Andrade Flashcards
What year was this study done in
2010
What were the two aims of this experiment
- To explore the cognitive effects of doodling
- To find out if doodling assists information processing, perhaps by enabling people to attend more effectively, or by enhancing their memory
What does divided attention mean, and how what question does it raise regarding this study
We do not encode, or store information well- but does this apply to doodling?
What overall question relating to doodling and focus was there
Does doodling use a different focus, and can it be helpful?
Were there other experiments related to what this experiment studies, and what year did they happen, and by whom?
Yes, two studies previously explored doodling and daydreaming:
2004: Do and Schallert
2007: Wilson and Korn
What idea does Andrade’s study explore
The idea of whether aural/oral/cognitive tasks are the same as visuo-spatial tasks
What is doodling defined as within this study
The sketching of patterns and figures that are unrelated to the primary task, and must not take cognitive resources away from the intended task
What must doodling not demand?
Doodling must not demand cognition from the doodler
What kind of study was Andrade’s study (what type of environment did it take place in)
Lab study
What design was Andrade’s study
Independent measures design
What were the limits on the control group how many people in total, and how many male and female participants were there in the control group
The control group was not allowed to doodle, and there were 20 people total in the control group: 18 female and 2 male
What were the experimental group participants told that they were allowed to do, how many people were there in total in the experimental group, and how many male and female participants were there
The experimental group was told that they were allowed to doodle, and there were 20 people total in the experimental group: 17 female and 3 male
What kind of sampling was there in
Andrade’s study and why
This is opportunity sampling, due to the fact that participants stayed on after having done a previous study
How many total participants, what kind of participants were they, and what did their ages range between
There was a total of 40 volunteer participants aged 18-55
Where were all of the volunteer participants in Andrade’s study from
They were all from the medical research council
What was the overall title of Andrade’s study done in 2010
“What does doodling do?”
What was an additional task that participants were not told about beforehand (and what kind of task is this called)
They also had an unexpected test of the names of the places mentioned (RECALL TASK)
What did one participant do that got them replaced (and what group where they in)
One participant in the experimental group did not doodle and was replaced
What was the dependant variable in Andrade’s study
Memory recall
What was the independent variable in Andrade’s study
Whether or not they doodled
What did all participants listen to
All participants listened to a dull (fake) phone call about a party (which sounded deliberately boring)
What were participants told that they would be tested on before the listening task (and what kind of task is this called)
They were told before the listening task that they would be tested on the names of the people who attended the party and not the ones who weren’t going to be there (MONITORING TASK)
How long did the fake phone call last and what kind of tone was it spoken in
The phone call lasted 2.5 minutes and was spoken in a monotonous tone
What was the average speed of the talking in the phone call
227 words per minute (faster than normal speech)
How many names of people that attended the party were there, how many did not, what kind of animal was mentioned, and how many place names were mentioned
8 names of people that attended the party, 3 who did not, the name of a cat was mentioned, and there were 8 place names mentioned
What kinds of things were still counted as correct
Plausible mishearins such as “Craig” instead of “Greg” were counted as correct
What kinds of things were labeled as ‘false alarms’
Names of people mentioned who did not attend the party
How was the final score determined
Number of correct names minus the false alarms
How were the orders of the two tests (monitoring task and recall task) counterbalanced
Half had to recall the party goers names first, and half had to recall the names of the places first
What else was mentioned numerous times in the phone call that w to the phone call specific additions to the phone call
irrelevant details
What kind of instructions were the participants given
Standardized
How was the sheet of paper standardized for the experimental group
Everyone in the experimental group got an A4 sheet of paper, with alternating rows of squares and circles, 10 per row
What was the experimental group told was irrelevant when shading in the shapes on the paper that they got
Neatness and speed
What kind of sheet of paper were the control participants given
A sheet of lined paper to write their answers on (which they could have used for doodling, but no one did)
What did the experimenter do after collecting the response sheets of the participants?
They talked to the participants for 1 minute, including an apology for misleading them about the memory test
What did the participants do one minute after the experimenter collected in their response sheets
They completed the surprise test of recalling the names of places, then party goer attendees, or vice versa
What was the mean number of shaded shapes and what was the range of that
the mean number was 36.3, and the range was 3-110
What was the mean of how many partygoers out of 8 the control group remembered, and how many of the control group participants had false alarms
The mean of how many partygoers out of 8 that the control group remembered was 7.1, and 5 of the control group participants had false alarms
What was the mean of how many partygoers out of 8 the experimental group remembered, and how many of the experimental group participants had false alarms
The mean of how many partygoers out of 8 that the experimental group remembered was 7.8, and 1 of the experimental group participants had a false alarm
What were the average names of people and places that the overall doodling participants recalled
7.5
What were the average names of people and places that the overall control participants recalled
5.8
How much more did doodling participants re-call than non-doodlers
29% more on average
What does doodling help with
Doodling helps concentration on a primary task
What are the two possible explanations given that the doodlers performed better on both monitored and incidental information
One: The doodlers noticed more of the target words, due to an effect on attention
Two: Doodling improved memory directly (possibly my encouraging deeper memory processing)
What are two possible improvements for Andrade’s study (hint: brain scan and amount of data)
- A brain scan would’ve been useful in that it could have indicated whether doodling reduced activation of the cortex (associated with daydreaming)
- They could have required them to recall more information (8 names to remember is not a lot) in order to get more data on discrepancies of the call
What are 5 strengths of Andrade’s study
- Well-controlled extraneous variables due to a well-controlled environment
- Highly standardised
- High internal validity
- High reliability
- Participants were debriefed at the end of the study
What are 5 weaknesses of Andrade’s study
- Low ecological validity
- Gender imbalance in participants
- Problematic generalizability
- Possible (and uncontrolled) participant variables
- All participants were volunteers from a recruitment panel (and probably were already interested in, and familiar with psychology)
What is the GRAVE analysis for this study
G: Generalisability - Middle
R: Reliability - High
A: Application - High
V: Validity - Middle
E: Ethics - High
