Cognitive - Practical Flashcards
what was the IV?
interference time (s)
what was the DV?
correct or incorrect recall of trigram
what is the aim?
- To test whether interference prevents rehearsal in the Short-Term Memory (STM).
Aim: - To test whether there is a decay in information held in the Short-Term Memory
(STM) when rehearsal is prevented.
what is the experimental hypothesis?
There will be a significant decrease in the number of three letter nonsense
Experimental Hypothesis:
trigrams correctly recalled when given an interference task of 18 seconds compared to when given an interference task of 3 seconds.
what is the null hypothesis?
There will be no diff. in the no. of correct recall of 3 letter nonsense trigrams when given an interference task of 18 seconds compared to 3 seconds, any diff. will be due to chance and not the interference task.
what is the method?
Participants will complete a laboratory experiment for their experiment looking at interference on memory. This is because it is the most appropriate experimental method to test the hypothesis (A01). A lab experiment means that extraneous variables, such as distractions from anything outside of the study, setting can be controlled. A laboratory experiment is a better choice than a field experiment as if the study was to be replicated in the future, then a laboratory experiment will allow for high reliability due to having a standardised procedure (A02).
what was the procedure?
In their laboratory experiment, participants will be asked to remember 10 trigrams that they see for 15 seconds in total. The trigrams will be 3 consonants (E.g. MHS, RFK). Then, there will be a delay between recall, during which time they will perform an interference task of counting backwards from 100 in 3’s.
This reduces the chances of them using rehearsal techniques. The delay between being shown the trigrams & being sked to recall them will vary at the two intervals: Condition A: 3 seconds & Condition B: 18 seconds. Participants will then try to recall the trigrams. The number of trigrams recalled by the participants will be recorded (Quantitative data).
what was the sample?
In their laboratory experiment, participants will be asked to remember 10 trigrams that they see for 15 seconds in total. The trigrams will be 3 consonants (E.g. MHS, RFK). Then, there will be a delay between recall, during which time they will perform an interference task of counting backwards from 100 in 3’s.
Procedure:
This reduces the chances of them using rehearsal techniques. The delay between being shown the trigrams & being asked to recall them will vary at the two intervals: Condition A: 3 seconds & Condition B: 18 seconds. Participants will then try to recall the trigrams. The number of trigrams recalled by the participants will be recorded (Quantitative data).
what was the experimental design?
A repeated measures design will be used in the study looking into interference on recall of trigrams to make the experiment more efficient & to improve validity be avoiding individual differences between 2 groups (This may be present if an independent measures design is used - Therefore a design decision will be made to complete a repeated measures design). All participants will complete the study twice (Once for each condition of the Independent Variable (Condition A: 3 seconds & Condition B: 18 seconds interference task).
what was the IV, DV and operationalised variable/s?
Independent Variable: The interference time in seconds (Condition A: 3 Seconds
& Condition B: 18 Seconds).
Dependent Variable: The number of 3 letter nonsense trigrams recalled.
give 2 controls we implemented:
A notice will be placed on the classroom door to ensure that nobody enters the room whilst the experiment is taking place meaning that the participants will not be distracted (A1). This will increase the reliability of the results due to controlling the extraneous variables (AO2) (Situational Variable).
Clear standardised instructions will be given to the participants during their brief of the study to avoid misunderstanding & confusion & to ensure that everyone receives the same instructions & to avoid experimenter bias (Experimenter Effects). This will ensure that our results are reliable (A01). This means that the experiment will be high in reliability & can be easily replicated (A02) (Participant Variable).
what were 2 of the ethical and considerations? and were there any ethical improvements?
Verbal consent will be gained by participants before the experiment begins.
Informed consent will not be possible as we do not want participants to guess the aim of the study (To test whether interference prevents rehearsal in the Short-Term Memory (STM) & to test whether there is a decay in information held in the Short-Term Memory (STM) when rehearsal is prevented (AO1). Due to this not being informed consent, participants will be given the opportunity to remove their results from the study after they are debriefed on the true aims (A02).
participants will have the right to withdraw from the experiment at all times whilst it is taking place (A02).
No participant names will be attached to the results of the study, therefore protecting the identity of the participants & their results (A01). This means that all participant information will be kept confidential (A02).
no ethical improvements
give 2 points from risk management:
Risk to the researcher will be minimised by completing the experiment in a familiar environment to the participants & the researcher, allowing them to feel comfortable & positive when taking part in the study & to avoid any participants reacting negatively. The researcher will be able to rectify anything that goes wrong if they are in a familiar environment.
Risk to others is minimised by using a volunteer sample in a laboratory experiment in a controlled environment close to where they spend their day to day lives to ensure that the participants taking place want to do the study & have time to do it.
in terms of evaluation give the generalisability points
The results from the interference study are generalisable to the target population of [$ participants aged 16 & over from the local area (Including men & women & a mix of ages & races) (A2) because the study included students from a school in the local area with participants of a range of genders, races & ages (AO1).
give the generalisability improvement point:
One generalisability improvement for this experiment measuring interference on memory could be to complete the study on a larger sample of participants
(AO2). This would allow the results to be generalised to a larger cross-section of the population, rather than just of the local area but on the UK as a whole.
