Unit 7:Contextual Prerequisites and Experimental Design

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Unit 7Contextual Prerequisites and Experimental
Design

• Quiz 1
• Warm-Up Exercises
• Instructions for Lab Activity
• Data Sheet
• Analysis
• Debriefing

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Quiz 1
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Warm-Up Exercises
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Warm-Up Exercise

• Observational study (pp. 48-52)
• Observe and describe
• Descriptive stats only
• Correlational study (pp.52-54)
• Examine relationship between 2 variables
• Non-causal
• Experimental study (pp. 55-57)
• Independent variable what is manipulated
• Dependent variable what is measured

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Warm-Up Exercise

• Independent Variable (p.55)
• The factor that is manipulated in the experiment.
• The effect that causes changes in the dependent
  variable.
• Dependent Variable (p.55)
• The factor that is measured.
• The score(s) that change because of the
  experimental effect (i.e. independent variable).

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Warm-Up Exercise

• Exercise 1
• Indicate whether the following are observational
  (O), correlational (C) or experimental studies
  (E).
• Exercise 2
• Indicate what would be the independent and the
  dependent variables if the following conclusions
  were based on experimental research. Briefly
  describe a study to test the conclusion.
• (write designs in the margins)

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Lab Activity
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Instructions for Lab Activity

• Do NOT read ahead in the assignment.
• The instructor will be the experimenter today.
• All students will be subjects, and will be
  randomly assigned to one of three groups.

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Group 1

• "I am going to play a tape-recorded prose
  passage. I want you to listen very carefully to
  it. Try to comprehend what is being said, and
  try to remember as much of it as you possibly
  can. After hearing the tape you will be asked to
  recall as much of it as you are able to. Do you
  have any questions?"

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Group 1

• Prose Passage

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Group 1

• Please write your group number at the top of a
  blank sheet of paper.
• Now please rate your comprehension of the prose
  passage you just heard. Write the number seven
  if you felt your understanding was excellent, six
  if you felt it was very good, five if you thought
  it was good, four if you thought it was average,
  three if you thought it was poor, two if you
  thought it was very poor, and one if you thought
  it was extremely poor.
• Now please write down as much of the prose
  passage as you can remember. You will scored on
  the basis of the number of ideas you recall. You
  are not expected to reproduce the prose passage
  word for word. You have five minutes.

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Group 2

• "I am going to play a tape-recorded prose
  passage. I want you to listen very carefully to
  it. Try to comprehend what is being said, and
  try to remember as much of it as you possibly
  can. After hearing the tape you will be asked to
  recall as much of it as you are able to. Do you
  have any questions?

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Group 2

• Prose Passage

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Group 2

• Please write your group number at the top of a
  blank sheet of paper.
• It might help your recall to know that the title
  of this prose passage is 'Instructions for
  Washing Clothes'.
• Now please rate your comprehension of the prose
  passage you just heard. Write the number seven
  if you felt your understanding was excellent, six
  if you felt it was very good, five if you thought
  it was good, four if you thought it was average,
  three if you thought it was poor, two if you
  thought it was very poor, and one if you thought
  it was extremely poor.
• Now please write down as much of the prose
  passage as you can remember. You will scored on
  the basis of the number of ideas you recall. You
  are not expected to reproduce the prose passage
  word for word. You have five minutes.

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Group 3

• "I am going to play a tape-recorded prose
  passage. I want you to listen very carefully to
  it. Try to comprehend what is being said, and
  try to remember as much of it as you possibly
  can. After hearing the tape you will be asked to
  recall as much of it as you are able to. Do you
  have any questions?
• It might help your recall to know that the title
  of this prose passage is 'Instructions for
  Washing Clothes'.

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Group 3

• Prose Passage

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Group 3

• Please write your group number at the top of a
  blank sheet of paper.
• Now please rate your comprehension of the prose
  passage you just heard. Write the number seven
  if you felt your understanding was excellent, six
  if you felt it was very good, five if you thought
  it was good, four if you thought it was average,
  three if you thought it was poor, two if you
  thought it was very poor, and one if you thought
  it was extremely poor.
• Now please write down as much of the prose
  passage as you can remember. You will scored on
  the basis of the number of ideas you recall. You
  are not expected to reproduce the prose passage
  word for word. You have five minutes.

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Instructions for All Groups

• Some of you dont know this, but the passage you
  listened to was instructions for washing clothes.
  I now want you to score each others papers.
  The last page of your handout contains the text
  of the passage divided into idea units. Use
  this sheet as a guide to assign a grade, a recall
  score, from zero to seventeen for the paper you
  are marking. Remember that an idea does not have
  to be expressed in exactly the same words as the
  original.

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Data Sheet

• Copy data from spreadsheet on screen.

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Analysis Sheet

• Fill in the statistical table based on the
  information on the Data Sheet.
• Use an Excel spreadsheet to do the calculations.
  Students may collaborate, share the calculation
  work, in doing these stats.
• The instructor will also do the calculations on
  the computer as a check.

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Analysis Sheet

• Calculate the N, Mean, and Standard Deviation for
  each group (no topic, topic before topic after)
  and measure (recall comprehension) using Excel.
• N number of subjects
• ?X total of the scores
• M ?X / N
• Variance s2 ? x2 / (N-1)
• Standard Deviation s vvariance

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Analysis Sheet

• Steps to calculate variance s2 ? x2 / (N-1)
• Calculate the deviation scores x (X M)
• - subtract the mean from each score
• Square the individual deviation scores (x2)
• Sum the squared deviation scores ? x2
• Divide by (N-1)
• Standard deviation is the square root of the
  variance s vvariance

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Analysis Sheet

• Answer the following questions based on the Means
  for each group
• Does there appear to be a meaningful difference
  in recall scores between the groups?
• If so, between which groups?
• Does there appear to be a meaningful difference
  in self-judged comprehension between the groups?
• If so, between which groups?

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Analysis Sheet

• Answer the following questions based on the
  Standard Deviations
• Which group had the greatest variability in terms
  of recall?
• Which group had the greatest variability in terms
  of self-judged comprehension?
• (hint the higher the standard deviation, the
  more variability)

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Debriefing
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Debriefing

• Independent Variable Context
• 3 groups
• No Topic
• Topic Before
• Topic After
• Dependent Variables
• Recall score
• Self-Judged Comprehension score

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Debriefing

• Prime Principle Of Memory meaningfulness good
  recall
• Context (abstractions made concrete)
• Knowing in advance that the passage was about
  washing clothes makes it easier to recall more
  detail
• Context allows you to encode material
  appropriately, using your own experience prior
  knowledge to organize and store the information
• Context provided after encoding material is as
  useful as no context at all
• Emotional impact
• Associations and connections

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Debriefing

• Prime Principle Of Memory meaningfulness good
  recall
• Context (abstractions made concrete)
• Emotional impact
• If the material being encoded is emotionally
  charged, it will be easier to remember
• If angry, sad, ashamed, happy any strong
  emotion that is tied to the encoded material will
  make it more salient at recall
• The emotion must be present at encoding to assist
  recall
• Associations and connections

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Debriefing

• Prime Principle Of Memory meaningfulness good
  recall
• Context (abstractions made concrete)
• Emotional impact
• Associations and connections
• If you can link the material you are learning it
  to personal experiences and prior knowledge it
  will be easier to recall
• Again, the associations connections must be
  made while encoding the material after the
  fact will not help.

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Debriefing

• J.D. Bransford and M.K. Johnson (1972) series of
  experiments
• Contextual knowledge that precedes the
  presentation of prose passages greatly improves
  the recall of the prose
• Contextual knowledge given subsequent to the
  presentation of the prose but before the test of
  recall does not significantly affect recall.
• Thus importance of contextual information is in
  the initial comprehension and storing of the
  material to be memorised, not in the recovery or
  remembering of the material

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Next Lab

• Two weeks from today
• Lab Unit 7 is due at the beginning of your next
  lab.
• Quiz 2 will cover
• Lab Unit 7
• Chapters 9 10
• Lecture Units 12 13 (Jan 19th Jan 29th)

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Thats all she wrote!

• Remember
• Lab Unit 7 is due by the beginning of your next
  lab
• Quiz 2 will be next lab
• Next lab is in two weeks