Internal Assessment Introduction

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Internal Assessment Introduction
Only take notes on slides with a star, like the
one to the left.
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Purpose of Internal Assessment

• The internal assessment enables students to
  demonstrate the application of their skills and
  knowledge, and to pursue their personal
  interests, without the time limitations and other
  constraints that are associated with written
  examinations.
• The internal assessment is a key component of the
  IB Psychology. In this assessment you will
  replicate an actual psychology experiment.

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IA Expectations

• You may work by yourself, with a partner, or in a
  group of up to four students.
• You MUST do you your own write-up. This is the
  only way to earn a grade.
• Ethics considerations must be observed (More
  Later)
• You must have it approved by me. List of possible
  topics coming soon
• You must follow all the procedures outlined and
  meet deadlines.

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Ethical Guidelines for Internal Assessment

• Any experimental study that creates anxiety,
  stress, pain or discomfort for participants must
  not be permitted.
• Any experimental study that involves unjustified
  deception, involuntary participation or invasion
  of privacy, including the inappropriate use of
  information and communication technology (ICT),
  email and the internet, must be avoided. There
  may be rare occasions when such infringements
  cannot be avoided, in which case the approval of
  other experienced psychologists should be sought
  before proceeding. (See the psychology forum on
  the online curriculum centre (OCC) for further
  guidance.)
• All participants must be informed before
  commencing the experimental study that they have
  the right to withdraw at any time. Pressure must
  not be placed on any individual participant to
  continue with the investigation beyond this
  point.

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Ethical Guidelines for Internal Assessment

• Each participant must be informed of the aims and
  objectives of the research and must be shown the
  results of the research.
• Young children should not be used as
  participants. Experimental studies involving
  children need the written consent of parent(s) or
  guardian(s). Students must ensure that parents
  are fully informed about the implications for
  children who take part in such research. Where an
  experimental study is conducted with children in
  a school, the written consent of the teachers
  concerned must also be obtained.
• Participants must be debriefed and given the
  right to withdraw their own personal data and
  responses. Anonymity for each participant must be
  guaranteed.
• Teachers and students must exercise the greatest
  sensitivity to local and international cultures.
• Students must avoid conducting research with any
  adult who is not in a fit state of mind and
  cannot respond freely and independently.

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Ethical Guidelines for Internal Assessment

• If any participant shows stress and/or pain at
  any stage of an experimental study, the
  investigation must finish immediately, and the
  participant must be allowed to withdraw.
• Non-human animals must not be used for
  experimental study.
• All data collected must be kept in a confidential
  and responsible manner and not divulged to any
  other person.
• Students must regard it as their duty to monitor
  the ways in which their peers conduct research,
  and to encourage public re-evaluation of any
  research that contravenes these guidelines.
• Experimental studies that are conducted online,
  using ICT methods, are subject to the same
  guidelines. Any data collected online must be
  deleted once the research is complete. Such data
  must not be used for any purpose other than the
  conduct of the experimental study.
• Students found to have carried out unethical work
  will be awarded no marks for the internal
  assessment component.

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Example of Topics

• Memory
• Memory and the serial position curve Subjects
  learn a long list of words and after a delay they
  have to recall as many as possible. The
  hypothesis is that people tend to remember the
  first and last words in a list due to the primacy
  and recency effects but not the middle words.

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Example of Topics

• Perception, thinking and Performance
• This one is based on the idea that people have a
  very fixed association between color and taste
  and attempts to find out how strong this is. It
  involves giving subjects colored drinks but in
  some conditions the color doesn't match up with
  the flavor (e.g. red colored mint). By measuring
  how long it takes for subjects to judge the
  flavor will tell us how strong the associations
  are.

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Example of Topics

• Conformity and Prejudice
• Luria and Rubin (1974) participants given the
  same picture of a baby but one group told it is
  male the other female. Record differences in
  descriptions. It is best to give a checklist to
  participants containing typical masculine and
  feminine traits fine featured, strong, robust,
  sensitive, cute, delicate etc

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Example of Topics

• Drives and Motivation
• Incentives and performance It would seem logical
  that incentives should improve our performance.
  This could be tested by asking subjects to
  perform simple tasks like anagrams and measuring
  their speed of performance under different
  conditions. e.g. with or without an incentive
  like a Mars bar or alternatively by creating a
  fear of failing - to see whether positive or
  negative incentives are the most effective (e.g.
  telling the subjects that the results will be put
  on display and that the average number of
  completed anagrams in 5 minutes by 8 year olds is
  15!) This could be developed to find whether the
  fear of failure impedes performance most on more
  complex cognitive tasks like anagrams rather than
  simple memory recall type tasks.

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Important Info

• Rough Draft Due December 15
• Final Draft Due January 5
• We will have deadlines throughout the semester
  for you to complete parts of the IA.
• Use this site to begin looking at topics to get
  ideas.
• http//www.ibpsychology.com/Internal20assessment/
  ia.htm