Method
Participants
A trial of thirty-six Undergraduate Psychology students from the University of Hertfordshire
participated, between ages eighteen and forty-two; thirty-four females and two males. The
mean age within the study was 21.03 and the standard deviation was 5.42. The participants in
this study were recruited through a random sampling strategy.
Design
This study had two independent variables. The first independent variable was the types of
animals, this had two levels being congruent and incongruent. The dependent variable was
the reaction time between the stimulus and response (measured by SuperLab programme) and
the amount of errors made.
The design of the experiment followed a within-subjects design. This required using the same
participants for each condition – congruent and incongruent This allowed the responses from
an individual for the congruent condition(s) to be directly compared to the participants’
response for the incongruent condition(s).
The congruent condition meant the animal would match the name e.g. a 'lion’ labelled with a
picture of one. The second condition was incongruent, e.g. the word ‘tiger’ labelled to a lion,
to potentially confuse the participant. Semantically congruent implied e.g. was labelling an
‘iguana’ a ‘frog’.
Materials
The participants conducted the experiment on an iMac computer using a programme called
SuperLab which is a software used to measure the reaction times and the number of errors
made. It was also used to generate the stimuli, a total of twenty animals, half of these animals
were congruent whilst the other half were incongruent to the words (total of ten words per
condition). A marksheet was also provided to record the results.
Procedure
The procedure began recruiting random participants to take place in the study. They were
then instructed to access the SuperLab link and take a seat, fingers resting on the ‘d’ and ‘k’
letters displayed on the keypad. Upon the launch of the stimuli, participants were to read the
word and press the key suggested the label matched the animal: ‘d’ for incorrect and ‘k’ for
correct.
This was repeated with each participant. Twenty animals throughout the whole trial. The
responses from each participant for each condition were generated into a database.
Participants were then asked to state their gender, age and how many trial errors occurred for
the purpose of anlaysis.
Participants
A trial of thirty-six Undergraduate Psychology students from the University of Hertfordshire
participated, between ages eighteen and forty-two; thirty-four females and two males. The
mean age within the study was 21.03 and the standard deviation was 5.42. The participants in
this study were recruited through a random sampling strategy.
Design
This study had two independent variables. The first independent variable was the types of
animals, this had two levels being congruent and incongruent. The dependent variable was
the reaction time between the stimulus and response (measured by SuperLab programme) and
the amount of errors made.
The design of the experiment followed a within-subjects design. This required using the same
participants for each condition – congruent and incongruent This allowed the responses from
an individual for the congruent condition(s) to be directly compared to the participants’
response for the incongruent condition(s).
The congruent condition meant the animal would match the name e.g. a 'lion’ labelled with a
picture of one. The second condition was incongruent, e.g. the word ‘tiger’ labelled to a lion,
to potentially confuse the participant. Semantically congruent implied e.g. was labelling an
‘iguana’ a ‘frog’.
Materials
The participants conducted the experiment on an iMac computer using a programme called
SuperLab which is a software used to measure the reaction times and the number of errors
made. It was also used to generate the stimuli, a total of twenty animals, half of these animals
were congruent whilst the other half were incongruent to the words (total of ten words per
condition). A marksheet was also provided to record the results.
Procedure
The procedure began recruiting random participants to take place in the study. They were
then instructed to access the SuperLab link and take a seat, fingers resting on the ‘d’ and ‘k’
letters displayed on the keypad. Upon the launch of the stimuli, participants were to read the
word and press the key suggested the label matched the animal: ‘d’ for incorrect and ‘k’ for
correct.
This was repeated with each participant. Twenty animals throughout the whole trial. The
responses from each participant for each condition were generated into a database.
Participants were then asked to state their gender, age and how many trial errors occurred for
the purpose of anlaysis.
