Cognitive practical

Description
Aim: To investigate whether semantically processed words are recalled better than structurally processed words.
Experimental hypothesis: Semantically processed words will be recalled better in a free recall test than structurally processed words out of a possible 20.
Null hypothesis: To see whether recall of words is better due to the type of processing used.
Method: Experiment. Repeated measures.
IV: Types of processing i.e. semantic, structural
DV: Number of words recalled correctly in free recall test out of 20.
Procedure: 31 participants (males and females) took part in the study. Each participant was presented with a piece of paper of which 1-40 was written in the margin. Then words were presented on a slide show one at a time. 3 seconds for each word when question will be asked.
Then a 3 second blank slide was shown to allow answers to be written down. Each question would result in a yes/no answer.20 questions were asked that would lead to semantic processing and the other 20 lead to structural processing. For example- Is it in capitals? This would be structural. Is it a game? This would be semantic. At the end of the 40 questions the experimenter would distract the participant for 1 minute. Then participants were asked to write down as many words as they could remember from the slide show on a blank piece of paper and they had 2 minutes to complete the free recall test.
What controls you put in place: 1 Participant at a time. Only the experimenter and participant in the room. PowerPoint- words in Times New Roman/ words in middle of screen/ size 66/ Black/ plain slides. Each participant was shown same slide with same 3 second between each slide and 1 minute break before a surprise free recall test which lasted 2 minutes for every participant. Every participant was told the same introduction and the same debrief. Only questions leading to semantic and structural processing occurred.
What ethical guidelines you followed/broke in the study: Followed: Right to withdraw/ Protection of participants/ Debrief/ Competency/ only over 16’s took part.
Broke: Fully Informed Consent/ Deception
Sampling method: Opportunity sampling- Using whoever is easily available to make it quick and easy. People who were under the age of 16 or someone who knows about the study couldn’t participate in the study. Number of Participants: 31 (males and females)
Results:
| Structurally processed words | Semantically processed words | Mean number recalled | 2.5 | 6 | Mode | 3 | 8 | median |