Psychology lab report: methods
time to complete: 15-20 minutes
You will now read the methods section of the same lab report from psychology and work on identifying its subsections.
Task 12: The four subheadings of the methods section have been removed (see gaps 1-4). Which four subheadings best complete the gaps? Have a think, then answer the question that follows.
- Stimuli
- Conclusion
- Participants
- Design
- Age
- Children
- Procedure
Method
1. ______________________
The participants in this experiment were 96 children from a local primary school. The children were divided into three groups based on age, 4-5 years, 6-7 years and 8-9 years. There were equal numbers of male and female participants in each group.
2. ______________________
The stimulus used in the experiment was the ‘Opposite Worlds’ attention test, a sub-test in the “Test of Everyday Attention for Children” (TEA-ch). The TEA-ch was developed by Manly, Anderson, Nimmo-Smith, Turner, Watson and Robertson (2001) for the purpose of measuring various types of attention skills in children. The test was specifically developed to be a pure way of measuring attention, and this was achieved by ensuring that the tasks within it placed minimal load on cognitive functions other than attention, as well as using structural equation modelling to control the variables being measured. As such, it can be said to have a satisfactory level of validity (Manly et al., 2001). In addition, test scores were analysed in development to ensure a high level of validity, and reliability has been established using test-retest procedures (Manly et al., 2001). Thus, we can be confident that the TEA-ch is both a valid and reliable test of attention. The ‘Opposite Worlds’ sub-test that we are using was designed to measure attention at a verbal inhibition task.
3. ______________________
Children of all age groups were first required to complete the baseline test, as is normal for the test. In the baseline test, children are asked to read out a list of one’s and two’s in a path. Children were then required to complete the ‘Opposite Worlds’ test a first time with no distraction. In this part of the test, children must say “two” when they see a one and vice versa, and hence are required to inhibit the natural verbal response to the presented digit.
All children were then required to complete the test a second time, and were told that on completion of the test they would be allowed to watch an interesting cartoon on the television. However, during this second run of the test, the television was switched on remotely halfway through the test. This provided the background distraction event. The scores for the two conditions (distraction and no distraction) were calculated by subtracting the average time taken to complete the baseline task from the average time taken to complete the task in each condition. A higher score denotes a poorer performance.
4. ______________________
The independent variables for this test were the age and sex of the children taking part. The three levels for age were as described in the participants section. As sex and age were the independent variable, this actually deems this experiment a quasi-experiment. The dependent variable was the amount of time taken to complete the tasks in the distraction condition and the no-distraction condition.
Adapted from BAWE (no date)
Question
Explanation
This part provides several types of information about the participants.
The participants in this experiment were 96 children from a local primary school. The children were divided into three groups based on age, 4-5 years, 6-7 years and 8-9 years. There were equal numbers of male and female participants in each group.
This part introduces the test that was used as a stimulus and provides a rationale for its selection.
The stimulus used in the experiment was the ‘Opposite Worlds’ attention test, a sub-test in the “Test of Everyday Attention for Children” (TEA-ch). The TEA-ch was developed by Manly, Anderson, Nimmo-Smith, Turner, Watson and Robertson (2001) for the purpose of measuring various types of attention skills in children. The test was specifically developed to be a pure way of measuring attention, and this was achieved by ensuring that the tasks within it placed minimal load on cognitive functions other than attention, as well as using structural equation modelling to control the variables being measured. As such, it can be said to have a satisfactory level of validity (Manly et al., 2001). In addition, test scores were analysed in development to ensure a high level of validity, and reliability has been established using test-retest procedures (Manly et al., 2001). Thus, we can be confident that the TEA-ch is both a valid and reliable test of attention. The ‘Opposite Worlds’ sub-test that we are using was designed to measure attention at a verbal inhibition task.
This part describes the procedure as it is evident in the words/phrases indicating
- order/steps/stages
- instructions/actions/methods
Children of all age groups were first required to complete the baseline test, as is normal for the test. In the baseline test, children are asked to read out a list of one’s and two’s in a path. Children were then required to complete the ‘Opposite Worlds’ test a first time with no distraction. In this part of the test, children must say “two” when they see a one and vice versa, and hence are required to inhibit the natural verbal response to the presented digit.
All children were then required to complete the test a second time, and were told that on completion of the test they would be allowed to watch an interesting cartoon on the television. However, during this second run of the test, the television was switched on remotely halfway through the test. This provided the background distraction event. The scores for the two conditions (distraction and no distraction) were calculated by subtracting the average time taken to complete the baseline task from the average time taken to complete the task in each condition. A higher score denotes a poorer performance.
This part includes information on the design of the experiment as it is evident in the terminology.
The independent variables for this test were the age and sex of the children taking part. The three levels for age were as described in the participants section. As sex and age were the independent variable, this actually deems this experiment a quasi-experiment. The dependent variable was the amount of time taken to complete the tasks in the distraction condition and the no-distraction condition.