Assignment tute info

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Questions for assessment

How is this theory tested in experiment

Include both animate and inanimate words at various timepoints. This will enable us to compare the recall of both while controlling for recency

What would be some hypotheses

It could be hypothesised that animate words would be recalled more often than inanimate

We have added a new category of animate things with clear facial features. What do you expect will happen with their recall?

Animate with faces would probably have higher recall than both other groups

What are/is the independent variable (IV)

Animacy and recency of the words

What is the dependent variable (DV)

Recall accuracy

How would you go about writing up the method for this experiment?

Week 6

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Assignment info from tute

Detailed marking criteria on L@G

APA 7 preferred

Marking criteria

Title page -1

Abstract - 4

Intro - 15

Method - 8

Results - 8

Statistics - 4

References - 4 mark penalty if absent

Appendix - 2 mark penalty if absent - not marked, dont need to be formatted

Format - 4

General Style - 8

Total - 70

Cover Page

Title of report

Name

Student number

Course

Tutorial Time

Tutor: Matthew Westgarth

Due Date

Date Submitted

Word count

Abstract

150 words

State problem, what you did/tried to do

Talk about hypothesis (merge two together)

Talk about methods (# participants and what they did)

One sentence summary about findings

State conclusion

All should be one sentence each

Introduction

The lead: broad info and the concept area

The body: in-depth discussion of previous research

The tail: your specific focus

Broad explanation of concepts

Animacy and inanimacy

Memory - primary and recency

Discuss relevant theories

Evolution: survival and reproduction

Detecting predators or mating partners

Previous research findings

Animate words tend to be remembered more often

Other factors can influence recall, including imageability, meaningfulness and serial positions

Compare and contrast different studies and explain which seems more correct based on other studies

Gaps in the literature

Animate with faces group added to experiment - improve upon knowledge of memory

Introduction

Aims

What trying to achieve

Importance/implications

Discuss why this research is important and the real world applications (eg. better understanding of memory)

Can not say because of assignment - must be real reason

Hypothesis

You need to state your hypothesis in relation to previous research

You should state clear and hypothesis and operationalise them in terms of IV and DV (we will discuss this more next week)

At least 2 hypothesis - animate has higher recall than inanimate, animate with faces has higher recall than animate (example)

Hypothesis

Examples

There will be a difference in detection accuracy between animacy and inanimacy conditions

Detection accuracy in the animacy condition will be higher compared to the inanimacy condition

The inanimacy condition will have lower detection accuracy compared to the animacy condition, which in turn will have lower accuracy than the face/animacy condition (NOT RECOMMENDED, NEED ANOVA ONLY HAVE T TEST)

Females will recall fewer words compared to males (not recommended)

Multiple hypotheses (one for each comparison recommended - one for animacy/inanimacy then another for face animacy and animacy

Information Sources

Most of the info in background readings from week 4

Bonin et al. (2014) and Nairne et al. (2013)

Add three more including animate with face

Methods

Participants

Age, gender, number, descriptive and frequencies in SPSS

Design

State type of research design used withing groups design

Independent variables

State number and type of IV as well as numbers of levels

Animacy (3 levels) and serial position

Animate, inanimate, animate with faces

Dependent variable

State the DV - recall accuracy

Equipment

Describe equipment and stimuli used so could be replicated

eg. Computer/projector, 31 word slides etc.

Be detailed (white screen with black words in middle, where participants were seated etc.)

Specify buffer words and explain why - to remove primary and recency effects

Include table to talk about distractor task

Procedure

Describe what was done in the experiment

Materials on L@G

Powerpoint was used to present words on a white background in classroom setting (include as a limitation as well, can't control classroom setting as well, lighting, screen angle, noise next door etc. good because large amounts of data collected at once)

31 words divided across three categories. Nine of each presented in random order + buffer

Each slide was presented for 5 seconds with no break

Odd-even distractor task: 20 digits presented for 3 seconds

4 minute period to recall as many of the 31 words as possible

Data management

1. Entered into database,

2. Cleaned data (typological errors - 77 score, missing responses - recorded ?, unusual data - 4 yrs age)

3. Coding: gender

- Female (=0), Male (=1), other (=2)

Stat Analysis

Report for three conditions:

Mean, SD, 95%cl, range, skewness, kurtosis (justify normal distribution - why chose to use paired sample t test)

Use table to save words

Graph data: boxplot, histogram

Discuss sample, male and female distribution, age mean and SD - just general - 2nd year psyc student sample

Inferential analysis

Report type of statistical analysis and the relevant variables

Paired sample t-test (repeated measures t-test) were used to examine the differences in the mean word recall across each of the three conditions

Animate vs inanimate

Face/animate vs animate

Fac/animate vs inanimate

Example:

There was a statistically significant difference between recall for animate and inanimate words.

Animate words were more frequently recalled than inanimate words, M=0.902, 95%cl [.665,1.139] t(213)=7.512, p<.001

Results

Present statistical findings

Describe stats for each variable (as above)

Report size, direction, sig of group differences (including the results which are non sig)

Present tables and figures

Included in word count

Present results in same order that you present the hypothesis

Describe distribution for each variable, is it skewed neg or pos. include histograms and boxplots

No interpretation of the findings is done in this section, just present the data. You interpret the results in the discussion section which we will discuss next week

Tables and figures

Clearly show results and adhere to word count

Do not include tables or figures without references in text

Do not do both table and figure for same data

Always number tables and figures to help identify what you are referencing in text

Tables:

APA

Title goes above figure

Table # goes above title, not italicised

Capitalise first of each important word, italicise

No verticle grid lines

Only horizontal gridline for the top now

Figures:

APA

Title goes below figure, all lower case, italicise figure no (Figure 1.) don't italicise the rest

Label all axes

The IV is on the horizontal axis and the DV is on the vertical axis

Choose scale so graph fills the space

If doing a Histogram the DV or measured variable is on the horizontal axis and frequency is on the vertical axis

Only marked if mentioned explicitly in the report

Use error bars

Results order (do not deviate)

Laerd Statistics

What analysis you used

You need to report the type of stat test used

Significance of difference

A [Type] samples t-test was conducted to compare [DV] in [IV condition 1] and [IV condition 2].

eg. There was a sig diff in exam results between students who study (M=7.7, SD=1.2) and students who do not study (M=5.5, SD=1.2), t)=3.4, p=.02

Interpret meaning

Firstly, briefly recap what all of this means in understandable words. The results suggest that [IV] has sig influence on [DV]. Specifically, our results show that when [condition] compared to [condition], the [DV] decreases.

eg. The results suggest that studying has an influence on exam results. Specifically, the results suggest that when students study more, they score higher on exams.

Discussion

Was the hypothesis supported or not?

Were the research aims achieved?

How do our findings compare with previous findings? hypo 1 in line with nairne

If there are differences between our findings and previous findings, how can you explain them?

What are the implications of these findings for theory or experimentation in the area?

What were the limitations of the experiment? - not sample size

Directions for future research.

Use that order ^

If there are differences between our findings and previous findings, How can you explain them?

What are the implications of these findings for theory or experimentation in the area, especially in regards to words that refer to things that are not only animate, but also possess faces?

Why are faces so important?

Directions for future research.

The use of face/animate words is new, are you able to think of other word categories that ought to be tested.

Were the other variables affecting the recall of words presented in a list adequately controlled?

Did the serial position effect influence our interpretation of the data?

References

Include only those references you have cited in your assignment.

Appendix

Provide copy of SPSS output (the .spv file) in an Appendix

Helps marker understand working - prevent copying and careless error

Does not need to be APA formatted, but marks will be deducted if not included

We have provided with three appendices on L@G. These need to be included and referenced appropriately.

If not specifically referenced in report, cant be counted

Appendix A & C

Matching words across three conditions

The data presented in these appendices may help show the importance of controlling for confounding variables

To isolate effect of animacy, we need to control for unrelated variables (word length, emotionality etc.)

Therefor we wanted the animate word list to be relatively equivalent to the other list on all factors unrelated to the hypothesis

Appendix B

Serial position effect

Although we did not analyse serial position effects, we counterbalanced it by including 9 words from each condition in the start, middle and end

It is clear from Appendix B that there is a large primacy effect, but no recency effect

you are not required to statistically interpret or report the serial position data, but the serial position effect may be relevant for other areas of the discussion

When discussing, refer reader to appendix B (results effected by primacy - mention in limitations)

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Week 7 Tute