Cognitive practical

• What is the background of the practical?

  > Glanzer found evidence to show that there are separate STM and LTM stores which supports the MSM

  > More words were recalled from the start of the list (primary effect) and the middle of the list (recency effect)

  > Words from the middle of the list were displaced and forgotten
• What is the aim of the practical?

  > To partially replicate Glanzer's experiment

  > Find out whether participants recall more words from the start of the list using the LTM (primary effect)
• What is the null hypothesis?

  There will be no significant difference in the number of words recalled correctly (out of 9) between the words at the start of the list and the words in the middle of the list, any difference will be due to chance
• What is the non-directional (two-tailed) hypothesis?

  There will be a significant difference in the number of words correctly recalled (out of 9) between the words at the start of the list and the middle of the list
• What was the sampling method?

  Opportunity sampling
• What was the experimental design?

  Repeated measures - reduces participant variables
• What was the procedure?

  1. Standardized instructions were read out to students telling them they were going to need to memorize and recall a list of 27 words

  2. They were given the opportunity to withdraw at any stage

  3. Conducted in a classroom where extraneous variables could be controlled

  4. Students were presented a list of 27 words, at a rate of 1 every 4 seconds

  via a slideshow. words were all 2 syllables and unrelated

  5. Students were given a blank piece of paper to write down as many words they could remember in 2 minutes

  6. Recorded number of words recalled from the start

  7. Recalled the number of words recalled from the middle

  8. Students were debriefed, given an opportunity to consent to their data being used and reminded that it is not a measure of intelligence
• What was the independent variable?

  Whether the words were recalled from beginning or middle of the list
• What was the dependent variable?

  Number of words correctly recalled (out of 9)