Internal assessment

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Internal assessment

• Experimental research

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Considerations in research

• What do you hope to achieve i the study?
• What studies and theories are considered in your
  research?
• How do you plan to manipulate and measure
  variables?
• How will you select participants?
• Can the effect of situational variables be
  minimised? (control)
• What experimental design will you use?
• How can you control for experimenter bias and
  demand characteristics?
• How will you deal with ethical issues?
• How will you analyse the data you collect?

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Internal assessment

• Report according to IB rules
• Max.2000 words (HL) and max. 1500 words (SL)
• SL a simple replication
• Ethical considerations (informed consent form)
• Use past tense
• Use 3rd person

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Ethical considerations

• Non-human animals must not be used
• No deception
• Briefing
• Debriefing
• Right to withdraw
• Confidentiality

• Informed consent
• Consent form
• Children parental consent

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Consent form
  Consent Form.           I have been informed
about the nature of the experiment           I
understand that I have the right to withdraw from
the experiment at any time, and that any
information/data about me will remain
confidential           My anonymity will be
protected as my name will not be
identifiable.           The experiment will be
conducted so that I will not be demeaned in any
way.           I will be debriefed at the end,
and have the opportunity to find out the
results.   I give my informed consent to
participating in this experiment   NAME and
date____________________________________________  
Contact number___________________________________
__________      
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Title page

• Information about the candidate
• Type of investigation experiment
• Area under investigation
• Variables under investigation

• Example of a title
• An experiment to investigate the effect of
  imagery on encoding
• word count

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Table of contents

• Table of contents right after title page
• All pages must be numbered

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Abstract

• Summary of important information about the study
  including
• Aim of the study
• Methods used
• Results of study
• Conclusion
• Abstract must be of max. 200 words (not included
  in word count)

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IntroductionBackground literature and
justification of your own research

• General introduction to the psychological subject
  area under investigation
• Summary of key theories and previous research
  studies in the area (including references, e.g.
  Stroop (1935)
• 2-3 studies
• Rationale and justification of your experiment
• The aim (HL/SL) and hypotheses (HL)

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Introduction (Coolican, 1994)
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Aim of study should state

• What you hope to achieve in the study (e.g. to
  see if its easier to remember when you use
  imagery or rehearsal)
• Topic under investigation (e.g. Memory) and
  expected results
• Introduces research hypotheses (HL)
• Ex The aim of the study is to investigate if
  schemas affect recall.

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Research Hypotheses

• Clear and precise prediction of the expected
  outcome of the manipulation of the variable in
  the experiment
• Variables must be operationalised
• One-tailed/two-tailed hypothesis
• Null hypothesis predicts that changes are due to
  chance

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Examples

• Two-tailed Recall of objects will be affected by
  office schema.
• One-tailed Office schema will result in higher
  recall of office related objects.
• Null hypothesis There will be no difference in
  the two situations or Higher recall of office
  related words will be due to chance.
• No Hypotheses in SL only aim of study.

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Method consists of 4 sections

• Design
• type and justification of design (repeated
  measures/independent design), controls, ethical
  considerations, identification of variables (IV
  and DV)
• Participants
• Some characteristics of target population,
  sampling techniques (justified)
• Apparatus/Materials
• list of materials used, reference to copies in
  appendices
• Procedure
• Must be written in so much detail that it can be
  replicated

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Designs consider strengths and limitations in
each design

• Design must be justified (relate to why you
  choose a specific design and refer to strengths)
• Independent design each participant participates
  in only one condition (randomisation e.g. drawing
  names out of a hat decides who goes where)
• Larger sample needed so perhaps more
  representative
• More expensive and time consuming
• No order effect but problem with participant
  variables
• Repeated measures design each participant
  participates in both conditions
• Easier to get a smaller sample
• Order effects but counter-balancing possible
• No participant variable
• Account of controls in the experiment (what you
  did in order to control for confounding variables)

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Selection of participants

• 20 participants in an IB experiment
• Justify your sampling method
• In principle good to have a represenative sample
  
• What is the target population? Do your sample
  represent them?
• Random sample all persons in the target
  population has an equal chance of being selected
  very difficult to have a truly random sample
• Opportunity sample you take what is available
• Easy and not time consuming (strenght)
• Not a representative sample (weakness)

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Procedure

• Clear description of what you did and in what
  order
• Must be so clear that it can be replicated
• Refer to materials used in the experiment (and
  make a reference to an example of it in the
  appendices)

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Results

• State your results in narrative and in the form
  of graphs, tables and statistical test
• Interpretation of descriptive statistics (e.g.
  mean, standard deviation graph and table)
• Analysis using inferential statistics and
  justification for their use (HL only) check
  which tests to use in syllabus
• Graphs/tables where appropriate (may be computer
  generated)
• No raw data in result section (must be in the
  appendices)

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Discussion

• Discussion of results
• Linking of results to literature review in the
  Introduction (only mention theories and studies
  that have been mentioned in the intro dont
  introduces new ones)
• Identification of strengths and limitations of
  own methodology
• Suggestions for modification and further research
  
• End with a conclusion (refer to aim or research
  hypothesis)

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References

• Works cited within the report
• Must be in the proper format e.g. Morrison, M.
  (1996) Psychology. Essays, practical
  statistics. A guide for students. Singapore
  Longman.

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Appendices

• Supplementary information
• One copy of the instrument(s) used
• Copy of standardized instructions and debriefing
  notes
• Copy of informed consent paper (including
  parental consent if participants are children)

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Check list

• Use my check list paper to see if your report
  lives up to the assessment criteria