Investigation 1 - Dependent Memory Task

Question 1

State the IV and Dv used in your research

Answer 1

IV- Whether participants encode words with instrumental music playing or in silence
DV- Amount of words recalled accurately from a word list of 25

Question 2

How you ensured that your research was ethical

Answer 2

Privacy - not sharing which pts got what score on the test
Confidentiality - no personal use info collected; each pts can have a special code which isn’t identifiable in analysis.
Deception- before the investigation, thorough brief and debrief so pts are aware.
Right to withdraw - clear right to withdraw before investigation, make sure that they are comfortable whether they disagree to the experiment or agree. Write a consent form and offer an email to them if they want to pull results.
Informed consent - pts in sixth form that can consent
Protection from harm - supportive and clear debrief, offer comfort if pts are anxious

Question 3

Identify and justify the inferential statistical test that you used when analysing your data in your experiment

Answer 3

Mann Whitney U test. We had a test of difference in recall ability in pts who encode and recall words with music and those who recall and encode without. Mann Whitney U falls under independent design which is applicable to our investigation as pts only took part in one condition (either music or no music). Lastly our level of measurement is ordinal in which we rank the scores in each condition.

Question 4

Explain whether or not it led to your results being significant

Answer 4

This led to our results not being significant as the observed value (221) was greater than than the critical value (138) meaning it was a one tailed test (p<0.05

Question 5

State the operationalised alternative hypothesis

Answer 5

There will be an increase of accuracy in a word recall from a word list of 25 when the pts learns and recalls with music compared to without

Question 6

State the null hypothesis

Answer 6

There will be no change in the accuracy in the word recall from a word list of 25 when the pts learns and recalls with music compared to without

Question 7

Describe the sampling technique

Answer 7

Opportunity sampling was used. We selected anyone who was available at the time from the target group.

Question 8

How we ensured that the research was valid