MEMORY PERSPECTIVES:
INTRODUCTION
Week 8 Practical
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
LECTURE 1
WEEK 8 PRACTICAL
PRACTICAL
WEEK 1
NO LECTURE
WEEK 2
NONPARAMETRICS 1
1ST PRACTICAL
WEEK 3
NONPARAMETRICS 2
1ST ANALYSIS IN SPSS
NO PRACTICAL
1ST ANALYSIS BY HAND
WEEK 4
WEEK 5
SAMPLING DISTRIBUTIONS
2ND PRACTICAL
WEEK 6
HYPOTHESIS TESTING
2ND ANALYSIS IN SPSS
WEEK 7
RELATED T-TEST
2ND ANALYSIS BY HAND
WEEK 8
INDEPENDENT T-TEST
3RD PRACTICAL
WEEK 9
INDEPENDENT ANOVA
3RD ANALYSIS IN SPSS
WEEK 10
DEPENDENT ANOVA
No practical
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
WEEK 8 PRACTICAL
BY THE END OF THE SESSION, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Conduct the Memory Perspectives practical and understand the
rationale behind the experiment.
Appreciate the way in which the study was carried out and the
hypotheses the study is testing.
Begin to explore the downloaded data set with respect to testing
the experimental hypotheses using an appropriate test.
Make a start on writing up your INTRODUCTION and METHOD
sections for your lab report.
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
PART 1
You will be given a sheet of paper.
You need to read the passage on the paper carefully,
bearing in mind the information printed at the top.
You will have 5 minutes to do this.
This experiment should be conducted individually
and in quiet, so no gabbing!
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
EXPERIMENT
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
PART 2
Please put the passage somewhere you can’t see it.
Now please write down as many details regarding the
passage as you can remember.
You will have 5 minutes to do this.
Again, keep it quiet.
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
EXPERIMENT
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
PART 3
You will now be provided with two checklists.
Tick the items that belong on each checklist if they
match with what you wrote down.
Work out a TOTAL of the number of items recalled on
list A.
Work out a TOTAL of the number of items recalled on
list B.
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
INTRODUCTION
BURGLAR OR BUYER?
Around the 1970s, psychologists
became a bit miffed about the
artificiality of test materials.
There was a movement towards
ecological validity in that to
understand real world things, we
should study real world stimuli.
The memory perspectives paradigm was just one expression of this
movement. Here, researchers were interested in the extent to which
prior knowledge influenced memory.
In the study you just completed, the idea is that prior information
regarding your own perspective (BURGLAR or BUYER) should influence
the types of things you remember.
(Bransford and Johnson, 1972; Pichert & Anderson, 1977)
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
METHOD
DESIGN
We assigned a random half of individuals to BURGLAR or BUYER.
Both groups checked recall against LIST A (BURGLAR) and LIST B (BUYER).
Is this design within- or between-subjects?
What is the IV? What is the DV?
Research questions
Our current experiment raises two research questions, which generally refer
to the idea the perspective adopted by the reader will affect subsequent
recall.
Q1: Do ‘BURGLARS’ and ‘BUYERS’ have different levels of recall
for LIST A (burglar relevant items)?
Q2: Do ‘BURGLARS’ and ‘BUYERS’ have different levels of recall
for LIST B (home-buyer relevant items)?
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
METHOD
PARTICIPANTS
We can look at the data set straight away:
DOWNLOAD AND SAVE THE FILE ‘MEMPER2010.SAV’
Here is some demographic information that might be useful.
87 female, 66 male; Age range: 18-40 years;
Mean: 24 years; S.D.: 2.5 years
The sample were students at the University of Sussex, none of
whom did Psychology.
Introduction to the principles of the experiment, links to references and
copies of the materials used may be retrieved here:
DOWNLOAD AND SAVE THE FILE ‘MEMPER_DEBRIEF’
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
RESULTS
The first 2 columns show subject The last two columns show recall for LIST
id and group membership.
A (BURGLAR) and LIST B (BUYER).
(Perspect 0 = BURGLAR; Perspect 1 = BUYER)
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
DATA TYPES
Nominal
Ordinal
“Name”
“Order”
E.g. Gender
Ratio
E.g. Horse racing
Interval
“Real zero”
“Imaginary zero”
E.g. Height
E.g. Temperature
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
WHAT TEST TO USE?
THE FLOW
CHART
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
PARAMETRIC OR NOT?
Data type
Ratio
Interval
Ordinal
Nominal
Homogeneity of variance?
SD21/SD22
≤2
SD21/SD22
>2
Normal distribution?
PARAMETRIC
Yes
No
NONPARAMETRIC
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
NOTES FOR WRITE UP
INTRODUCTION
Like a funnel- all roads should lead to the rationale for the experiment.
What were the previous studies that lead up to the current one?
What were the important psychological concepts and / or distinctions?
What was the outline of the current study and what were the hypotheses?
METHOD
Must be include enough detail for someone else to replicate the experiment.
Standard structure: Participants / Materials / Design / Procedure.
Refer the reader to appendices if including lengthy materials.
Avoid bullet points or lists because the method section is prose too.
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
WEEK 8 PRACTICAL
BY THE END OF THE SESSION, YOU SHOULD BE ABLE TO:
Conduct the Memory Perspectives practical and understand the
rationale behind the experiment.
Appreciate the way in which the study was carried out and the
hypotheses the study is testing.
Begin to explore the downloaded data set with respect to testing
the experimental hypotheses using an appropriate test.
Make a start on writing up your INTRODUCTION and METHOD
sections for your lab report.
MEMORY PERSPECTIVES
DISCUSSION
GET TOGETHER IN GROUPS OF THREE OR FOUR AND REFLECT
ON TODAY’S EXPERIENCE USING THE FOLLOWING QUESTIONS
What kind of test is
appropriate for this
design?
How would you have
conducted the experiment?
Were the two memory
perspectives equivalent?
How much do you trust
self-report? Did you take
a peek at the passage?