Cognitive practical

Question 1

aim

Answer 1

to investigate how memory is affected by organisation/disorganisation using word lists

Question 2

Hr

Answer 2

My hypothesis is directional. I believe there will be a significant difference on memory if you have an organised list of words, that you are more likely to remember the words than with a disorganised list.

Question 3

Ho

Answer 3

There will be no difference number of words for cold between the organised organised list, except my chance

Question 4

Findings

Answer 4

Students remember significantly more words and when categorised rather than randomised

Question 5

Conclusion

Answer 5

From Mann-Whitney U-test a one-tailed hypothesis Na = 10 Nb=10 and p<0.01, the critical value is 19. Our observed value of U what is 5.5. Since the observed value is less than the critical value the results are significant at p<0.01 level. Consequently, we reject the null hypothesis and accept the research hypothesis. As such, participants do remember significantly more word from the categorised wordlist than a randomise word list

Question 6

Ecological validity

Answer 6

Low
List of words learnt in silence, significant time pressure, no rehearsal memory in real life isn’t like this. This means that we learn from this artificial setting does not transfer into room environment.

Question 7

Reliability

Answer 7

Controlled most EV’s well (same words, same time period, no rehearsal, silence, no conferring, same lighting same temp)
However, it is a bit variables are not controlled -> independent groups, design, individual differences in memory were not controlled
This means that if we do it again, we would not get the same results

Question 8

Objectivity

Answer 8

High
The word for either remembered correctly or they werent
No opinion required. However, some people applies some leniency (marking hands when the word was hand)

Question 9

Population, validity

Answer 9

Low
Target pop - all normal adult
Sample - 16 to 18-year-olds
Younger people have better memories with age
Sixth formers have above-average memory, or they wouldn’t be in six form.
This means that what we learn from the sample won’t tell us a lot about the target pop

Question 10

Construct validity

Answer 10

High
Learned words prevented from rehearsing them and couldnt see them
So definitely measuring memory
Same words, one list, randomise the other categorised, if not varying organisation I don’t know what we are varying. Means we have measured organisation and memory