A. Phonological similarity task:
1. Plot the data
2. Which is the design of the task (name the independent variable/s and its/their
levels, and name the dependent variable/s)
3. Was there an effect of similarity in the silent condition? (i.e., compare trials in
which the letters sounded similar vs. trials in which they did not).
4. Was there an effect of similarity in the articulatory suppression condition? (if yes,
was it larger or smaller than in the silent condition).
B.Brown Peterson Experiment
1.a Plot the data (or print it from CogLab).
1.b Name the dependent variable/s
1.c Name the independent variable/s
2. In the task you completed, the interval between trigram presentation and recall is
filled with a secondary task (i.e., the odd/even task). In such a task, recall accuracy is
dependent on the length of the interval. In other words, accuracy is lower for long
intervals than for short intervals (e.g., 3 secs vs. 21 secs). Would a long interval (e.g.,
21 secs) have a detrimental effect in recall accuracy even in the absence of a secondary
task? (yes/no). Justify your answer
C. Sternberg Search Task
A search is self-terminating, if it stops once the target is found. In contrast, a search is
exhaustive if all items are searched before a decision is made.
3) Draw an idealized graph of reaction time data to illustrate a self-terminating search
in the Sternberg task. Draw a second graph of reaction time data to illustrate an
exhaustive search in the Sternberg task.
4) Plot your data. Name the independent variable/s. For each independent variable,
name its levels. Name the dependent variable.
5) Performance in the Sternberg search task can be expressed by the following function
Reaction Time = a + b x,
in which
a RT for processes other than the memory search
b is the slope of the memory search, and
x is the number of items in the initial display.
Imagine that we now increase the perceptual difficulty of the task by making the probe
really dim. Which parameter of the function (a, b, x), if any, would be modified by such a
manipulation? Justify your answer (hint: look at Posner chapter)