How to choose your IA topic

The moment has come to choose your topic

Ethical A replication of a published study

Your IA must be

A true experiment

Simple

Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012

Ethical?
Name Asch, S. (1950s) Link (or use your texts) Conformity (See Course Companion, p119-121) Description Several studies into conformity. Bandura, A., Ross D. and Ross, S.A. (1961) Peterson, L.R. and Peterson, M.J. (1959) Social Learning (See Course Companion, p 111-114) Research into the transmission of aggression through children imitating aggressive adult role models. Memory and meaning, exploring the levels of processing theory.

Memory (See slide 8 for a summary)

Stroop, J.R. (1935)

Cognitive Processing (See slide 9 for a summary)

Automatic cognitive processing, and interference in verbal reactions.

Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012

True Experiment?
One DV One IV Result
That is measured to determine That is manipulated to affect The effect of the IV on the DV, as measured using descriptive measures of central tendency and dispersion.

There is either one experimental group and one control group, or two experimental groups, each under different conditions. Other variables are controlled.
Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012 4

Its Simple!
Some ideas for you. You do not have to do any one of these, but they are a good starting point for your thinking. (See the Psychology Guide, p
46-47 for more details):

Central traits in impression formationForming impressions of personality, Asch (1946) Social facilitationThe dynamogenic factors in pacemaking and competition, Triplett (1898) Memory and levels of processing, Craik and Tulving (1975). Word and letter recognition. Context effects and effects of position in visual search, Neisser (1964) Swash Pamoja, August 2012 Laura

How adjectives used in a description of a fictional person affect the persons likeability rating. How the presence of others affects the speed of performance on a task.

How the level at which we process a word affects our memory. How the task of finding a letter amongst others is affected by the shape of the contextual letters.
5

Here we go!
My IA Topic Study replicated Aim Variables - IV Variables DV Variables - Controlled
Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012 6

And remember to

Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012

Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012

Attention: J.R.Stroop (1935)

Stroop (1935) noted that observers were slower to properly identify the colour of ink when the ink was used to produce colour names different from the ink. That is, observers were slower to identify red ink when it spelled the word blue. This is an interesting finding because observers are told to not pay any attention to the word names and simply report the colour of the ink. However, this seems to be a nearly impossible task, as the name of the word seems to interfere with the observer's ability to report the colour of the ink. Abstract: In this study pairs of conflicting stimuli, both being inherent aspects of the same symbols, were presented simultaneously (a name of one colour printed in the ink of another colour--a word stimulus and a colour stimulus). The difference in time for reading the words printed in colours and the same words printed in black is the measure of the interference of colour stimuli upon reading words. The difference in the time for naming the colours in which the words are printed and the same colours printed in squares is the measure of the interference of conflicting word stimuli upon naming colours. Reference: Stroop, J.R., 1935. Studies of interference in serial verbal reactions. Journal of Experimental Psychology, 28, 643-662.
Laura Swash Pamoja, August 2012 9