Year 12

Cognitive Psychology

Methodology Workbook
So much to learn ...
so little time

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There are two main ways psychologists investigate human behaviour:
 Experimental
 Non- experimental

Experiments basically involve “meddling with” or manipulating situations to find out how one factor
(e.g. giving lots of praise) affects another factor (how well students perform in a psychology test).
The idea in experiments is that researchers keep some things the same (control them) while
changing other factors and then measuring the results.

Non-experimental methods include the following:

 Observational techniques – where you watch people and record their behaviour and
information about them.
 Self-report – this is where people tell you about themselves, through an interview or by
filling in some sort of questionnaire
 Case study – where one person or a small group of people are studied very intensely
and lots of information is gathered about them.
 Correlational analysis – where two pieces of information are collected than analysed
to see if there is a relationship between them.
 Content analysis – the analysis of language, certain words or certain activities in a
chosen media (books, TV, magazines, the internet).

The Experimental Method

Laboratory experiments
These are conducted in a special environment where variables can be carefully controlled.
Participants are usually aware that they are taking part in an experiment although they may not
know the true aims of the study. Note: it doesn’t have to be a science lab, a room set aside for a
psychology experiment would be classed as a “lab”.

Field Experiments
An experiments conducted in a more natural environment, e.g. on a hospital ward. As with the
laboratory experiment there is still deliberate manipulation of variables by the researcher but it is
less likely that the participants know they are in an experiment.

Task: read the example below of research that has been conducted and think about the following:
 Do you think it was a lab or field experiment?
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A: Helping behaviour was investigated on a suburban street. A stooge got out of a car and
dropped some books as a pedestrian approached. The stooge was either “low need” (able bodied)
or “high need” (arm in a cast). Researchers found that the stooge wearing the cast received
significantly more help.

Answer: FIELD

B: Psychologists wanted to investigate how to get people to stop smoking. Smokers were invited
to a university and either shown a demonstration of a mechanical smoking machine or were
shown a short frightening and graphic film about the effects of smoking. Both groups then filled in
a questionnaire about their intention to stop smoking. Those in the film group were more likely to
say they intended to give up.

Answer: LAB

C: Nursery children were taken to a special room where there were lots of toys, including a 5ft
inflatable toy (Bobo doll) and a mallet. A strange adult then came in and either played quietly with
a selection of the toys OR began to hit the Bobo with the mallet. The children then had the
opportunity to play alone with the toys. Those who saw the adult hitting the Bobo were far more
likely to hit the Bobo than the children who hadn’t observed this.

Answer: LAB

D: A group of pupils were given information about how their peers had done on a maths test. They
were either told that their peers had done well or poorly on the test. They were later given a test in
class, those who expected to do well did better than those who expected they would do poorly.

Answer: FIELD

Strengths: lab Weaknesses: lab

Easy to replicate as it takes place in a Lack realism. As they take place in an artificial

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controlled environment. Meaning the
reliability can be checked.
Having control over most participant and
extraneous variables. This is because
participants can be randomly allocated
positions. Internal validity increased meaning
cause, and effect can be established.
Strengths: field
Realism. Because it takes place in an
everyday environment, which means
participants will show their natural behavior
meaning it can be generals.
Avoiding participant reactivity, as
participants don't know they are in
experiment, so they show natural behavior.
Increases internal validity as participants
don't act differently.
Task: Complete the box below by giving the strengths and weaknesses of lab experiments and
field experiments
environment which isn't like an everyday task.
Meaning participants are unlikely to show their
natural behavior.
Increased risk of demand characteristics, because
they know they are taking part in an experiment and
will look for queues on how to behave. Internal
validity is reduced as participants may change how
they behave.
Weaknesses: field
Raising ethical issues as participants are unaware,
they are in an experiment. It is the right of the
participant to give informed consent, have the right to
withdraw and not be deceived.
Lack of control variables. It is not being conducted in
control environments which decreases internal
validity as extraneous variables may affect dependent
variable.
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 Aims and Hypotheses

The aims of a study are an overview of what the researcher wants to achieve/ investigate.
Example
 The effect of alcohol on memory loss
 The relationship between age and stress

Remember, an aim is not the same as a hypothesis! An aim is a general statement of the
researcher’s intention. It tells us nothing about what s/he predicts is going to happen.

Before research can be carried out, an aim needs to be changed into a hypothesis

Task:

Read the following statements. Put an A by those that are aims and an H by those that are
hypotheses.

To investigate the relationship between food additives and hyperactive behaviour A

To find out whether playing Grand Theft Auto makes boys aggressive A

Boys who spend at least 2 hours a week playing Grand Theft Auto will score significantly higher
on the “aggressive attitude” rating scale than boys who have never played Grand Theft Auto H

An investigation into alcohol consumption and reaction time A

To investigate whether a greater number of words will be remembered if they are presented in an
organised way (e.g., alphabetically) than if they are listed randomly. H

There are two types of hypotheses – alternative/experimental and null. H

The Experimental Hypothesis

This is a statement that makes a prediction that something will happen in a study. A hypothesis
should be TESTABLE (it includes the IV and the DV and how they will be OPERATIONALISED).

Directional Hypothesis (One tailed)

A directional hypothesis predicts that the independent variable will have an effect on the
dependent variable in a specific direction.
This could be as a difference
 “People who sleep for more than 7 hours a night score will higher on a test of self-
esteem than those who sleep for less than 7 hours a night”
Or as an association/correlation
 “There will be a positive correlation between number of hours slept and self-
esteem, (the more hours sleep a person gets, the higher their self-esteem)”
We are predicting that there will be a difference between the two conditions, and that that
difference will only go in the direction stated by the hypothesis.

Non-directional Hypothesis (Two tailed)

A non-directional hypothesis likewise states that changing the IV will have an effect on the
DV, but it doesn’t say in which direction.
 “There will be a difference in scores of self-esteem between people who use
sleep for more than57 hours a night and those who sleep less”

Here, it may be that people who sleep more have higher self-esteem, or it could be the
opposite; people who sleep more have lower self-esteem. Either way, the hypothesis predicts
The Null Hypothesis

The other type of hypothesis is the null hypothesis. Whereas the experimental hypothesis says
that something will happen, the null hypothesis says that this thing will not happen – we want
to reject this with our findings.

Null Hypothesis
A statement that predicts that something will not happen and that altering the IV will have no
effect on the DV.
 “The hours of sleep per night will have no effect on the self-esteem scores of
participants “

This hypothesis states that the IV will have no effect on the DV. This is the opposite of the
alternate hypothesis.

Hypothesis: Is this Null or Can you re-write this as a null/experimental

Experimental? hypothesis:
E
There will be a difference in
the number of French
words retained after one
year between participants
who learned over spaced
lesson compared to
participants who learned in
intensive sessions

Fathers and mothers differ

in the amount of physical
play they engage in with E
their children

Facial hair has no effect on

estimates of age in men

Experimental design

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The way in which the subjects are ‘organized’ into groups is called the design of the experiment.
Three experimental designs are commonly used:

Independent groups: Testing separate groups of people. Each group is tested in a different
condition. E.g., in an investigation into the effect of noise on ability to learn one group were given a
speech to learn while the television was on and another group were given the same speech to
learn in a silent room. The accuracy of their recital of the speech was compared

Repeated measures: Testing the same group of people in different conditions - the same people
are used repeatedly. E.g., a group of participants was given a speech to learn while the television
was on and were then tested on their recall, they were then given a speech to learn in a silent
room and their performance compared with their first performance.

Matched pairs: Testing separate groups of people - each member of one group is the same age,
sex, or social background as a member of the other group. E.g., Hodges and Tizard wondered
whether early institutionalization affects later social development, so each child who had spent the
first 2 years of their life in an institution was matched with a comparison child of the same age,
gender and social background who had grown up with their parents.

Task: Complete the table below summarizing the advantages and disadvantages of various
experimental designs.

Design Advantages Disadvantages

Repeated PP’s do all the conditions, so pp  There may be order effects

measures variables are controlled. Any which may result in bias and
features that will affect the drawing the wrong conclusions in
conditions are cancelled out.  the data.

Independent  No order effects as different  PP variables may affect results
groups people do different conditions e.g. if a test on memory, older
people in the group may affect
  recall.

Matched pairs  PP’s do all the conditions, so pp  There may be order effects

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 variables are controlled. Any which may result in bias and
features that will affect the drawing the wrong conclusions in
conditions are cancelled out.  the data.

Task:

Your teacher conducts an experiment in class. Each student is given a set of anagrams to solve
and the time to solve each one is taken. You find that some of the anagrams were of nouns and
others were of abstract words, in no particular order.

a) What was the IV?

The variable you change

b) What design was this and what special precaution, associated with the design, has your
teacher wisely taken and why?

Repeated measures – all the students do the task

Again, your teacher conducts an experiment. Students are in pairs. You time your partner while
she learns a finger maze, first with the left hand, then with the right. She then times while you
learn first with the right, then with the left.

a) What design is this?

Matched pairs

b) What special precaution is taken and why?

Task: Find out the meaning of the following terms that are important issues to consider in
experimental design.

Order effects-
Order effects refer to differences in research participants' responses that result from
the order(e.g., first, second, third) in which the experimental materials are presented to them.

Practice effects- Where you have already done a task so you become better at it the second dtime
round.
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Fatigue effects- Since you’ve already done the task it makes you tires so it could affect the next
time you do the task.

Counterbalance- Counterbalancing is one way to control for order effects. Counter balancing

basically means mixing up the order in which tasks are performed in a repeated measures design.

Operationalizing Variables – sounds complicated but is very straightforward.

Operationalizing just means making something clear or unambiguous. Operationalizing a variable

is the process of devising a clear way of measuring something so that another person knows
exactly what you have done.

Compare these two hypotheses:

Students learn better earlier in the day.
VS
Students will correctly recall more words out of a possible 20 when they are tested at 9.00am than
when they are given the same test at 2.00pm.

Task: Here are some variables that psychologists might investigate.

Try to make them clear and measurable, i.e., OPERATIONALISE them.

1. Girls do better at school than boys

Girls will score better on a spelling test out of 25 than boys will

2. Short words are more easily remembered than long words

3. The amount of sleep you have affected your memory

Relationships between researchers and participants

This does not mean becoming emotionally involved and going out with participants!

What it does mean is ways in which either the researcher or the participants can influence the
results this is known as "causing bias".

Investigator effects

This is sometimes known as Experimenter Bias. In this situation, the researcher can affect the
behavior of the participants, thus affecting the results of the study.

For example:

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  The researcher might unwittingly communicate his expectations to the participants. This could
happen through only small changes in body language or tone of voice.
 Or it can be in the interpretation of data, a researcher may read into things more of what he or she
would like to find!
 An attractive researcher might affect participant responses. For example, male researchers smile at
female participants more than they do at male ones!
 Even rats learned mazes faster when expected to! (Rosenthal, 1966)
 Just the presence of the researcher can affect participant behavior, more so if the researcher is
filming people.

Demand characteristics

Participants can also affect results! They might read things into the situation and start changing
their behavior responding to the perceived demands of the study. They might feel that they are
helping the experimenter - or, they may not like the experimenter.

 Demand characteristics can occur in the following situations:

 Participants may worry about being in a psychological study and want to appear ‘normal’, this may
change their behaviour.
 Participants may try to guess what the investigation is about then behave in the way they think the
investigator wants them to.
 On the other hand, they may deliberately try to behave in an unexpected way.
 Participants might just try to ‘look good’ (social desirability) and behave out of character or not tell
the truth. This can be a problem for questionnaires on sensitive issues.

How can psychologists minimize researcher effects and demand characteristics?

There are several things a researcher can do:

 Disguise the purpose of the investigation:

 There is some deception in many psychological studies to stop participants guessing the aims and
changing their behaviour. Participants in Milgram’s obedience studies thought it was a study on
effects of punishment on learning and memory.
 Single and double blind

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 Factors related to good design

It is very important for psychologists to be sure that their research is producing reliable results.
Reliability refers to the consistency of results – in science this might mean how accurate is a ruler
at measuring or how good is a calculator at adding up? In psychology it means would a test
marked by two different people, be scored in an identical way? Or, if a study is replicated would
the findings should be similar?

Reliability, on its own, is not enough. Studies should be measuring what they are intended to
measure. If a researcher wanted to measure IQ would he do it with a ruler? Validity refers to
whether or not a test measures what it was designed to measure.

For example, do IQ tests really measure ‘intelligence’ or do they measure performance on the
test?

There are many different forms of reliability and validity which researchers need to be concerned
with. The main ones are shown below :

Forms of reliability

Scorer reliability or inter-rater reliability – how closely different people who are marking a test
or performance agree with each other

Test-retest reliability – if participants take the same test twice, would they get similar results

Forms of validity

Internal validity - the extent to which study is free of design faults, which may affect results.

Ecological validity this is a type of ‘external validity’. This means the extent to which
generalization can be made from the test environment to other situations.

Face validity – does the test LOOK like it is measuring what it is supposed to be measuring?

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 Case Studies

A case study involves a detailed investigation of a single individual or small group of individuals.
Example of the type of research that would lend itself to a case study are investigations into the
effects of a stroke on later personality and behaviour, studying the effects of severe deprivation
and the possibilities for recovery and so on.

Task: Watch the film clip about the girl raised with dogs which would be a topic that could be
studied using a case study.

Case studies often involve the use of interviews with the individual and family, friends, medical
professionals etc. They may continue for many years and for this reason are often expensive and
time consuming. However, they may lead the way to future research

Task: List at least two strengths and two weaknesses of case studies:

Strengths: Weaknesses:

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