2.5 Practical investigation
2.5.1 One practical research exercise to gather data relevant to topics covered in
cognitive psychology. This practical research exercise must adhere to ethical
principles in both content and intention.
what is the aim?
to investigate the affects of acoustically similar words on the short term
memory, in order to see if STM uses acoustic coding.
what is the hypothesis?
-more acoustically dissimilar sounding words will be recalled than similar.
what is the null hypothesis?
there will be no differences in the number of acoustically similar and dissimilar
sounding words and any differences found will be due to chance.
what are the independent variables and dependent variables?
Independent variable: the words used (acoustically similar/dissimilar)
Dependent variable: how many words they remembered from each list out of
a total of 10.
Method?
lab experiment/ standardised
Design?
independent group/measures—> each group only did one list so that it is not
repeated and so that results can be compared.
sample?
opportunistic sample was used as it was less time consuming and anyone
available was able to do the experiment. the sample was not representative as
it only included female students.
2.5 Practical investigation 1