Science Poster Flashcards
Title
The Effect of Music on Memory Recall
Aim
To investigate the effect of music on memory recall.
Hypothesis
It is hypothesised that year 11 psychology students at Williamstown High School who listened to classical music whilst memorising would be able to recall more words than year 11 psychology students at Williamstown High School who listened to pop music or listened to nothing whilst memorising.
Results
Graph Title:
The relationship between music and memory recall.
Analysis and Evaluation:
The results do/don’t support the hypothesis that year 11 psychology students at Williamstown High School who listened to classical music whilst memorising would be able to recall more words than year 11 psychology students at Williamstown High School who listened to pop music or listened to nothing whilst memorising. Students who listened to classical music had a mean score of X remembered, whereas those who listened to pop music had a mean score of X remembered and those who listened to nothing had a mean score of X.
Ethics:
This experiment breached the ethical guideline of informed consent. The experimenter failed to fully explain the nature of the experiment to the participants and their role in it, and the participants did not sign a consent form indicating that they had a full understanding of the study and were willing to participate in it.
Limitations and Improvements:
This experiment was conducted as a between-subject design as there were three separate groups, each who was only exposed to one condition; whether they listened to classical music, pop music or no music as they attempted to memorise the words. A limitation of the between-subjects design is that it is vulnerable to there being significant participant differences across the three groups if not controlled for, which can invalidate the data collected. A way to improve this experiment would be to increase the sample size in order to reduce the presence of errors in the results.
Errors accuracy and precision:
The data is/is not precise as the trial results vary widely/are close together, ranging from (X to Y) in the classical group, (Z to A) in the no music group and (B to C) in the pop group. The presence of random errors makes the results less precise as they are less likely to allow for data that is in close agreement with each other, which increases the uncertainty of the results. Outliers skew the mean and therefore reduce the reliability of data and increase the uncertainty of results.
Validity:
The results are not valid because of the likelihood for there to have been significant participant differences that have played a role in the results across the three groups. This has reduced the internal validity of the study as some participants may have had a natural affinity for the skills being tested regardless of the condition they were tested under, and this could have had a significant impact on the results. If the study was to be performed again and improved, it would be recommended that the sample size be increased to allow for a wider range of responses and that the study be changed to a within-subjects design, providing that potential errors to do with order effects were controlled for in the design, such as through counterbalancing.
Conclusion:
The data does not/ does support the research question by suggesting that music has an effect on memory recall, the fact that it is invalid means that reliable conclusions cannot be drawn from the study. Modifications would need to be made in order for this to happen in the future.
Repeatability and Reproducibility:
The results ARE likely to be repeatable as if the same conditions were repeated with the same participants, the same results are likely. In scientific research, it is advantageous to repeat procedures because this enables researchers to see whether the data is consistent and therefore more reliable. If, however, the study was reproduced with a new sample under different conditions, this would increase the external validity of the data.
