aggressive.

HYPOTHESIS Males will score higher on an aggression questionnaire than females.

NULL HYPOTHESISThere will be no difference in male and female aggression scores. Any difference in aggression scores is due to chance.

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SELF-REPORT

What would the aim be?

AIMS & HYPOTHESESYou are going to undertake a piece of correlational research. You will need ten participants. You need to decide what type of sampling technique you are going to use and to justify your choice. Research has shown a correlation between stress and illness (Holmes & Rahe).

SUGGEST A SUITABLE HYPOTHESIS

Stress will be operationalised by asking participants to rate their present level of stress on a ten point scale 0 = not stressed 10 = extremely stressed.

Illness will be operationalised by the number of days absent from school or work due to illness in the 6 last months.

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CORRELATIONS

What type of correlation would you expect?

When you have collected your data, write up your research under the following headings:

Procedure – How you carried out your research – Sample, where, when, how etc.

Findings – Include a scattergraph and a correlational co-efficient

Conclusion – What do your findings mean?

Evaluation – What was good and bad about your research? What would you change if you were to repeat it?

REFERENCEHolmes, T.H. & Rahe, R.H. (1967). The social readjustment rating scale. Journal of Psychosomatic Research, 11, 213–218.

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CORRELATIONS cont.

It has been noticed that when students are asked to give a presentation, their performance often doesn’t match their performance at other activities in class. People sometimes say that this is because they are affected by the audience.

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DESIGN AN EXPERIMENT

DESIGN AN EXPERIMENT

EXPERIMENTS• In groups of four devise a testable hypothesis for this observation.

• Design an experiment to test the hypothesis, using a pack of cards and a stopwatch as your only lab equipment. Remember to think about experimental design, conditions, control of variables, etc.

• Discuss the problems you’ve had designing this experiment; and the solutions that you have found; compare your designs to other group members and evaluate and modify each others’ designs.

• Arrange to carry out your experiment, decide on your sampling technique, venue, time etc.

• Write up your research in a conventional report style.

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IMPROVING MARKS ON PAPER 1 –RESEARCH METHODS

OBSERVATIONSFor homework I would like you to undertake a small-scale observation. Observe any examples of social action for a 10-minute period. You might want to observe your family or friends, people on the bus, etc. anything you want really. You will need to decide if you are going to do a structured or unstructured observation and whether it will be an overt, covert or participant observation and you will need to justify your choice.

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Write your observation up in the form of a report, under the following headings:

Aim – What you expect to find.

Procedure – How you carried out your research, including choice of method, justification etc. You might find it useful to draw a diagram of the area where you were observing. Who did you observe (but remember confidentiality, don’t use names, just a description and then Miss X, for example)?

Findings – What did you find? If you did a structured observation you should have some numerical data that you could display in a graph or chart or if unstructured a description of events.

Conclusions – What do your findings tell you, how do they relate to your original aim?

Criticisms (Evaluation) – What went well with your observation? What went wrong? What would you change if you were to repeat it? Remember to discuss ethics.

practice investigation experimental

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