Your assignment task is to produce a research project based on the effects of retrieval cues vs free recall on remembering lists of words

You will need to choose your own title based on the above topic e.g. To investigate whether retrieval cues effect the number of words remembered (1.1)

You need to gather information from a sample of at least 20 participants (10 will have retrieval cues provided when asked to recall the words vs 10 participants who will be asked to free recall the same list). You will ask 10 participants to study the list of 20 words (with subheadings for each category) for 2 minutes and then ask them to write them down on the answer sheet provided. There will be two answer sheets, one with the subheadings on (retrieval cues) and one blank (free recall) – see below for example word lists and answer sheets (you can use these or create your own):

Example word lists:

Colours          Animals         Vehicles        Fruit               Vegetables

Red                 Cat                   Van                Apple             Onion

Blue                Pig                    Bus                Grapes           Carrot

Black              Rat                   Car                 Plum               Peas

Green            Dog                  Truck             Pear                Potato

Example Answer Sheet (for the cued recall condition):

Colours          Animals          Vehicles       Fruit               Vegetables

** The free recall condition will be given a blank piece of paper to write their answers on. The idea is that as researchers you do not need to influence their recall in this condition**

You will then produce a table of raw data to show to number of words recalled for the cued vs free recall condition. Each of the column results are independent of each other as they are different participants: (5.1)

Participant

Number of Words Recalled (cued condition)

Number of Words Recalled

(free recall condition)

1

20

7

2

18

10

3

18

11

4

15

11

5

20

14

6

19

16

7

15

8

8

12

14

9

19

12

10

15

9

**If you are unable to collect this data yourself, you can use the data provided here**

Once you have your data, you will write up your report following the normal conventions of report writing using the following guidelines:

Title

There must be a clear indication of what your study is about, make sure the IV and the DV of this research are included. (1.1)

Contents Page

Abstract, Introduction, Method, Results, Discussion, References and Appendices (6.1)

Abstract (Approx. 150 words):

This is an overview of the rest of your research project and therefore you must write this last although in order of presentation it comes at the beginning of the report. It must include the following:

•          Brief background to give the reader an indication of the area of study; 


•          The aim; the hypotheses; 


•          The research method used (in this case it is an experiment);

•          The sample of participants; 


•          The results found; 


•          The overall conclusion in relation to the investigation and whether you accepted the experimental hypothesis or the null. 
(6.1)

Literature Review (Approx. 750 words):

The introduction is like a funnel going from the general area of study for your research project (memory/forgetting) tapering down to the most relevant piece of research to what you are studying (research studies into cued/free recall of words) and your aim/hypotheses. The last piece of research that you describe should be the most relevant to yours to base your hypotheses on. (1.2)

Aim of investigation:

Give this in a statement (The aim of this piece of research is to see whether….)(1.1)

Hypothesis (experimental):

Give this in a statement, make sure you include the independent and dependent variables and also state if this is a one or two tailed hypothesis. (1.2)

Hypothesis (null):

Give this in a statement, making sure you state that the independent variable will have no effect on the dependent variable and also state if this is a one or two tailed hypothesis. (1.2)

Method (Approx. 500 words):

The method has to have enough detail in it to allow the reader to replicate the study. This is normally divided into the following:

(a) Design – which design has been used in your investigation and justify why this was used over the other two (Independent groups vs Repeated Measures and Matched Pairs – 2.2). Which research method has been used and justify why over other methods (Experiment vs Interview/Case Study etc – 2.1)

You must also state your independent and dependent variables (2.3)

(b) Procedure: Here you need to include all the information relating to what was covered in order to complete the investigation. The reader should be able to follow your instructions to be able to replicate the investigation without any other help. Include a step-by-step guide for the reader. Think of this section as instructions to a flat pack wardrobe, if there is a section missing the wardrobe won’t be built properly, meaning your procedure isn’t therefore replicable to others (4.1)

You must also consider the ethical implications and considerations of the study e.g. brief/debrief, consent, confidentiality and right to withdraw (some participants may be sensitive about being part of an investigation and you need to take steps not to identify the participants individually). (3.1, 3.2)

You must also describe the controls you put in place to ensure a valid test was carried out e.g. standardised instructions, procedures and materials. Think of other aspects of the investigation you need to control to ensure one participant doesn’t have an advantage over another (2.3)

(c) Participants: this section includes details about the participants for instance, where you obtained the sample from (target population), the type of sample (males, females, age etc.), how many in each group (e.g. 10 in the experimental condition – cued recall and 10 in the control condition – free recall) and the sampling technique used (opportunity sampling is the best one to use, justify why you chose this over other such as random and stratified) (2.3)

(d) Apparatus: here you would put details about anything that was used in order to complete the investigation. For example, list of words and answer sheets – you could include examples in the appendices (2.3)

Results:

First of all you need to calculate the mean, median and mode of the results gathered and display these in a table e.g.

Mean

Median

Mode

Cued Recall Condition

Free Recall Condition

**Calculations must be displayed in the appendices**

Then you need to draw a bar chart of your mean scores similar to the one below (you can draw this on Word under Insert – Illustrations – Chart):

If you wish, your results can then be processed statistically by applying a Mann Whitney U to the data, in this particular instance. State your reasons why this test was chosen (independent groups and ordinal level data) and what it tests for. You can use the online calculator for this section or calculate it yourself, here is the link: (5.1)

http://www.socscistatistics.com/tests/mannwhitney/ If the link above doesn’t work, just type ‘Mann Whitney U Test Calculator’ into an internet search engine to find an alternative.

**Calculations must be displayed in the appendices**

**You do not have to apply Mann Whitney U and can just work out the mean, median and mode if you wish**

You then need to analyse the findings from your descriptive and inferential statistics. Start of by stating and comparing the measures of central tendency i.e. mean, median and mode (e.g. the mean value for the cued recall condition was ____ this is higher than the mean value of the free recall condition which was ___). Then you need to discuss the results found from the Mann Whitney U test if you have applied this. You would need to say that a 0.05 level of significance (p=< 0.05), which means that there is a less than 5% probability that the results occur due to chance. Therefore, meaning you can reject your null hypothesis and accept your experimental hypothesis if your results were significant and the opposite if they weren’t i.e. results were due to chance and you need to accept your null hypothesis (4.2, 5.2)

                                  

Discussion (Approx. 750 words):

This is your chance to explain your findings. First of all, relate your results back to the hypothesis and suggest whether you can support or refute your hypothesis. After this point you need to relate your findings back to the theory/research studies you have put forward in your introduction. You will need to critically compare your findings in relation to this previous research and theory (say whether what you found was similar or different). This section is a reverse of the funnel method used in the introduction section going from the most specific (hypothesis/most similar study) to the general area of research (memory/forgetting) (5.2)

Evaluation (Approx. 250 words):

Discuss the limitations of your research and the related improvements such as problems with data representation, sampling and problems with the methodology. (2.1, 2.2, 5.2)

You will also need to look at the strengths of your research e.g. an experimental method was used and say why this is a good method of investigation, controls you had in place or anything good about your sample/ethics considered. (2.1, 2.2, 5.2)

You will also need to discuss how you could do this research using a different method such as a correlation / case study etc. and then consider the strengths and weaknesses of the suggested research style in relation to whether it is a better method than the original one or not. (you do not have to do another piece of Research, you are just making a comparison). (2.1, 2.2, 2.3)

Conclusion (Approx. 50 words):

What can you conclude from the results found from your research? (6.1)

Bibliography:

You must list all the places you have taken information from including web sites, books, journals etc and use the Harvard system for both citations and your reference list. (6.1)

Appendices:

You can include a range of supporting documents in here including materials, raw data, calculations, answer sheets etc. Ensure you refer to them correctly with the main body of your report e.g. See Appendix 1 for Mann Whitney U Calculations. (6.1)

Use the check list below to make sure your assignment includes all necessary sections:

Title

Content Page

Abstract

Literature Review

Aim of the Investigation

Alternative Hypothesis

Null Hypothesis

Method: Design

                 Procedure

                 Participants

                 Apparatus

Raw Results table and graph

Results Mean, Median, Mode

Statistical Analysis of results in appendix

Discussion

Evaluation

Conclusions

References

Appendices

Word Count 2500 Words 

Harvard Referencing#

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