IB PSYCHOLOGY

(SL)INTERNAL
ASSESSMENT
EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH

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CONSIDERATIONS IN EXPERIMENTAL RESEARCH
• What is the aim of the experiment?
• What studies and theories are considered in your
research?
• How do you plan to manipulate and measure variables?
• How will you select participants?
• Can the effect of confounding variables be minimized? -
for example: How will you control for demand
characteristics, order effects and participant variables?
• Which experimental design will you use?
• How will you deal with ethical issues?
• How will you analyze the data you collect?
• How will you discuss your findings?
• How will you report your experiment?
• How will you reference your sources ?

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INTERNAL ASSESSMENT
• Report according to IB guidelines
• Maximum of 2000 words (HL) or 1500 words (SL)
• HL/SL: a simple experiment (1 IV and 1 DV)
• Ethical considerations (informed consent, debrief, no,
physical or psychological harm )
• Use past tense
• Use 3rd person

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 ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
• Non-human animals must
not be used • Right to withdraw
• No deception • Confidentiality
• No harm done to • Informed consent
participants (physical or • Children: parental
psychological) consent (under 16)
• Briefing
• Debriefing

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 CONSENT FORM
 
Consent Form
          I have been informed about the nature of the experiment
          I understand that I have the right to withdraw from the experiment at any time,
and that any information/data about me will remain confidential
          My anonymity will be protected as my name will not be identifiable.
          The experiment will be conducted so that I will not be demeaned in any way.
          I will be debriefed at the end, and have the opportunity to find out the results.
 
I give my informed consent to participating in this experiment
 
NAME and date____________________________________________
 
Contact number_____________________________________________
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 TITLE PAGE
• Information about the Title
student •Example of a title:
– Name and number An experiment to
– Subject and level investigate the effect of
– Date of submission imagery or rehearsal on
– Word count recall
 ABSTRACT
Right after the title page and before the table of
contents. It is a summary of important information
about the study including:
– The aim of the study
– Procedure
– Results of study
– Conclusion
The abstract should not exceed 200 words – and is not
included in the overall word count.

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 TABLE OF CONTENTS
• Table of contents follows the abstract.
• All pages must be numbered.

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INTRODUCTION: BACKGROUND LITERATURE AND
JUSTIFICATION OF YOUR OWN RESEARCH

• General introduction to the psychological subject area

under investigation
• Summary and analysis of key theories and previous
research studies in the area including references, e.g.
Stroop (1935)
• Theories and studies must be analysed in sufficient detail –
especially the replicated study
• 2 - 3 studies (HL) or 1 study (SL)
• Rationale and justification of your experiment
• The aim (HL/SL) and hypotheses (HL)

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INTRODUCTION (COOLICAN,
1994)

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 AIM OF STUDY
• Topic under investigation (e.g. Memory) and expected results
– What you intended to find out in the study (e.g. to investigate
whether using imagery or rehearsal will result in higher recall of
words)
– Aim introduces operationalised research hypothesis and null
hypothesis (HL)
Ex: The aim of the study was to investigate whether imagery
or rehearsal resulted in the highest mean recall of words
from a word-list.

From the aim follow the experimental hypotheses (HL):

H : The use of imagery will result in higher mean recall of words recalled from a
1

wordlist compared to the use of rehearsal

Alternative formulation of experimental hypothesis:
H Participants in the imagery condition will recall more words from a wordlist than
1

participants in the rehearsal condition

H : There will be no difference in recall between the two conditions or any difference
0

between the two conditions will be due to chance.

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 RESEARCH HYPOTHESES
• Clear and precise prediction of the expected outcome of the
manipulation of the IV on the DV.
• Variables must be clearly operationalised (using concrete words or
abstracts words)
• A One-tailed hypothesis
• Null hypothesis: predicts that changes are due to chance

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 EXAMPLES

One-tailed: Participants given the office schema will

recall a higher amount of office related objects than
participants given no office schema.
Null hypothesis: There will be no difference in the two
situations or Higher recall of office related words will be
due to chance.

No Hypotheses in SL – only aim of study.

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 METHOD CONSISTS OF 4
SECTIONS
• Design
– type and justification of design (repeated measures/independent design), controls,
ethical considerations, identification of variables (IV and DV)
• Participants
– Relevant characteristics of sample, target population, sampling techniques
(justified)
• Apparatus/Materials
– list of materials used, reference to copies in appendices

• Procedure
– Must be written in so much detail that it can be replicated. Reference to
appendices for a copy of the material used.
 DESIGNS – CONSIDER
STRENGTHS AND LIMITATIONS IN
EACH DESIGN
• Design must be justified (relate to why you choose a specific design and
refer to strengths)
• Independent design: each participant participates in only
one condition (random allocation of participants to conditions e.g. drawing
names out of a hat decides who goes in which condition)
– Larger sample needed so more time consuming
– No order effect but problem with participant variables. This is controlled for by
random allocation of participants to the experimental conditions.
• Repeated measures design: each participant participates
in both conditions
– Easier to get a smaller sample
– Order effects but counter-balancing possible
– No participant variables
• Account of controls in the experiment (what you did in
order to control for confounding variables)
 IV AND DV

• Must be operationalised and clear

• Must reflect aim (and experimental hypothesis) (HL
ONLY)
• Stated at the end of the design section
Example:
• The IV in this experiment was whether participants used
rehearsal or imagery
• The DV was amount of words correctly recalled from the
wordlist

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 SELECTION OF PARTICIPANTS

• 20 participants in an IB experiment
• Justify your sampling method
• In principle good to have a represenative sample but not really
possible in IA. Ask the following questions:
– What is the target population? (the population you
are interested in) What are relevant characteristics of
your sample? your target population? Does your
sample represent them?
• In IB exp.: Opportunity sample: you take what is available because it
is the most convenient and easiest
– Easy and not time consuming (strenght)
– Not a representative sample (weakness)
 PROCEDURE
• Clear description of what you did and in what
order
• Written in words (see samples)
• Must be so clear that it can be replicated by
another researcher
• Refer to materials used in the experiment (and
make a reference to an example of it in the
appendices)
• Use past tense, the third person and the passive
voice: The participants were asked to .......

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 RESULTS
• State your results in narrative and in the form of graphs,
tables and statistical test
• Interpretation of descriptive statistics (e.g. mean,
standard deviation + graph and table)
• Analysis using inferential statistics and justification for
their use (HL only) – check which tests to use in
decision chart. Specific tests related to design, level of
measurement of data and the fact that you test a
difference between two conditions.
• Graphs/tables should have appropriate titles and legend.
• No raw data in result section (must be in the
appendices)

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 DISCUSSION OF RESULTS
• Discussion and interpretation of statistics
• Comparison of own results to the background
literature and theoretical framework in the
Introduction (only mention theories and studies that
have been mentioned in the intro; don’t introduce
new ones).
• Identification of limitations of own methodology
• Suggestions for modification and further research
(link this to identified limitations)
• End with a conclusion (refer to aim or research
hypothesis)

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 REFERENCES

• Includes al work cited within the report and must be in a standardised

format
• For example: Morrison, M. (1996) Psychology. Essays, practical &
statistics. A guide for students. Singapore: Longman.
• For example: Loftus, E.F. and Palmer, J.C. (1974) “Reconstruction of
automobile destruction: An example of the Interaction between
language and memory. Journal of Verbal Learning and Verbal
Behavior 13, 584-589.
• Reference in report (footnote), e.g. Gross (2009), p. 6
• Same in references (bibliography)Gross, R. (2009) Psychology. The
Science of Mind and Behaviour. 5th ed. London:Hodder Arnold

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 APPENDICES

• Supplementary information
• One copy of the materials(s) used
• Copy of standardized instructions and debriefing notes
• Copy of informed consent paper (including parental
consent if participants are children)
• Raw data
• Calculation of statistics

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 CHECK LIST

• Use check list paper to see if your report lives up to the assessment
criteria.
• Check the assessment criteria also

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