Psychology Research Method
Abstract
The conduct of a successful psychological research requires the use of the appropriate research methods. This ensures that the researcher is able to conduct the research in a way that enables them to obtain the answers to the research questions. Quantitative methods involve numeric information and statistical forms of analysis that provides answers to what questions. On the other hand, qualitative methods involve information on experiences and patterns and provide answers to how and why questions. In this regard, this paper provides the results of an exercise where the student experienced using online databases to search for the information they need and that helped them hone their skills in searching for literature, as well as in understanding and evaluating the said literature. This in turn allows the researcher to become more familiar with the various research methods and become more adept at determining the appropriate methods for their own research.
#1a) Using PsycInfo and your two assigned key words, give APA formatted references for two scholarly journal articles that include both of these concepts and attach the first page of each article. One article must be published between 1998 and 2002, and the other must be published between 2004 and 2016. (Write “Question 1a” at the top of each of these two pages so that it’s obvious what question these pages pertain to).
Reference 1: Mulligan, N.W. (2002). The emergent generation effect and hypermnesia: Influences of semantic and nonsemantic generation tasks. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 28(3), 541-554. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/0278-7393.28.3.541.
Reference 2: Guerard, K. & Saint-Aubin, J. (2012). Assessing the effect of lexical variables in backward recall. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 38(2), 312-324. doi: http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/a0025481
b) What subject terms does PsycInfo provide for the two articles you found in 1a (above)?
Reference 1: hypermnesia
Reference 2: recall
c) Consult the reference section for one of your articles in 1a (above) and select a journal article from its reference section that is available through York Libraries. Attach the first page of that article. (Write “Question 1c” at the top of the article page so that it’s obvious what question this page pertains to).
For Reference 1: Begg, I., Snider, A., Foley, F., & Goddard, R. (1989). The generation effect is no artifact: Generating makes words distinctive. Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition, 15, 977–989.
d) Give one reference in APA format for a book that is focused to a great extent on these two key words and provide the library call number (any publication date is acceptable).
1.d Reference: Putnam, Daniel. (1961). A text-book of psychology for secondary schools. (pp. 74-87). New York, NY, US: American Book Company
#2. Consider the APA-formatted citation below and circle the correct answer to the question. Haines, R. T., & Mueller, C. E. (2013). Academic achievement: An adolescent perspective. In J. Hattie & E. M. Anderman (Eds.), International guide to student achievement (pp. 10-12). New York: Routledge.
2. The above citation is for a:
a) chapter or essay in an edited book
Part 2
1) A researcher is interested in the effects of “ambiguity” and “number of bystanders” on helping behavior. Subjects filled out a questionnaire in a room with 0, 2, or 4 other people who were confederates of the experimenter. After distributing the questionnaire, the experimenter went in the next room. Five minutes later, there was a loud crash, possibly caused by the experimenter falling. For half of the subjects, the experimenter unambiguously (explicitly) called out that he needed help. The situation was more ambiguous for the other half of the subjects because the experimenter said nothing after the loud crash. The experimenter measured how long it took (in seconds) before subjects offered to help and the mean times were as follows: 0 bystanders, ambiguous 12secs 2 bystanders, ambiguous 11secs 4 bystanders, ambiguous 11secs 0 bystanders, unambiguous 20secs 2 bystanders, unambiguous 16secs 4 bystanders, unambiguous 10secs For the purpose of the exercise, assume that a difference of “2 or more” between any of the row, column or cell means is a significant difference.
1.b.
c. Yes, there is an effect on the number of bystanders
d. Yes, there is a relation in the ambiguity
e. Yes, there is an interaction effect because of the reaction and responses
f. The number of bystanders has something to do with the number of seconds a response or a reaction is given. Sometimes even if there are more bystanders but the response is low, there is a negative effect. On the other hand, even if there are few bystanders but the reaction is quick then that brings positive connotation for behaviour of people.
2) For each of the following, use the available information to determine how many participants will be needed to complete the study (if some questions are unanswerable without further information, simply say so):
a) A 2x2 mixed factorial; cell A1B1 needs 20 subjects. There should be around 40 participants
b) A 3x4 repeated-measures factorial; cell A1B1 needs 10 subjects. There should be around 20 participants
c) A 2x3x3 independent groups factorial; cell A1B1C1 needs 5 subjects. There should be at least 80 participants
d) A 2x3 mixed factorial; cell A1B1 needs 10 subjects. There should be at least 60 participants
e) A 2(A) x 3(B) x 3(C) mixed factorial, where A and B are within-subject factors and C is a between-subject factor; cell A1B1C1 needs 10 subjects. There should be at least 125 participants in this type of experiment.
3) Eighty male subjects, who were required to be proficient in the English language, were randomly assigned to one “payment wait period” (They were told in advance how much time they would have to wait for their payment for participating in this study). Group 1 was to be paid immediately following the study, Group 2 had to wait for 1 week, Group 3 had to wait for 2 weeks, and Group 4 had to wait for 3 weeks. All subjects performed both a 20-word recall task and a 40-word recall task. The experimenter measured the number of words recalled.
a) Identify one independent variable (I.V.). One independent variable is the payment wait period
b) Identify the number of levels of this I.V. There will be 4 levels in this independent variable
c) Is this I.V. a between-subjects or within-subjects variable? It is a between-subjects variable
d) Is this I.V. a manipulated or a subject variable? It is a subject variable.
e) Identify the independent variable (I.V.). The second independent variable is the word recall task
f) Identify the number of levels of this I.V. There are also 4 levels
g) Is this I.V. a between-subjects or within-subjects variable? Again, it is between subjects variable
h) Is this I.V. a manipulated or a subject variable? It is a manipulated variable
i) If appropriate, identify the “factorial notation “ for this study. 1stIVx2ndIVxGroupNumber
j) Identify the name of this study’s design. The study will use descriptive quantitative design.
4) Consider an experiment in which 2 independent variables have been manipulated. Variable A has 3 levels, and Variable B has 2 levels. Draw one line graph that shows a main effect of Variable B, but no main effect of Variable A and no interaction effect. Put Variable A on the x-axis.
5) A researcher studied the effects of training (untrained and trained) and problem difficulty (easy or difficult) on subjects’ problem-solving ability. She hypothesized that training (compared to no training) would enhance performance on both the easy and the difficult tasks. The data presented below represent the percentage of problems that subjects solved in each of the four conditions. Training Problem difficulty untrained trained easy 95 95 difficult 30 60. Is there an interaction effect? If so, explain your answer. (Assume that any differences are statistically significant).
There is a significant difference in the result. Take note that that there is a difference in the training if the respondents or subjects used in the experiment. For those trained participants, they have a low training problem or solving problem difficulty because basically of their backgrounds compared to the untrained. For the untrained, they have a high frequency in problem difficulty because of the absence or not their low training exposure when it comes to problem solving. But for easy problem solving, it can be manageable for the untrained and easy already for the trained. There is then an interaction effect with the wide disparity of difference or number in the result of the study.
6) Briefly list any flaws in the following study. Make use of the information that is actually reported; don’t make any assumptions about information that wasn’t reported. Assume that correct statistics were used. Answering in point-form is acceptable. Several years ago, Pepsi decided that Coke's lead in Toronto was no longer acceptable so they decided to conduct a taste preference study. Participants were chosen from Coke drinkers in the Toronto area and they were asked whether they preferred the glass of Coke or glass of Pepsi. To help prevent any bias, the glasses were not labelled "Coke" or "Pepsi". Instead, the Coke glass was marked with an "O" and the Pepsi glass marked with a "T". All participants sampled the "T" glass first. Results showed that over half of the subjects chose Pepsi over Coke, and researchers concluded that Canadians preferred Pepsi over Coke.
The first flaw in the study are the respondents. To avoid any bias or to be objective the selection of the respondents should not only come from the usual coke drinkers but should have come from non-coke drinkers as well. It is a fact that when you are used to a product, its taste becomes typical already. As a result you get fascinated to new flavors that come with new products. Therfore, they should have selected varied or random subjects. Second, in experimenting, there should be variations. If one or first set of respondents tested on one variable in first order, the other set should have the other one as its initial variable. In the experiment all the respondents had T as their first sampling of variable. Again, the way is subjective in nature. The product labeled as C should also have been tried first in order for the other respondents.
