Exam questions- Research methods and memory

Jan 09

1. A psychologist showed participants 100 different cards, one at a time.

Each card had two unrelated words printed on it, e.g. DOG, HAT.

Participants in one group were instructed to form a mental image to link the words.

Participants in the other group were instructed to simply memorise the words.

After all the word pairs had been presented, each participant was shown a card with the first word of each pair printed on it. Participants were asked to recall the second word.

The following results were found.

Number of words correctly recalled

Mental Image Group / Memorising Group
Mean Score / 80 / 45

1(a)What is the independent variable (IV) in this study?(2 marks)

1(b)What is the dependent variable (DV) in this study? (2 marks)

1(c)What experimental design was used in this study?(1mark)

1(d)Explain one strength of this experimental design in the context of this study. (2 marks)

1(e)Explain how a psychologist could find out whether these results are reliable. (2 marks)

2Psychologists have carried out research into the use of cognitive interviews. One possible ethical issue which might arise during this research is the protection of participants from harm. Explain how psychologists could deal with this ethical issue. (3 marks)

June 09

1. Some psychology students read about an experiment which suggested that organisation is a useful strategy for improving memory. The students carried out an experiment to investigate the effects of organisation on word recall. They made up a list of 50 items that could be bought in a supermarket. The participants were teachers at their school. One group of participants saw the words organised into categories such as fruit, vegetables, dairy products and cleaning materials. The other group saw the same words presented randomly.

The results are given in Table 1 below.

Table 1The number of words correctly recalled by participants who saw the organised list and participants who saw the random list.

Organised List / Random List
20 / 15
15 / 13
18 / 19
45 / 14
24 / 20
23 / 10
28 / 21
21 / 6
25 / 22
30 / 25
Measure of central tendency
Measure of dispersion

1(a)Identify a suitable measure of central tendency that could be used with these data.

Justify your answer. (2 marks)

1(b)The psychology students decided to use a volunteer sample. Suggest one way in which this sample could be obtained. (2 marks)

1(c)Suggest one possible extraneous variable in this study.(1 mark)

1(d)Suggest one way in which the students could control for this extraneous variable. (2 marks)

1(e)The psychology students wanted to carry out an experiment to investigate the effectiveness of a different strategy for memory improvement.

For this further experiment, suggest the following:

(i)an appropriate strategy for memory improvement;(2 marks)

(ii)an appropriate experimental design;(1 mark)

(iii)operationalised independent and dependent variables.(2 marks)

Jan 10

1.A case study was carried out on Peter whose brain was damaged in a motorcycle accident. Psychologists tested how many numbers he could hold in his short-term memory. They did this by reading him lists of numbers and asking him to recall the numbers immediately in the right order. He could recall a maximum of two items. The psychologists found that his long-term memory was normal.

Identify one ethical issue associated with this case study of Peter. Suggest how psychologists could deal with this ethical issue. ( 4 marks)

Ethical issue

How psychologists could deal with this ethical issue

2.A psychologist carried out a field experiment to investigate the accuracy of eyewitness testimony. The participants were pupils and parents attending a school concert. Just before the concert began, two professional actors had an argument on the stage. During the argument, one actor pushed the other actor. Both actors then left the stage. Some of the audience were approached as they left the concert and were asked to take part in an experiment. Those who agreed were taken to a quiet room and were asked some questions about the argument. For some participants, the questions included, “Did you see the man in glasses push the other man?” In fact, neither man was wearing glasses.

The participants were then asked to describe the argument in their own words.

(a)What is a field experiment?(2 marks)

(b)Other than ethical issues, outline one weakness of using a field experiment in this investigation. (2 marks)

(c)Suggest why the psychologist included the question about the man in glasses. (2 marks)

(d)The psychologist applied content analysis to each participant’s description of the argument. One behavioural category the psychologist selected was “pushing”. Suggest one other relevant behavioural category the psychologist could select. Explain how the content analysis could be carried out. (1 mark + 3 marks)

Behavioural category

Explanation of how the content analysis could be carried out

June 10

1.A researcher carried out an experiment to investigate how many numbers could be held in short-term memory. The participants were 15 children and 15 adults. Participants were asked to repeat lists of random numbers, in the correct order, as soon as they were read out by the researcher. For example, when the researcher said, “3, 4, 2, 8” the participants immediately repeated “3, 4, 2, 8”. When the researcher then said “7, 5, 9, 6, 4” the participants immediately repeated “7, 5, 9, 6, 4”. One number was added to the list each time until participants were unable to recall the list correctly. Each participant’s maximum digit span was recorded.

(a)Write an appropriate non-directional hypothesis for this experiment.(2 marks)

(b)Write an appropriate non-directional hypothesis for this experiment. (2 marks)

Frequency distribution of the maximum number of digits correctly recalled by children and adults

Frequency

(c)Write the mode for each group in the table below.(2 marks)

Age group / Mode
Children
Adults

(d)What does the frequency distribution show about the results? (3 marks)

(e)Do the results of this experiment support the findings of other research into the capacity of short-term memory? Explain your answer. (2 marks)

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