How Memory Works



How does age affect reaction time?

Correlational study

|Aim and Hypothesis |

|Previous research suggests that reaction time is reduced as we get older. Your task is to use 20 participants to investigate the relationship|

|between age and reaction times. How you choose to operationalize ‘reaction time’ is up to you. Your responses in this booklet need to be of |

|good quality as you will potentially use them to answer questions about your investigation in the Component 2 exam next summer. |

|Abstract (Brief outline of aims, procedure, findings and conclusions, to be written at the end of project) |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|In a correlational study instead of an independent variable and dependent variable we talk about co-variables and how they will be measured. |

|The age of your participants will be one co-variable, how will you measure the other . ‘reaction time’ ? |

| |

| |

| |

|State your alternative and null hypotheses |

|Alternative |

| |

| |

|Null |

| |

|Explain why a directional or a non-directional hypothesis has been selected |

|(usually based on previous research carried out or everyday observations made of the behaviour) |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Sample, design and procedures |

|What was your target population? What age range were you aiming for? Which method of sampling did you use to gain your participants? |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|How many participants took part and who were they? What is the age range? How many males/females (no names should be included) |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|How did you go about gaining informed consent from your participants? |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|How did you standardize instructions given to participants and what equipment did you use? |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|Plot your results in this space, plot each participants age and their score/time on your test of reaction time. |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

| |

|15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 |

| |

|Participant age |

| |

|Conducting an inferential test for your correlation. |

|Decide which type of data you have? (Nominal, ordinal, interval) |

|Which is the correct statistical test to use? |

|Do you require a one-tailed or two tailed test? What was your hypothesis? |

|Use the textbook to help you rank each co-variable and calculate the difference |

|Find the observed value |

|Compare to the following critical values which are for rho at 5% level (P ................
................

In order to avoid copyright disputes, this page is only a partial summary.

Google Online Preview   Download