Class experiment Flashcards
What variables were assessed? Ensure they are operationalised.
IV : whether participants are in a classroom environment or non-classroom environment (we used heller up staircase).
DV : The number of words participants manage to recall.
What is the operationalised experimental hypothesis?
Participants in the classroom condition will achieve a higher score on a 12 word recall test than the participants in the heller up staircase condition.
Is the experimental hypothesis directional or non-directional? And why?
Directional as it states which group of participants will achieve a higher score.
What is the null hypothesis?
There will be no difference between the scores participants get in the classroom condition and the heller up staircase condition.
What is the location of research and why was this appropriate?
Took place in the field as it was conducted within a classroom of psychology students.
This was appropriate because the study required limited equipment and word recall is often used in classrooms to ensure high ecological validity.
What are the main characteristics of the sample group?
Number of participants : 17, a group of 8 and group of 9
Gender : 2 males, 15 females
Other : All psychology students, all over 16
What sampling method was used?
Opportunity sampling, used those available in a named location.
Advantages and disadvantages of opportunity sampling?
Advantages : Quick, easy and cheap.
Disadvantages : May not be representative, inevitably biased.
What was the procedure for this experiment?
- Prepare necessary equipment (quiz for inbetween, list of words to recall 3&5 syllables)
- Opportunity sampling to obtain sample
- Sample split into 2 groups, group A & group B. Used independent group design.
- Participants made aware of their right to withdraw.
- Participants are given 30 seconds to memorise the list of words(3 syllables).
- Participants fill out quiz
- Participants split into group A & B, group A goes to staircase and group B stays in class.
- Both groups given 2 minutes to recall as many words as the can with no communicating to other participants.
- Group A returns to classroom to mark correctly remembered words.
- repeat with 5 syllable words.
Which descriptive statistic could be used? And why?
Median
Data collected was ordinal, median identifies middle rank from each set of data.
What type of graph is appropriate? And why?
Bar Graph
Easily represents the results for group A and B.
What inferential statistic is appropriate? And why?
Mann Whitney U
Data isn’t nominal and isn’t correlational, has independent groups design.
Inferential statistic :
Level of significance?
Observed value?
Critical value?
Is it significant?
Level of significance : 0.05
Observed value : 32
Critical value : 18
This means it is not a significant finding so we will accept the null hypothesis and reject the alternative hypothesis.
What were the findings?
- no difference in median scores for each group but there was a slight difference in mean (non-classroom=3.4 compared to classroom=3)
- inferential statistics (Mann Whitney U) show no significant results. The observed value of 19 wasn’t lower than the critical value of 18.
- median classroom=6, median non-classroom=8
- mean non-classroom=8.2, mean classroom=6.7
- still not significant. Observed value of 11 not lower than critical value of 11
What conclusions can we draw?
- no major difference in context-based memory recall in the classroom and non-classroom condition.
- perhaps the non-classroom condition had slightly higher scores, however this is not enough to make generalisations
- overall, no difference between conditions.
