Effect of Stimulus Type and Valence on Free Recall

Effect of Stimulus Type and Valence on Free Recall

As part of the formal assessment for the programme you are required to conduct a Cognitive Psychology experiment, analyse your data, and submit an APA style research report. Please refer to your Student Handbook for full details of the programme assessment scheme and general information on preparing and submitting assignments.
Learning Outcomes:
After completing the module, you should be able to:
1. Critically evaluate the main theoretical perspectives and debates in cognitive psychology within their historical and contemporary contexts.
2. Critically evaluate the core research areas of cognitive psychology and assess their relevance to the contemporary world.
3. Collect, evaluate, and synthesise evidence from a variety of sources in order to address questions regarding cognitive psychology.
4. Communicate arguments, evidence, and statistical information through reports effectively and in accordance with APA publication guidelines
5. Communicate effectively in writing. Be IT, digitally and information literate.

Guidance
Your assignment should include: a title page containing your student number, the module name, the submission deadline and the exact word count of your submitted document; the appendices if relevant; and a reference list in APA system(s). You should address all the elements of the assignment task listed below. Please note that tutors will use the assessment criteria set out below in assessing your work.
You must not include your name in your submission because Arden University operates anonymous marking, which means that markers should not be aware of the identity of the student. However, please do not forget to include your STU number.
Maximum word count: 5,000 (worth 100% of the module mark).

Assignment Task
For this assignment, you are required to conduct a cognitive psychology experiment. You must choose one of the pre-approved experiments from the link provided on the module ilearn page. Each experiment has been designed to allow you to conduct research in a relevant topic whilst utilising a cognitive psychology approach. All of the experiments have been created to have a 2×2 factorial design (i.e. have two independent variables) and one dependent variable. You will need to run the experiment and collect your own data. You should analyse the data using appropriate statistical techniques in SPSS and write a 5,000 word report using the report writing conventions of the APA.
Please follow these steps:
1. A choice of experiments are available for you to choose from. There are 2 accompanying articles for each experiment to help you contextualise the task and provide a starting point for your literature review on that topic. Look through the available experiments/papers before choosing which one you want to conduct.
2. Create a Gorilla account using your email ). Once you have created an account, go to your profile and enter the enrolment code (available via the module page) to be added to the department licence. Although the experiments have already been created, you will still need to clone them and make minor edits to the embedded documents, as directed. You will also need to have linked your account to the department licence to be eligible for participant tokens to run your experiment.
3. Before launching your experiment, you need to have it checked by your allocated lecturer. Add them as a collaborator to the project on Gorilla and email them with the project name when you are ready for them to look at it. Please name your project with something that is easily identifiable (e.g. include your name in the title).

Give some thought to how you will obtain participants. Make sure that everyone you approach has the opportunity to give fully informed consent to take part – this includes potential participants not feeling pressured or coerced in anyway and is something you should be very mindful of if recruiting people you know, such as family and friends. You should aim to recruit approximately 10 participants per experimental condition, but are unable to include >50 in total due to restrictions on tokens. You must only recruit healthy, adult participants from the general population and are not allowed to recruit from vulnerable or difficult to access populations (e.g. children, people with learning difficulties, NHS patients, etc.)
5. You are required to supply the raw data collected (for each participant and condition) in a clear and suitable table in an appendix. Failure to do so will lead to a failed mark.
6. You are required to analyse the data in SPSS and to include SPSS print-outs (outputs) of your analysis as an appendix. Failure to do so will lead to a failed mark.
7. The suggested word allocation of the report is
a. Abstract 150 words
b. Introduction 2,000 words
c. Method 400 words
d. Results 250 words
e. Discussion 2,200 words
This does not need to be strictly adhered to but your report
should NOT exceed 5,000 words
8. See further guidance on iLearn.

Formative Feedback
Although the experiments have all been pre-approved, we recommend that you still submit a ‘Research Proposal & Ethics’ form and this will be used for your formative feedback. Completion of this form will allow you to identify and receive feedback on aspects of the research design and relevant literature and rationale for the study. It will also give you the opportunity to engage more fully with the research and understand the ethical processes involved with testing human paticipants.
It is important to ensure that you are able to identify:
• An aim, rationale and hypotheses (main and interaction effects) for the study
• Appropriate literature to support and justify the research
• Independent variable 1: name & levels
• Independent variable 2: name & levels
• Dependent variable: Name & measurement
• What participants will be required to do
This information will help you to write various sections of the report.
An important aspect of designing any research is to understand ethical issues and how thay are assessed. So, although each of these experiments have been pre-approved by Arden Ethics Committee, it is still important for you to familiarise yourself with the steps required to be granted ethical approval and consider any ethical issues that could arise whilst conducting your research. As well as considering the questions on the Research Proposal & Ethics form, you can also read the following documents: Guidelines for Completing the Student Research Proposal Form, AU Ethics Policy, BPS Code of Human Research Ethics. These documents are available on iLearn via the Virtual Psychology Lab link on the My Learning tab for this module.
Your Research Proposal & Ethics form must be submitted for formative feedback via Turnitin no later than two weeks prior to the final assessment submission date. This is to allow time for you to reflect on the feedback and apply it to your final submission.
The feedback is designed to help you develop areas of your work and it helps you develop your skills as an independent learner.
During periods such as Christmas this deadline may change to ensure that you receive your feedback in time. Your module leader will inform you of this at the beginning of the module.

Formative feedback will be provided within 5 working days after submission, it will not be given to work submitted after the formative submission deadline. Please check the exact deadline/time with your module leader.
Please note that formative feedback can only be given on ONE submission of your Research Proposal & Ethics form. It is recommended that you seek further feedback and support, if needed, by scheduling a 1-2-1 meeting with your module leader/lecturer.
Referencing Guidance
You MUST underpin your analysis and evaluation of the key issues with appropriate and wide ranging academic research and ensure this is referenced using the APA system(s).
Follow this link to find the referencing guides for your subject:
Submission Guidance
Assignments submitted late will not be accepted and will be marked as a 0% fail.
Your assessment should be submitted as a single Word (MS Word) or PDF file. For more information please see the “Submitting an Assignment – Guide” document available on the A-Z key information on iLearn.
You must ensure that the submitted assignment is all your own work and that all sources used are correctly attributed. Penalties apply to assignments which show evidence of academic unfair practice. (See the Student Handbook which is available on the A-Z key information on iLearn.