Gerard Keegan's Psychology Site: Research Methods and the Correlation

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Research Methods and the Correlation

Student Interactive

Here is a sample Abstract from a study that got full marks in a national examination in psychology. Read it carefully, and without really knowing much about the topic, try to answer the questions that follow!

Abstract This study investigated the Stroop Effect as identified by J. Ridley Stroop (1935), which concludes that interference influences performance on serial verbal recall tasks. Stroop's experiment was partially replicated using two from three of his original independent variables. Twenty-two participants were selected for the current study by opportunity sampling, and were required to state aloud the colours of words in six lists while being timed. Analysis of recorded results using a related t-test gave a t value of 7.71. Critical t for a two-tailed test at the 0.05 level of significance with 21 degrees of freedom has a tabled value of 2.080. This saw rejection of the null hypothesis and acceptance of the experimental hypothesis H1: 'That there will be a significant difference in participants' information processing times under two conditions of the independent variable as a consequence of the Stroop Effect.'

Questions

1 What was the aim of this student's study?

2 What background study did this student rely on to help her in her research investigation? Give reasons for your answer.

3 What did this psychologist conclude in his original study?

4 How many participants took part in the student's study, and what sampling method was used? What does this term mean?

5 What did each participant have to do?

6 What statistical measure, or test, was used in this study?

7 In this experiment to apply the related t-test we have to know our degrees of freedom. This is dead simple to work out. Degrees of freedom use the formula N-1, where N is the number of participants who took part in the study. You thus subtract 1 from whatever N is in your study. If you were replicating this study with 20 participants, how many degrees of freedom would your study then have?.

8 Why was this student able to reject her null hypothesis and accept her experimental? Give reasons for your answer.

9 Why were her results significant?

10 Why despite this should we be wary of her results? A clue lies in the word 'probability' and the level of significance chosen.

Make sure YOUR Abstract is written as well as this one containing all that it has.

Now comes the Introduction, which should be on the next page of your report.

Click here to continue on to the Introduction
Or Here to go back to the Abstract

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