Internal assessment
Experimental research
Considerations in experimental research
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What is the aim of the experiment?
What studies and theories are considered in your research?
How do you plan to manipulate and measure variables?
How will you select participants?
Can the effect of confounding variables be minimized? - for
example: How will you control for demand characteristics, order
effects and participant variables?
Which experimental design will you use?
How will you deal with ethical issues?
How will you analyze the data you collect?
How will you discuss your findings?
How will you report your experiment?
How will you reference your sources?
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Internal assessment
Report according to IB guidelines
 Maximum of 2000 words (HL) or 1500
words (SL)
 HL/SL: a simple experiment
 Ethical considerations (informed consent)
 Use past tense
 Use 3rd person
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Ethical considerations
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Non-human animals
must not be used
No deception
No harm done to
participants (physical
or psychological)
Briefing
Debriefing
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Right to withdraw
Confidentiality
Informed consent
Children: parental
consent
Consent form
Consent Form.
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I have been informed about the nature of the experiment
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and
I understand that I have the right to withdraw from the experiment at any time,
that any information/data about me will remain confidential
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My anonymity will be protected as my name will not be identifiable.
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The experiment will be conducted so that I will not be demeaned in any way.
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I will be debriefed at the end, and have the opportunity to find out the results.
I give my informed consent to participating in this experiment
NAME and date____________________________________________
Contact number_____________________________________________
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Title page
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Information about the
student
 Name
and number
 Subject and level
 Date of submission
 Word count
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Example of a title:
An experiment to
investigate the effect
of imagery or
rehearsal on recall
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Title
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Abstract
Right after the title page and before the table of
contents. It is a summary of important
information about the study including:
 The aim of the study
 Procedure
 Results of study
 Conclusion
The abstract should not exceed 200 words – and
is not included in the overall word count.
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Table of contents
Table of contents follows the abstract.
 All pages must be numbered.
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Introduction: Background literature and
justification of your own research
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General introduction to the psychological subject area
under investigation
Summary and analysis of key theories and previous
research studies in the area including references, e.g.
Stroop (1935)
Theories and studies must be analysed in sufficient
detail – especially the replicated study
2 - 3 studies (HL) or 1 study (SL)
Rationale and justification of your experiment
The aim (HL/SL) and hypotheses (HL)
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Introduction (Coolican, 1994)
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Aim of study
Topic under investigation (e.g. Memory) and expected results
What you intended to find out in the study (e.g. to investigate whether using
imagery or rehearsal will result in higher recall of words)
Aim introduces operationalised research hypothesis and null hypothesis (HL)
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Ex: The aim of the study was to investigate whether imagery or rehearsal resulted
in the highest mean recall of words from a word-list.
From the aim follow the experimental hypotheses (HL):
H : The use of imagery will result in higher mean recall of words recalled from a
wordlist compared to the use of rehearsal
Alternative formulation of experimental hypothesis:
H Participants in the imagery condition will recall more words from a wordlist than
participants in the rehearsal condition
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H : There will be no difference in recall between the two conditions or any difference
between the two conditions will be due to chance.
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Research Hypotheses
Clear and precise prediction of the
expected outcome of the manipulation of
the IV on the DV.
 Variables must be clearly operationalised
(using concrete words or abstracts words)
 A One-tailed hypothesis
 Null hypothesis: predicts that changes are
due to chance
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Examples
One-tailed: Participants given the office schema will
recall a higher amount of office related objects than
participants given no office schema.
Null hypothesis: There will be no difference in the two
situations or Higher recall of office related words will be
due to chance.
No Hypotheses in SL – only aim of study.
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Method consists of 4 sections
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Design
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Participants
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Relevant characteristics of sample, target population, sampling techniques
(justified)
Apparatus/Materials
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type and justification of design (repeated measures/independent design),
controls, ethical considerations, identification of variables (IV and DV)
list of materials used, reference to copies in appendices
Procedure
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Must be written in so much detail that it can be replicated. Reference to
appendices for a copy of the material used.
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Designs – consider strengths
and limitations in each design
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Design must be justified (relate to why you choose a specific design and
refer to strengths)
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Independent design: each participant participates in only
one condition (random allocation of participants to conditions e.g. drawing
names out of a hat decides who goes in which condition)
 Larger sample needed so more time consuming
 No order effect but problem with participant variables. This is controlled for by
random allocation of participants to the experimental conditions.
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Repeated measures design: each participant participates
in both conditions
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Easier to get a smaller sample
Order effects but counter-balancing possible
No participant variables
Account of controls in the experiment (what you did in
order to control for confounding variables)
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IV and DV
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Must be operationalised and clear
Must reflect aim and experimental hypothesis
Stated at the end of the design section
The IV in this experiment was whether
participants used rehearsal or imagery
The DV was amount of words correctly recalled
from the wordlist
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Selection of participants
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20 participants in an IB experiment
Justify your sampling method
In principle good to have a represenative sample but nor
really possible in IA. Ask the following questions:
 What is the target population? (the population
you are interested in) What are relevant
characteristics of your sample? your target
population? Does your sample represent them?
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In IB exp.: Opportunity sample: you take what is available
because it is the most convenient and easiest
 Easy and not time consuming (strenght)
 Not a representative sample (weakness)
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Procedure
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Clear description of what you did and in what
order
Written in words (see samples)
Must be so clear that it can be replicated by
another researcher
Refer to materials used in the experiment (and
make a reference to an example of it in the
appendices)
Use past tense, the third person and the passive
voice: The participants were asked to .......
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Results
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State your results in narrative and in the form of
graphs, tables and statistical test
Interpretation of descriptive statistics (e.g. mean,
standard deviation + graph and table)
Analysis using inferential statistics and justification for
their use (HL only) – check which tests to use in
decision chart. Specific tests related to design, level of
measurement of data and the fact that you test a
difference between two conditions.
Graphs/tables should have appropriate titles and
legend.
No raw data in result section (must be in the
appendices)
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Discussion of results
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Discussion and interpretation of statistics
Comparison of own results to the background
literature and theoretical framework in the
Introduction (only mention theories and studies
that have been mentioned in the intro; don’t
introduce new ones).
Identification of limitations of own methodology
Suggestions for modification and further research
(link this to identified limitations)
End with a conclusion (refer to aim or research
hypothesis)
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References
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Includes al work cited within the report and must be in a
standardised format
For example: Morrison, M. (1996) Psychology. Essays, practical &
statistics. A guide for students. Singapore: Longman.
For example: Loftus, E.F. and Palmer, J.C. (1974) “Reconstruction
of automobile destruction: An example of the Interaction between
language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
Behavior 13, 584-589.
Reference in report (footnote), e.g. Gross (2009), p. 6
Same in references (bibliography)Gross, R. (2009) Psychology. The
Science of Mind and Behaviour. 5th ed. London:Hodder Arnold
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Appendices
Supplementary information
 One copy of the materials(s) used
 Copy of standardized instructions and
debriefing notes
 Copy of informed consent paper (including
parental consent if participants are
children)
 Raw data
 Calculation of statistics
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Check list
Use check list paper to see if your report
lives up to the assessment criteria.
 Check the assessment criteria also
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