Unit 1: Research Methods - Practice Questions

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Memory can be influenced by many different things, including the appearance of what it is we

are trying to remember. For example, green is a natural colour that features a lot in our

environment, so may help improve how we learn and remember things we see in this colour. To

investigate this psychologists want to use the laboratory experiment method to investigate if

presenting words in green ink compared to black helps improve memory.

Participants for the study will be obtained by putting up a poster on a notice board in a large

local supermarket asking for volunteers for a study investigating factors influencing memory.

What type of sampling technique is this?

This is an example of self-selected sampling where participants volunteer to participate in the study.

Describe one strength and one weakness of using this sampling technique in this study.

One strength of using self-selected sampling is that consent is automatically obtained by the participants volunteering. The participants will see the poster in the supermarket and consent to taking part in the memory study by volunteering. One weakness of this method however is that it attracts participants of similar extroverted traits to volunteer as introverted types are less likely to volunteer therefore the results of the study into memory could be biased as the population to not represent both introverted and extroverted people.

Write a one-tailed alternative hypothesis for this study.

There will be a significant difference in the number of words remembered correctly when written in green ink than black ink.

Explain how you would conduct a study using the laboratory experiment method to investigate

the effect of colour on memory for a list of words. Justify your decisions as part of your

explanation.

You must refer to:

 the use of independent measures design or repeated measures design

 how the variables are operationalised

 at least two control features

 level of data collected

You should use your own experience of carrying out an experiment to inform your response.

For this study I would use two separate groups in an independent measures design. One would be a control group where the words would be written in only black ink and the other where words are written equally in black and green ink. The words would use the same font and size between both groups and would be the same words in an identical layout. The only difference being the colour they are printed in. I believe using independent measures would be most effective as I have learnt from an experiment I completed where participants had to throw a ball into a bucket after completing a short aerobic exercise to raise heart rate. We found that by using the same participants for both those with a raised heart rate and those without caused participants to have already practiced getting the ball into the bucket therefore increasing order effects and reducing the reliability of the results to truly represent the effect of heart rate on accuracy when throwing a ball into a bucket.

My independent variable would be the colour of the words. This would be operationalised as one group (the control) having just black words and the other black and green. The dependent variable would be number of words remembered. This would be operationalised as the number of words recalled after viewing a sheet with 50 words written on for 5 minutes. Further results would then be drawn from the group with green and black words by the number of green words they recalled and the number of black words they recalled.

To ensure this experiment is highly controlled and standardised I would firstly ensure that the same words in the same layout and order are used with all participants. This would increase the construct validity of the experiment by ensuring it is the colour of the word which is what is causing the difference in memory and not the font, size or position of the words. As I have discovered by doing an experiment into memory with pictures that if the objects to remember are in specific positions or are larger they can be easier to remember as I discovered while doing this experiment that people tended to remember the brightly coloured pictures more than the black and white which was not what we were trying to measure. Another control I would keep would be that all participants view the sheet in the same setting (a large hall or room) and all in silence for 5 minutes. This will ensure that the experiment is standardised for all participants.

The level of data I would collect would be nominal as it would be the raw data of the number of words remembered by participants. Having nominal data will make it easy to analyse and compare the results between the two groups.

Evaluate the use of matched participants design if it had been used in this study.

If Matched Groups design had been used for this study the participants could be matched in gender, age or IQ score.

One benefit of this is that it reduces participant variables. For example if participants varied in age then a participant of age 7 may be have better memory than someone of age 70. If this were to occur then construct validity would be low as they experiment would be measuring memory depending on age rather than the colour of the words. Keeping participants in a similar age group reduces the chance of this happening and therefore increases the validity of the experiment.

However one negative of doing this is that by having matched designs the sample represents a smaller target population and not a wide range of genders, ages and IQ levels for example. This reduces ecological validity and population validity therefore making the study biased to a specific group of people.

Psychologists want to conduct a follow-up study using the self-report method to investigate

other things that may influence memory.

Suggest one open question that could be used in this study.

One open question which could be used in a follow up study into other influences of memory could be:

On an average weeknight how many hours of sleep to you get at night?

Suggest one closed question that could be used in this study.

One closed question which could be used in this study into other influences of memory could be:

Do you smoke at least one cigarette a week? Yes/No

Suggest one question using a rating scale that could be used in this study.

At a rating out of 10 with 10 being Very Good and 1 being Extremely Poor how would you rate your quality of sleep?