Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

AMITY INSTITUTE OF PSYCHOLOGY AND ALLIED SCIENCES

EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY (PSYC 102)

BA+MA Clinical psychology

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Arshita Matta Dr.Kakul Hai
A015116720011 Asst. Professor
IMA-1
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

EXPERIMENT – 1 (Effect of chunking

on recall)

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Arshita Matta Dr.Kakul Hai
A015116720011 Asst. Professor
IMA-1
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• AIM- To measure the effect of chunking on recall of meaningful words and non-
meaningful words.
• INTRODUCTION-
 MEMORY: Memory is the faculty of the brain by which data and or information is
encoded, stored and retrieved when needed.
 THEORIES OF MEMORY:
 INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY: Information processing theory is a cognitive
theory that uses computers as a metaphor for the way, the human mind works. The most
important processing is the stage theory originated by Atkinson and Shiffrin, which
specifies a sequence of 3 stages information goes through to become encoded into long
term memory: sensory memory, short-term or working memory and long term memory.
Also the sensory memory is where the incoming information first enters. It has a large
capacity, however it is for very short duration. It is also known as sensory register as it
registers information as exact replica of the stimulus. Then comes the short term memory
which holds the information for a brief period of time usually for 30 seconds. Short term
memory is fragile, on the other hand long term memory lasts for days, months, years or
even a lifetime.
 LEVELS OF PROCESSING: The level of processing model (Craik and Lockhart) focuses
on the depth of processing involved in memory, and predicts the deeper information is
processed, the longer a memory trace will last. The idea that the way information is
encoded affects how well it is remembered.  The deeper the level of processing, the easier
the information is to recall.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 THEORY OF FORGETTING:
 FORGETTING DUE TO TRACE DECAY: Trace decay theory states that forgetting occurs as a
result of the automatic decay or fading of the memory trace. Trace decay theory focuses on time and
the limited duration of short term memory. This theory suggests short term memory can only hold
information for between 15 and 30 seconds unless it is rehearsed.
 FORGETTING DUE TO INTERFERENCE: Interference theory states that forgetting occurs
because memories interfere with and disrupt one another, in other words forgetting occurs because
of interference from other memories.
 MNEMONICS: This is a type of learning technique that helps to retain information in our memory
systems. Mnemonics depend mostly on linking or association of the information to be remembered
with a systematic and organized set of words or images which can used in the long-term memory
and can act as a reminder cue. For example to remember the 7 colors of the rainbow, we can go with
V-I-B-G-Y-O-R, for the initials of Violet, Indigo, Blue, Green, Yellow, Orange, Red.
 TYPES OF MNEMONICS: (mentioned any 2)
1) LETTER AND WORD MNEMONICS STRATEGIES- Acronyms is the one of the most
common way of remembering things. Acronyms use a simple formula of a letter to represent
each word or phrase that needs to be remembered. For example, think of the NBA, which
stands for the National Basketball Association.
2) MUSIC MNEMONICS- Music is a powerful tool, which helps in remembering the things in
very joyful manner. Most popular example of this can be the A-B-C song which almost
everyone knows as it is used at early stage of life in childhood to make the child remember the
alphabets in the right order.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• METHOD-
 Subject Preliminary:
 Name: XYZ
 Age: 19
 Gender: Female
 Education Qualification: 1st year student
 Material required: Flash cards (20), paper, pen, watch.
 Rapport formation: Subject was made to sit comfortably in the room and
some casual talk was done. Once the subject was comfortable, then the
instructions were given to the subject.
 Instructions: Participant was told that she would be shown 20 words in total
(in the form of flash cards) out of which 10 would be meaningful words and
other 10 would be non-meaningful words, each card for 5 seconds. After
this, she would be asked to recall the words after a gap of 30 minutes.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 Introspective report: This experiment for me was really exciting and fun to do
with my friend, and this helped me to test my memory capability that too for half
an hour and I was glad to see the results, as I was able to recall majority of
words from the meaningful words as they were quite easy to remember, but in
non-meaningful words it took a lot more efforts to recall and I was not able to
recall many of them when it came to non-meaningful words. But I enjoyed a lot
in doing this experiment.
 Observational report: It was observed that, when the participant was asked to
recall the list of meaningful and non-meaningful words, she used chunking as a
method. When she started writing the words, she recalled them using the
chunking method. And she used the imagery method to remember the words and
then recall them in the order. It was observed that, the time when she was
looking at the cards, she spoke the words out loud and clear and kept adding
next word while using an adjective and formed a story type image in her mind.
And she recalled that short story and with the help of her this idea she was able
to recall most of the words in the same order. Also the recall was better at the
time of meaningful words than at the time of recall of non-meaningful words.
Also to recall, she used her self-created story by using it in parts, and the parts
for the story she made were in the form of chunks.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Result:
LIST OF MEANINGFUL WORDS (ORIGINAL) LIST OF NON MEANINGFUL WORDS
(ORIGINAL)
CAT LEN
SUN ZXC
BAT AXY
HELP ICB
GUM GNZ
GEL PHZ
LAZY ESY
RAT COA
CAR WIS
TREE JKL
LIST OF MEANINGFUL WORDS (BY LIST OF NON-MEANINGFUL WORDS (BY
PARTICIPANT) PARTICIPANT)
CAT LEN
SUN ZXC
BAT AXU
GUM ICB
GEL PH
LAZY COA
CAR  
TREE  
RAT  
HELP  
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Result Obtained: From the scoring table, it is understood that recall was
better in the list of meaningful words than in non meaningful words.
• Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that the hypothesis proposed is
proved to be right. That, the use of chunking in recall will be higher for
meaningful words as compared to non-meaningful words.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

EXPERIMENT – 2 (Memory)

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Arshita Matta Dr.Kakul Hai
A015116720011 Asst. Professor
IMA-1
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Aim: To measure the effect of the primacy and recency effect in the immediate recall of
meaningful and non-meaningful words.
• Introduction:
 MEMORY: Memory is the faculty of the brain by which data and or information is
encoded, stored and retrieved when needed.
 Theories of memory (any 2):
 INFORMATION PROCESSING THEORY: Information processing theory is a cognitive
theory that uses computers as a metaphor for the way, the human mind works. The most
important processing is the stage theory originated by Atkinson and Shiffrin, which
specifies a sequence of 3 stages information goes through to become encoded into long
term memory: sensory memory, short-term or working memory and long term memory.
Also the sensory memory is where the incoming information first enters. It has a large
capacity, however it is for very short duration. It is also known as sensory register as it
registers information as exact replica of the stimulus. Then comes the short term memory
which holds the information for a brief period of time usually for 30 seconds. Short term
memory is fragile, on the other hand long term memory lasts for days, months, years or
even a lifetime.
 LEVELS OF PROCESSING: The level of processing model (Craik and Lockhart) focuses
on the depth of processing involved in memory, and predicts the deeper information is
processed, the longer a memory trace will last. The idea that the way information is
encoded affects how well it is remembered.  The deeper the level of processing, the easier
the information is to recall.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 PRIMACY EFFECT: The primacy effect is the tendency for individuals without

neurological impairment to show enhanced memory for items presented at the beginning
of a list relative to items presented in the middle of the list. At test, items presented at the
beginning of a list are retrieved from long-term or secondary memory stores.
 RECENCY EFFECT: The recency effect is the tendency to remember the most recently
presented information best. For example, if you are trying to memorize a list of items,
the recency effect means you are more likely to recall the items from the list that you
studied last. This is one component of the serial position effect, a phenomenon in which
the position of items on a list influences how well those items are recalled.
• Method:
 Subject Preliminary:
 Name: XYZ
 Age: 19
 Gender: Female
 Educational qualification: 1st year student
 Material required: Flash cards (20), paper, pen.
 Rapport formation: Subject was made to sit comfortably in the room and some casual
talk was done. Once the subject was comfortable, then the instructions were given to the
subject.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 Instructions: Participant was told that she would be shown 20 words in total (in
the form of flash cards) out of which 10 would be meaningful words and other
10 would be non-meaningful words, each for 5 seconds. After this, she would be
asked to recall the words immediately after been shown to her.
 Introspective report: This experiment for me was really exciting and fun to do
with my friend. This helped me to test my memory capability and I am glad to
see the results.
 Observational report: It was observed that, when the participant was asked to
recall the list of meaningful and non-meaningful words, she used chunking as a
method. When she started writing the words, the recalled them using the
chunking method. And she used the imagery method to remember the words and
then recall them in the order. It was observed that, the time she was looking at
the cards, she spoke the words out loud and clear and kept adding next word
while using an adjective and formed a story type image in her mind. And she
recalled that short story and with the help of her this idea she was able to recall
most of the words in the same order. Also the recall was better at the time of
meaningful words than at the time of recall of non-meaningful words. Also to
recall, she used her self-created story by using it in parts, and the parts for the
story she made were in the form of chunks.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Result:
LIST OF MEANINGFUL WORDS (ORIGINAL) LIST OF NON MEANINGFUL WORDS
(ORIGINAL)
TANK PVQ
BOOK QTZ
CAR BVX
ART LZC
BUN TYU
MUG SAF
GUN TIS
PEN EVT
BELL IQT
NET ANE

LIST OF MEANINGFUL WORDS (BY LIST OF NON-MEANINGFUL WORDS (BY

PARTICIPANT) PARTICIPANT)
TANK PVQ
BOOK QTZ
CAR BVX
BUN TVR
ART FFG
GUN BLZ
MUG  
PEN  
BELL  
NET  
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Result obtained: After looking at the scoring table, it is

understood that the subject showed primacy effect, which
means that the subject was easily able to recall the words
which were shown to her in the starting.
• Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that the subject has
shown primacy effect.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

EXPERIMENT – 3 (Knowledge of
results)

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Arshita Matta Dr.Kakul Hai
A015116720011 Asst. Professor
IMA-1
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Aim: To determine the effect of knowledge of result on an individual’s performance.

• Introduction:
 Learning is the process of acquiring and new
understanding, knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, attitudes, and preferences. The
ability to learn is possessed by humans, animals, and some machines; there is also
evidence for some kind of learning in certain plants. Some learning is immediate,
induced by a single event (e.g. being burned by a hot stove), but much skill and
knowledge accumulate from repeated experiences.
 1) Learning through classical conditioning:
• The concept of classical conditioning has had a major influence on the field of
psychology, yet the man who discovered it was not a psychologist at all. A Russian
physiologist named Ivan Pavlov first discovered the principles of classical
conditioning during his experiments on the digestive systems of dogs. Pavlov noticed
that the dogs in his experiments had begun to salivate whenever they saw the white
coats of his lab assistants prior to being fed.
• According to the principles of classical conditioning, learning takes place when an
association is formed between a previously neutral stimulus and a naturally occurring
stimulus. In Pavlov’s experiments, for example, he paired the natural stimulus of food
with the sound of a bell. The dogs would naturally salivate in response to food, but
after multiple associations, the dogs would salivate to the sound of the bell alone.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 2) Learning through operant conditioning:

• Operant conditioning was first described by the behavioral psychologist B.F. Skinner. It is
sometimes also referred to as Skinnerian conditioning and instrumental conditioning. Skinner
believed that classical conditioning simply could not account for all types of learning and was
instead more interested in learning how the consequences of actions influence behaviors.
• Like classical conditioning, operant conditioning relies on forming associations. In operant
conditioning, however, associations are made between a behavior and the consequences of that
behavior. When a behavior leads to a desirable consequence, it becomes more likely that the
behavior will be repeated again in the future. If the actions lead to a negative outcome, however,
then the behavior then becomes less likely to occur.
 3) Learning through observation:
• Albert Bandura believed that associations and direct reinforcements simply could not account for
all learning. "Learning would be exceedingly laborious, not to mention hazardous if people had to
rely solely on the effects of their own actions to inform them what to do," he famously wrote in his
1977 book Social Learning Theory.
• Instead, he proposed that much of learning takes place through observation. Children observe the
actions of those around them, particularly caregivers and siblings, and then imitate these behaviors.
In his well-known Bobo doll experiment, Bandura revealed just how easily children could be led to
imitate even negative actions. Children who watched a video of an adult beating up a large
inflatable doll were then much more likely to copy those same actions when given a chance.
• Perhaps most importantly, Bandura noted that learning something does not necessarily result in a
change in behavior. Children frequently learning new things through observation, but might not
engage in such behaviors themselves until there is actually a need or motivation to utilize the
information.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Method:
 Subject Preliminary:
 Name: XYZ
 Age: 19
 Gender: Female
 Education qualification: 1st year student
 Material required: A4 size sheets, pencil, scale (ruler), and cloth to blindfold the
subject.
 Rapport formation: Subject was made to sit comfortably in the room and some
casual talk was done. Once the subject was comfortable, then the instructions
were given to the subject.
 Instructions: Subject was told, first of all she would be blindfolded then she
needs to hold a pencil and I would help her with the ruler. Then she needs to
draw 5 lines with the help of the ruler of 10cm each. In 1 st condition no feedback
would be given to her, in 2nd condition after each line she would get a feedback
whether the line drawn is correct or wrong, in 3rd condition after each line she
would get a feedback whether the line drawn is short or long as per the
requirement of 10 cm each line, in 4th condition after each line she would get a
feedback about the exact measurement of the line which she has drawn.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Introspective report: This experiment was completely fun for me, and I became
super excited when I was blindfolded by my friend. And I was not able to get
perfect 10 cm but still I was very close it 10 cm.
• Observational report: It was observed that the subject was very excited for this
experiment and in the starting of this experiment she was drawing lines vaguely but
as soon as we were heading towards the end of this experiment, her drawing of
lines became more accurate.
• Result: No. of trial Length of each Total ÷ 5 (in cm) Final result (in
(condition) line (in cm) cm)
1 13.2cm + 14cm 55.4cm ÷ 5 11.08 cm
+ 8cm + 7.4cm
+ 12.8cm
2 8.1cm + 7.8cm 45.7cm ÷ 5 9.14 cm
+ 11cm +
11.3cm + 7.5cm
3 9cm + 11.2cm + 47.4cm ÷ 5 9.48 cm
8.4cm + 7.2cm
+ 11.6cm
4 10.5cm + 9.8cm 54.3cm ÷ 5 10.86 cm
+ 11.8cm
+11.4cm +
10.8cm
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Result: After looking at the scoring table, it can be interpreted that the
accuracy was more by the end of the experiment, which means that the
performance of an individual will improve with the knowledge of
results.
• Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that the hypothesis proposed is
proved to be right.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

EXPERIMENT – 4 (Level of
aspiration)

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Arshita Matta Dr.Kakul Hai
A015116720011 Asst. Professor
IMA-1
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Aim: To determine the level of aspiration of the subject

• Introduction: There are different tasks in the world that different people want to do or achieve. The
standard that they want to achieve in any task is described by psychologists as the level of aspiration.
Frank (1935) defined level of aspiration as, “level of future performance in a familiar task which an
individual knowing his level of past performance in that task, explicitly undertakes to reach”.
 FACTORS INFLUENCING LEVEL OF ASPIRATION ARE-
1. MOTIVATION: It acts to arouse, sustain and direct behavior. It enables us to function at a higher level
and helps to maintain realistic level of aspiration.
2. ATTITUDE: An attitude refers to a set of emotion, beliefs and behavior towards a particular object,
person, thing or event. So, our attitude towards an object determines what our level of aspiration will be
towards it.
3. SUCCESS OR FAILURE: The higher the level of success more will be the level of aspiration of the
person as compared to failure.
4. PERSONALITY: If the person is optimistic he/she will have a higher level of aspiration as compared to
a pessimist person.
5. GROUP STANDARDS: It means, the certain standards or rules or regulations considered as norms by a
particular set of people.
6. REWARD AND PUNISHMENT: Rewards act as positive reinforcement, when one achieves a certain
goal while punishment on the other hand, gives us a push on achieving goals.
7. SOCIAL CLASS: The downtrodden class of the society doesn’t have a high level of aspiration, as they
have accepted their fail or norms of their particular class.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 USES OF LEVEL OF ASPIRATION

• Increases self-confidence
• Helps in setting goals realistically
• Avoids failure
• Helps to know how much one has to try

 Method:
 Subject Preliminary:
 Name- XYZ
 Age- 19 years
 Gender- Female
 Education Qualification- 1st year student
 Material required: questionnaire, pencil, stopwatch
 Rapport formation: Subject was made to sit comfortably in the room and some
casual talk was done. Once the subject was comfortable, then the instructions
were given to the subject.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Instructions: Subject was told that she would get a set of questionnaires,
in which she is supposed to make smileys for each trial and for each trial
time given is for 30 seconds. Before starting each trial, she is supposed
to give an expected score and then, when she finishes with drawing of
smileys in stipulated time i.e. 30 seconds for each trial, then the actual
score would be taken into consideration.
• Introspective report: This experiment which my friend did on me, was
fun and exciting for me. It was more like a self-challenging experiment
as it was time based and I used to set goal for myself and then try my
best to achieve it within 30 seconds.
• Observational report: It was observed that the subject was super excited
for this experiment, and it was also observed that the subject in the
practice trial had kept the expectations high that 30 seconds are enough
to fill 50 circles by making smiley but as the time began, and the
practice trial came to an end, she realized that it is quite difficult to fill
all the 50 circles in just 30 seconds.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Result: Trial No. GDS ADS NTR

Practice - -9 0
1 -1 3 1
2 2 -4 0
3 9 -6 0
4 6 -8 0
5 3 -15 0
6 5 1 1
7 -4 2 1
8 6 -5 0
9 5 -3 0
10 3 -5 0
+ score 39 6 3
˗ Score -5 -46 X
Mean 3.4 -5.2 X

According to the scores it can be interpreted that the person scores average
aspiration in GDS, high aspiration in ADS and low in NTR.
• Conclusion: Hence, we can conclude that the hypothesis proposed is
proved to be right.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

EXPERIMENT – 5 (Bilateral transfer

of learning)

Submitted By: Submitted to:

Arshita Matta Dr.Kakul Hai
A015116720011 Asst. Professor
IMA-1
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• AIM-
To study the bilateral transfer of learning from the dominant hand to the
non-dominant hand.
• INTRODUCTION-
 The bilateral transfer of learning is the transference of physical
performance learned by one side of the body to the opposite side of the
body.
 2 theories of learning:
Classical conditioning- Classical conditioning is a type of conditioning in
which an individual responds to some stimulus that would not ordinarily
produce such as response. It is the process of learning to associate a
particular thing in our environment with a prediction of what will happen
next. Classical conditioning, the association of such an event with another
desired event resulting in behavior, is one of the easiest to understand
processes of learning.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

Operant conditioning- The second type of conditioning is called operant

conditioning. Here, we learn that a particular behavior is usually followed
by a reward or punishment. Operant conditioning argues that one’s
behavior will depend on different situations. People will repeatedly behave
in a specific way from where they will get benefits. On the other hand, they
will try to avoid a behavior from where they will get nothing.
• METHOD-
 Subject Preliminary:
 Name: XYZ
 Age: 18 years
 Gender: Female
 Education qualification: High school student
 Material Required: Instrument called mirror tracing board, star pattern,
stylus, stopwatch.
 Rapport formation: Subject was made comfortable and a rapport was
forced with the help of some casual talk.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

 Instructions: Subject was told that she needs to hold the

stylus in left hand first (because the subject is right hand
dominant), and then trace the star pattern in clockwise
direction and as fast as possible, without touching the edges
(touching the edge will be counted as errors). And most
importantly the subject should not directly look at the star
pattern, instead the subject is told to trace the star pattern
while looking in the mirror.
Introspective report: It was quite difficult to trace the star
pattern without touching the edges in the minimum time.
But it was a fun experiment.
Observational report: It was observed that the subject was
able to show transfer of learning to some extent.
 Amity Institute of Psychology and Allied Sciences

• Result: The subject was given first trial in left hand and then
3 practice trials in right hand and then again one last trial in
left hand. So, the score was 298 errors in 2 minutes and 40
seconds (before practice) then, the score was 154 errors in 1
minute and 20 seconds (after practice).
• Skill learnt in right hand is transferred to the left hand to
some extent.
• CONCLUSION- Hence, we can say that the hypothesis is
proved to be right.