psychology+assignment+2

A SSIGNMENT 2 L AB R EPORT This assignment is worth 30% of your final mark and is **due at 9 am on Thursday 6 May** – before the first lecture after the mid-semester break.  § to assess your understanding of experiments as the main research tool in Psychology  § to practice reporting a psychology experiment according to scientific format   1. Individually: Learn textbook chapters 4 on perception and 7 on memory.  2. In a group of 4-5 people: Design and carry out a memory experiment taking advantage of help provided in tutorials weeks 4 to 7 in particular.  3. Individually: Write up the report on your experiment according to APA guidelines. You need to show that you  (a) understand the basics of the experimental method and the particulars of the procedure and findings of the experiment your group performed  (b) understand the function of each section contained in the standard format for psychology experiment reports <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Identify – from your book or other research literature (search PSYCINFO) - one stimulus dimension that may affect how memorable a type of stimuli are. This will be your independent variable (IV) and it should have at least three settings (e.g. for size: small, medium, big) <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Identify a relevant Dependent Variable (DV) to measure the effectiveness of your IV (e.g. percentage recognition, preference rating, serial recall) <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Identify extraneous variables – any variable other than the IV systematically affecting the DV - and find ways of //controlling// them § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Specify research design (e.g. within or between subject comparison) – within subject designs are a good way of controlling for subject and environmental variables <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Produce stimulus lists on Power Point. **You must not include any stimuli that may cause offence**. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">You should have each participant produce at least 10 responses (data points) under each IV condition to have a reliable measure of that participant ‟ <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">s performance under that condition <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Do pilot runs on yourselves to debug your experimental procedure, to make sure you get variability in your data (you should not get the same results in every IV condition and/or from every participant) and to establish how long the experiment will take. Based on this: <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Write Information Sheet and Consent forms for participants. Filled-in Consent forms should be given to your tutor for storage once data collection is finished <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Carry out the experiment with a minimum of 10 participants (not counting pilot trials) under standardised conditions. //Your tutor needs to be one of these participants//. Feel free to recruit your lecturer as well. //<span style="font-size: 8pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">285001 Introduction to Psychology A 2009 Paper Handbook // 13 <span style="font-size: 8pt; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Calibri','sans-serif'; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Times New Roman'; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA;"> <span style="font-size: 8pt; color: black; line-height: 115%; font-family: 'Century Gothic','sans-serif'; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Century Gothic';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> || § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Record and analyse data on Excel – histograms (i.e a graph showing number of participants on each level of your DV) and averages (or percentages) for the DV in each of the different IV conditions are enough for this assignment <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Write a report organised into the following main sections: <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> o **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Introduction **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">- straightforward theoretical justification for your study – not a comprehensive review of the literature - finishing with a hypothesis and a basic description of the design for the study. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> o **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Method **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Participants **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">– all //relevant// characteristics of participants, i.e. all those characteristics that could affect your DV //in patterns similar to IV effects//. Include their average age and sex ratios even if not expected to be confounding factors. Describe sampling method and recruitment procedure <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Stimuli **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">– what did you show participants? How were stimulus lists constructed? (append Power point slides to report!) <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Procedure **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">– description of what was actually done with or to participants (what, where, for how long, summary of instructions given) //in enough detail to allow replication by others//. Specify instructions given for both study phase and test phase <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> o **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Results **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">– description and statistical analysis of what you found. Only report on the actual findings in this section. Emphasis here is on //accuracy//(accurately reporting on findings)//.// Do not include interpretations or explanation for (lack of) findings – save those for next section. <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> o **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Discussion **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">should address the following questions: Did you find support for your hypothesis? Any practical implications of your findings? Any directions to be derived for future research? **How would you do this differently next time?** (here is where you can make up for any mistakes you made – this section is weighted more heavily than others) <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> o **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Appendices **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">(numbered separately and independently of body of text, by hand if necessary) <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Actual stimuli used <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Study and test lists, specifying the actual order in which stimuli were presented <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The spreadsheet with the raw data <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> § <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The marking schedule <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';"> <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">More detailed instructions will be given to you in lectures and tutorials. The tutorial programme in particular has been devised to take you through all the necessary steps for successful completion of this assignment. Look at the marking schedule for further clarification if necessary, but be aware that the actual instructions on what you need to do are specified here above. Do not rely on the marking schedule only. <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">The last slide in this lecture's powerpoint tells you what you need to include in your Results section: <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">a) one frequency distribution of scores in EACH setting of your independent variable (i.e. for __each__ of your 'experimental conditions' e.g. one for each of 'blonde', 'brunette' and 'redhead' correct recollections). Each frequency distribution would show __how many__ __participants__ got 1/10, or 2/10, or 3/10 etc. correct answers. Some groups only had 8 trials in each condition (8 each of reds, blues, and greens; or blondes, redheads and brunettes), so of course in your case it is how many participants got 1/8, 2/8 ...7/8 or 8/8 <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">b) a bar graph depicting the mean for each of those three frequency distributions (i.e. mean performance, how well particpants did in each experimental condition) ||
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Aims **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What to do - Overview **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">What to do - Step by step **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Introduction: **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Methods: **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Results: **
 * <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Discussion: **
 * <span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Append to your //hardcopy// of the report (only) copies of: **<span style="font-size: 11pt; font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">
 * || <span style="font-size: 12pt; color: #6633ff; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">[|REMIND YOURSELVES for RESULTS SECTION] <span style="font-size: 12pt; font-family: 'Times New Roman','serif'; mso-fareast-font-family: 'Times New Roman';">