andrade

Question 1

psychology being investigated

Answer 1

1. memory
2. attention

Question 2

background

Answer 2

Doodling may impair performance by taking concentration away from the
primary task.

But, doodling can improve concentration:
– on uninteresting tasks
– increases arousal and alertness and reducing daydreaming, which
decreases concentration

Question 3

aims

Answer 3

1. To investigate whether doodling while listening improves attention/
   concentration.
2. To investigate whether doodling while listening improves recall

Question 4

research method

Answer 4

laboratory experiment

Question 5

research design

Answer 5

independent measures
design (and random allocation).

Question 6

data collection techniques

Answer 6

• Monitoring task: Participants listened to a pretend telephone message about a
  party, including names of people and places
  – They had to write down the names of people who attending the party (monitored information).
• A surprise memory test.

Question 7

independent variable

Answer 7

whether the participants were allowed to doodle or not while listening to the pretend telephone message.

Question 8

dependent variables

Answer 8

1. Monitoring
   – accuracy: number of correct names (out of 8)
   – performance: correct names minus false alarms
2. Memory for:
   – monitored information: number of correct names recalled (out of 8) after
   false alarms were deducted
   – incidental information: number of correct places recalled (out of eight)

Question 9

sample

Answer 9

Size: 40 (35 women and 5 men); doodling condition: 20; control condition: 20.

Demographic: 18–55-year-olds; members of the University of Plymouth participant
panel.

Sampling technique: opportunity; participants had just finished another experiment.

Question 10

Procedure

Answer 10

1. Participants sat alone in a quiet, dull room and were given a sheet a A4 paper.
   Either:
   – printed with rows of shapes to shade (the exp. group).
   – lined with no shapes (the control group).
2. They were asked to listen to a 2.5-minute audio recording of a pretend telephone message
3. The message mentioned:
   – 8 people who would be at the party
   – 3 people and a cat who could not come (lures)
   – 8 place names
   – a lot of irrelevant information.
4. Both groups had to write down the names of the people coming to the party on the paper.
5. One minute after listening to the tape, there was a surprise memory test.
   Participants had to write down:
   – names of the party-goers
   – place names

Question 11

controls

Answer 11

1. heard the same 2.5-minute tape in the same room
2. were given standardised instructions before listening to the tape
3. counterbalancing: Half the participants recalled the names first and the other half recalled
   places first (avoid order effects)

Question 12

ethical issues

Answer 12

1. Deception: Participants were told that they did not need to remember anything on the tape
2. Informed consent could not be given

Question 13

results

Answer 13

1. (monitorin accuracy
   -mean names correctly written down: doodlers: 7.8, control: 7.1
   -monitoring performance score: doodlers: 7.7, control: 6.9
2. recall performance
   -total recall for doodlers was 29 % higher than control
   -doodlers remembered both types of information better than the control group.
   -both groups remembered monitored information better than incidental
   information.

Question 14

conclusion

Answer 14

1. Doodling improves concentration during boring listening tasks.
2. Doodling improves memory, even for information we have not intentionally tried
   to store.

Question 15

evaluation

Answer 15

1. Reliability (S)
2. Validity
   -experimental method and design (S)
   -operational definitions (W)
   -confounding variables (S)
   -use of lures (S)
3. Objectivity (W)
4. Generalisability
   -generalising beyond the sample (W)
   -generalising to everyday life (W)

Question 16

issues and debates

Answer 16

1. Individual and situational explanations:
   -attention/memory is affected by situational factors eg. doodling
   -cognitive performance is not always fixed
   -that parents/teachers/employers need to be aware that small changes in a
   situation can improve performance.
2. Application to everyday life
   -Benefits of doodling should be communicated to employers/teachers, etc.
   -It should not be assumed that people who doodle in classes/meetings are not
   concentrating.
   -People who find it hard to concentrate could be offered paper to doodle