Cognitive Practical

Question 1

What was the aim of the practical?

Answer 1

To investigate whether STM is encoded acoustically.

Question 2

What is the related research to this practical?

Answer 2

Baddeley found out that there was a slight difference in recall between acoustically similar and dissimilar words in STM but they was not STATISTICALLY SIGNIFICANTLY.

We went to test this portion of his research to see if we can get a statistically significant difference.

Question 3

How can the research have a statistically significant difference?

Answer 3

There has to be over 95% probability the independent variable is affecting the dependent variable and less than 5% probability that it is affected by the extraneous variable.

Question 4

Was was the operationalised independent variable?

Answer 4

Acoustically similar list of everyday words (man,can,van)
Acoustically dissimilar list of everyday words (pit,few,cow)

Question 5

What was the operationalised dependent variable?

Answer 5

Number of everyday words recalled in correct order out of 10.

Question 6

What would be the alternative hypothesis?

Answer 6

There will be a significant difference in the number of words recalled correctly out of 10 when tested with acoustically similar words compared to acoustically dissimilar words.

Question 7

What will be the null hypothesis?

Answer 7

There will be no significant difference.

Question 8

What type of experiment is this practical?

Answer 8

Lab experiment.

Question 9

Who were the participants?

Answer 9

19 students at Dame Elizabeth Cadbury Sixth form ages 16-17 years
11 female,8 male

Question 10

What was the sampling method?

Answer 10

Opportunity sample (used whoever is readily available)

Question 11

Apparatus.

Answer 11

-power point
-board
-timings
-pen/paper
-number of words

Question 12

What type of environment was it?

Answer 12

Controlled environment.

Question 13

What was the procedure?

Answer 13

-participants entered the room and were given a piece of paper and instructions on what to do.
-they stayed silent as the PowerPoint shown the words, each for 3 seconds then were given a minute to write them down.
-they then counted up their scores and left without speaking to the next group. This was repeated.

Question 14

What were the controls?

Answer 14

Environment: same classrooms testing and time out day.
PowerPoint:timings and word lists were the same.

Question 15

Good ethical issues?

Answer 15

Privacy-write a number on sheet and hand it to teacher

Confidentiality-give them participant numbers

Protection from harm-given direction to speak to teachers if worried

Right to withdraw-allowed to choose to withdraw whenever they want

Debriefing-informed or true aim at end.

Question 16

Poor ethical issues?

Answer 16

Informed consent-not giving them the true aim of the study
Deception-not told the true aim.

Question 17

Was the study carried out in a natural or artificial environment?

Answer 17

It was natural for some as for some this was their classroom but others may not have been in there before so it was artificial to them.

Question 18

What was the conclusion?

Answer 18

-out results suggest that STM encodes acoustically as those in the acoustically dissimilar word condition scored significantly higher then those in the acoustically similar word condition when testing STM.

Question 19

How does our conclusion reference to prior research?

Answer 19

Pout study contradicts Baddeleys research as although he did find a difference between the two word lists it wasn’t a significant difference.

Question 20

What are some improvements for future research and how?

Answer 20

A bigger sample of people (100 people ages 13-18)
This will show more accurate results and will increase external validity as it should represent encoding for more individuals across Birmingham.

Question 21

Can the results be generalised to people outside of this school?

Answer 21

-no because we used 18 16-17 year olds from sixth form to test their STM recall.
-This is a problem because any memory applications for revision may only be relevant to students from this sixth form so wont be useful.

Question 22

Is this test reliable?

Answer 22

-Yes as it tested memory consistently.
-each word was presented on the board for 3 seconds as each participant had 1 minute to recall the words.
-this increases the internal reliability as memory recall was tested in the same way for all participants so it was a fair test.

Question 23

Where can this test be applied?

Answer 23

-acoustically similar words were recalled worse than acoustically dissimilar words.
-Could be useful in developing a better revision strategy like not revising similar sounding key terms at the same time.

Question 24

How valid is this test?

Answer 24

-The task itself was an artificial memory task.
-We used a list of 10 words for each group to remember but this is not a daily task to complete.
-This means that is lacks ECOLOGICAL VALIDITY as it doesn’t mirror real life, so any memory application might not be useful.

Question 25

How ethical is this test?

Answer 25

-There are good ethics in general.
-We see participants no,bears instead of names to protect memory result and give confidentiality
-this then prevents them from having psychological harm due to being shamed for a poor recall result.