DSE 212 Tutorial 3

TMA 3 – the experimental project

The projects
 Quantitative project – TMA 3, deadline
February 10
 Qualitative project – TMA 5, deadline April 21
 Help with both projects from Day School
(January 30)
 Qualitative project – focus of tutorial 5
 Quantitative project – based on experimental
method, data collection and analysis
The experimental method
 Psychology is trying to be scientific!
 This is linked to funding – cynically, the most
funding in academia goes to science-based
subjects.
 It is also linked to a need for the information
we find out to be thorough, valid, testable,
replicable, reliable and robust.
 When we publish the results of an
investigation, we don’t want the world and his
dog telling us we were wrong!
Steps in experimentation
 Find an area that is interesting and that could
generate something new to look at.
 Read all the literature around the topic.
 Determine a research question – this usually
then generates hypotheses.
 Design an experiment that will provide
evidence to support (not prove) or refute (not
disprove) your hypotheses and answer the
question.
Steps in experimentation
 Run a pilot to see whether your design works.
 Run the experiment, collect the data.
 Put together the raw data and work out which
statistical analysis will help you understand what’s
going on.
 Draw up descriptive statistics (central tendency,
range etc).
 Run an inferential test (e.g. chi-squared, t-test,
correlation).
 Understand the analysis to determine whether your
hypothesis is supported or refuted.
Steps in experimentation
 Discuss and interpret the analysis and
findings.
 Draw on the research that you looked at right
at the beginning to see whether you agree or
disagree with everyone else.
 Try to explain your findings in the light of
existing knowledge.
 Suggest ideas for future research and
recognise where your method was flaky.
What experiments do…
 Establish a cause and effect relationship.
 By controlling variables that might influence
the outcome as far as possible, we can state
that the independent variable caused the
effect on the dependent variable.
 Reminder – the independent variable is what
the researcher actually changes or
manipulates.
 The dependent variable is the outcome or
result of that change.
Which is which?
 The effect of alcohol on reaction times.
 IV = alcohol, DV = reaction times
 The influence of time of day on short term
memory capacity.
 IV = time of day, DV = short term memory
capacity
 Are men able to read maps more effectively
than women?
 IV = gender, DV = ability to read maps
Which is which?
 Does loud music make it more difficult to
concentrate?
 IV = presence of loud music, DV = ability to
concentrate
 Can women multitask better than men?
 IV = gender, DV = ability to multitask
 Does eating chocolate make you feel good?
 IV = consumption of chocolate, DV =
measure of ‘the feel good factor’.
Some definitions…
 Conditions
 When the IV is changed, this will create conditions –
for example, if we want to know if loud music
influences concentration, we need more than one
condition.
 We might have condition 1, loud music playing and
condition 2, no music playing.
 Two conditions is easiest, however you could argue
for condition 3, soft music playing.
 Three conditions makes things more complicated!
Some definitions…
 Experimental and control conditions
 The experimental condition would be where the IV
was changed.
 This is compared to the condition where the IV is not
changed.
 E.g. we introduce a new way of learning mathematics
into a primary school.
 Children receiving the new method would be in the
experimental condition, children who do not receive
the new method would be in the control condition.
Some definitions…
 Null hypothesis
 Whenever we test something in psychology,
there is always the chance that something
happens because of some other factor than
the IV manipulation.
 The null hypothesis predicts that the IV will
not affect the DV – it predicts that the
differences found in an experiment happened
because of chance and not because of
anything we did to the IV.
Some definitions…
 Null hypothesis
 The statement of the null hypothesis is
usually that the IV will not affect the DV.
 E.g. alcohol will not have an effect on reaction
times.
 When applying an inferential test, we are
testing whether the null hypothesis is
supported – that is, whether the difference
between the two samples we are testing was
due to a sampling error.
Some definitions…
 Null hypothesis
 If we find that the results are statistically significant,
then we can reject the null hypothesis.
 This means the results we have found are not due to
sampling error and we can accept our experimental
hypothesis.
 If the results are not statistically significant, we have
to accept the null hypothesis.
 Accepting the null hypothesis does not mean it is
true, it means that we have not found sufficient
evidence to show that in this particular case the null
hypothesis can be rejected.
Reasons for accepting the null
 Small sample
 Often only having a few participants will
cause a statistical test to come out as
insignificant.
 Larger samples are more likely to generate
enough evidence to support the experimental
hypothesis.
 Sampling errors that may be due to
confounding or extraneous variables.
 A bad hypothesis!
More definitions…
 Type 1 error – rejecting the null hypothesis
when the DV has arisen from a variable other
than the IV.
 Type 2 error – accepting the null hypothesis
when the sample size is really too small for us
to be certain that the DV was not affected by
the IV.
 The most important thing to remember when
looking for errors is sample size, as this has a
large influence.
Populations
 Confidence intervals show graphically that
two populations are the same or different.
 You can compare the confidence intervals to
see whether anything other than the variable
you’re interested in is different
 For example, you could tell whether the
populations are matched for age
 You can tell whether you have same
populations or different populations
Populations
 A population is a larger group of people that
share a particular characteristic
 A sample is a small group that can represent
the larger group
 A sample might be 20 16 year old school girls
from England
 The larger population would be all 16 year old
school girls from England
 A different population would be 16 year old
school boys from England
Hypotheses
 Two-tailed hypotheses (also known as non-
directional hypotheses) say the IV will affect
the DV.
 E.g. Time of day will affect the duration of
short term memory.
 One-tailed hypotheses (also known as
directional hypotheses) say in which direction
the IV will affect the DV.
 E.g. Short term memory duration will be
longer in the morning than in the afternoon.
More about hypotheses
 If you choose a one-tailed hypothesis, you
should have good grounds for believing the
DV will be affected in the predicted direction
by the IV.
 The hypothesis you choose will have
implications for the statistical analysis – more
later.
 If you choose a one-tailed hypothesis and the
descriptive statistics show it is not supported,
you have to accept the null…
Descriptive statistics
 Descriptive statistics are the mean, standard
deviation, mode and median (depending on
the data).
 If you have two sets of data, calculate the
mean and SD first.
 If the means are reversed from the prediction
made by the IV, the null hypothesis is
instantly accepted without any further
analysis.
Example…
 Experimental hypothesis: Eating chocolate ten
minutes before a maths test will result in higher
scores.
 Null hypothesis – Eating chocolate ten minutes
before a maths test will not result in higher scores.
 Two conditions – chocolate eating group, no
chocolate eating group.
 Mean of score for chocolate eating group – 7.6
 Mean of score for no chocolate eating group – 9.8
 The null hypothesis is accepted and the experimental
hypothesis is rejected.
Probabilities
 When testing hypotheses, we are looking for
the probability that the differences between
two conditions are not due to sampling errors.
 Probability is a difficult concept (I think!) that
looks at the chance of something happening.
 In a simple way, the chances of a coin
showing a head on any toss is 1 in 2.
 The chances of winning the lottery is 1 in 14
million…
Probabilities
 When looking at psychological investigations,
we accept a convention of a 1 in 20
probability that the results happened by
chance.
 This is also expressed as 5% or 0.05 (which
is actually 5/100).
 This means that in any hypothesis testing we
are doing, using inferential statistical tests, we
accept that the experimental hypothesis is
supported when the probability of it
happening by chance is less than 1 in 20.
Probabilities
 We write this down, conventionally, as
 P < 0.05
 In other areas of science, for example, drug testing, it
might be that the p value has to be lower, e.g. p <
0.01.
 This reflects a testing of the hypothesis at a
significance level of 1 in 100, that is, we are 99%
sure that it didn’t happen by chance.
 Some psychological testing can be seen to be
significant at this level, if the sample is large enough
and the results are sufficiently different.
 However, p < 0.05 is enough for acceptance of the
experimental hypothesis.
Probabilities and SPSS
 SPSS shows the p value under the column
Sig.
 This value is what you look at to see whether
the result is significant and whether you can
accept the experimental hypothesis.
 It has to be less than 0.05 for the null
hypothesis to be rejected.
 An example…
Chocolate and no-chocolate

Two
conditions –
children’s
scores in a
maths test
after
chocolate
(group1) and
after no
chocolate
(group 2)
Running a t-test

Click on
Analyze,
Compare
Means,
Independent-
Samples T
Test
Assigning the variables…
Assign the
Scores to
the test
variable and
the group to
the
grouping
variable –
the (? ?)
means we
haven’t
defined the
groups yet.
Defining the groups…

Define the
groups by
using 1 for
group 1 and
2 for group
2 – easy!
 The output

1.00 = chocolate No of participants Mean and SD for each group

2.00 = no chocolate in each group
 The output

The ‘t’ value The degrees of The significance for a two-

freedom value ‘df’ tailed hypothesis
Explaining the output
 The mean for the group receiving chocolate is
5.5, the mean for the group not receiving
chocolate is 7.2.
 This is telling me that if I had selected a one-
tailed hypothesis, predicting the chocolate
group to have higher scores, I would have
had to reject the null hypothesis before doing
the t-test.
Explaining the output
 We have two values for t, df and Sig.
 These relate to whether we can assume
equal variances or not.
 To determine which we choose to use, we
look at the column headed ‘Levene’s Test for
Equality of Variances’.
 If the Sig value under this column is less than
0.05, the Levene’s test is statistically
significant and this means that the two
samples do not have equal variances.
Explaining the output
 In our case, the Levene’s Test is not
statistically significant (the value of .370 is not
less than 0.05), so we look at the equal
variances assumed results.
 These show the t value at -2.847, the
degrees of freedom as 18 and the
significance for a two-tailed hypothesis at
0.011.
 Now for what these mean…
Interpreting the T test
 The t statistic is a measure of the size of the effect –
the higher the t value, the greater the difference
between the groups.
 The degrees of freedom is a difficult concept to
explain – it is basically the number of observations
that have been made (in this case, scores) minus the
number of parameters (in this case, 2 because of the
two groups).
 So we have 10 + 10 – 2 = 18.
 Don’t worry too much about this – SPSS tells you
what it is and you just remember to quote it when you
give the t-test result.
Interpreting the T test
 The probability, in our case, that our result
was not due to chance was 0.011, that is 11
in 100.
 This is less than 0.05, so our result is
significant.
 However, for a two-tailed hypothesis!! This
would only be the case if we have said eating
chocolate will have an effect on the scores
children achieve in a maths test.
 It did, but it made them go down, not up.
Other things about T tests
 The t statistic can be positive or negative,
depending on which group has the highest
scores.
 They have the same meaning, the magnitude
is the same, it’s the direction that defines the
sign.
 E.g. if group 1 have lower scores than group
2, t will be negative.
Choosing a statistical test
 In my example, I used an independent T test
because I had different participants in each
condition.
 That is, one group of children were given
chocolate and the other didn’t receive any.
 This is a between-participants design.
 Between-participants design experiments
with a continuous DV are analysed using the
independent T-test.
Choosing a statistical test
 If I had carried this out differently, and used the same
children in each condition, this would be a within-
participant design.
 In this case, I would use a Paired-samples T- test.
 I would have tested the children firstly with no
chocolate, then later tested them again with
chocolate.
 This might have been better because the children act
as their own controls and I can rule out individual
differences as causing the differences in maths
scores.
Choosing a statistical test
 To remind you, when carrying out a comparison
between two continuous variables, this is a
correlational analysis.
 This will require a Pearson’s correlation to analyse it -
for example, the hours revising correlated with the
scores in exams.
 To analyse categorical data, where responses have
been put into categories, use chi-squared.
 For example, food choices made by children of
different ages.
Back to TMA 3…
 TMA 3 is asking you to undertake your own
experiment.
 You will firstly conduct a Stroop Test on four
people
 You will add this data to the data provided
(Assignment Booklet, on page 38, table 2).
 Put it into SPSS – think about the design to
get this right
 Explain the output.
The Stroop test
 J.R. Stroop found, in 1932, that people asked
to identify the colour in which words were
written found it more difficult when the
information conflicted.
 For example, it’s easy to identify the colour
red when the word is red.
 When the word is red written in blue, it
becomes more difficult.
 Why?
Automatic processing
 Reading words is automatic – we can’t help reading
any word we see, even if it’s a nonsense word.
 Identifying and naming colours is also automatic –
see a wall painted blue and you will automatically
know it’s blue.
 However, when two automatically processed pieces
of information come together and they conflict (the
word red printed in blue), there is a hesitation in
naming the colour because the automatic process
has to be overridden consciously.
Traditional Stroop methodology
 This is usually carried out using colour words printed
in the colour they refer to (congruent colour words)…
 And colour words printed in colours they don’t refer to
(incongruent colour words)
 Sometimes, though, variations are used
 For example, colour evocative or colour related
words
 Grass printed in green (congruent colour related) or
grass printed in red (incongruent colour related)
 That’s what you are doing here
Stimuli materials
 Available from the DSE212 course website,
course resources
 You need stimulus materials, 3 sheets, one
test sheet and two conditions
 Consent form
 Data sheet
 Notice the controls between the two
conditions for word length and letters used
Writing the report
 Read carefully chapter 7 of the Exploring
Psychological Research Methods book
 Full of information to help you with this
 Read the assignment booklet properly
 Stick to the sections recommended
 Use subheadings in the methods section
 Keep to the word count
 Appendices and references not counted in
word count
Writing it up
 The introduction should be in a filter structure
 You need to read the material relating to this
experiment in the course book
 Chapter 6 of Book 1 Mapping Psychology, in
particular section 2
 Use the structure on the next slide to write
your intro
 Start broadly and focus down on the main
purpose of the experiment – research
hypothesis
 Structure of the introduction

We can’t we attend to everything?

Automatic and controlled processing.
Why do we need automatic processing?
The downside of automatic
processing.
Why we want to explore
this problem.
The research See page 204 of
Start broadly, focus
Exploring
down to the hypothesis hypothesis.
Psychological
Research Methods
Method
 Needs to be fully replicable
 That is, anyone else could do it from your
description
 Divide into sections – Design, Participants,
Materials, Procedure
 You need to mention ethics – all those that
apply to this
 Ensure all the stimulus materials etc are in
the appendix and refer to them in the account
Thinking about design
 You need to be absolutely clear about the
design.
 To remind you, the design is how the
participants are allocated to conditions.
 Different participants in each group –
between-participants design, statistical
analysis Independent T-test.
 Same participants in each group – within-
participants design, statistical analysis
Paired-sample T-test.
Results
 State the research hypothesis
 Describe the data in detail, specify what the
measurements were
 Any calculations you carried out
 Descriptive statistics (mean and SD) preferably in a
table and/or chart
 What do the descriptive stats say?
 Inferential test (which one and why)
 State the results of the inferential test
 State whether it’s significant and whether you accept
or reject the null hypothesis (don’t say prove or
disprove)
Discussion
 State the results (again, I know it feels
repetitive!)
 Explain the results
 Show how these results fit with research in
the field and whether they correspond with
what is already known
 If the null hypothesis was accepted, was this
because of a flaw in the experiment?
 Was there any issues in the data collection?
Discussion
 Evaluate the experiment, be honest and
critical
 Implications – are there implications of the
findings?
 Ideas for further research – what other
experiments could be conducted to help find
out more or answer questions generated by
this experiment?
Title and abstract
 Title should reflect the independent and
dependent variables
 Abstract – short (150 words) summary of the
aims, methods, results and conclusion of the
study and put at the front (before the
introduction)
 Remember ABC – Accurate, Brevity and
Clarity.
 Check it with a family member to see whether
they understand what you did!
References and appendices
 Please reference this properly
 See Assignment Booklet page 8 for full detail
of referencing
 Include everything in the appendices –
including the SPSS print outs
 Please note: there may be problems with
submitting this electronically for users of MS
Works and Star Office – see the booklet for
information on how to submit to ensure I get
all the SPSS stuff!!
Approximate marks for TMA 3
 Title and abstract – 10 marks
 Introduction – 10 marks
 Method – 24 marks (should include design,
participants, materials and procedure in
clearly defined sections)
 Results – 20 marks
 Discussion – 20 marks
 References and appendices – 4 marks
 Overall clarity and conciseness – 12 marks
Deadlines…
 The deadline for this TMA is February 10
 Happy to extend, for those in need!
 Please email me for any other help with the
forthcoming TMA or any other course related issues.