INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTATIONS
INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTATIONS
INTRODUCTION TO EXPERIMENTATIONS
Experiments:
one or more of the conditions being studied (APA Dictionary) Experiment involves
Independent variable:
Dependent variable:
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dictionary).
One way to help identify the dependent variable is to remember that it depends on the
they then measure any resulting changes to the dependent variable. The dependent
variable is the effect. Its value depends on changes in the independent variable
(Bhandari, P)
Extraneous Variable:
These are those variables that researcher is not investigating that can affect
the outcome of research study. Or anything that is not the independent variable that
has the potential to affect the results is called an extraneous variable. (Dr McLeod,
Types of experiments:
1.Lab experiment
2.Field experiment
3.Quasi experiment
Lab experiment:
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possible. All the things were decided by researcher i.e where the experiment will
take place, at what time, with which participants, in what circumstances etc.
Advantage:
Disadvantages:
1.The artificiality of the setting may produce unnatural behavior that does not reflect
real life, i.e., low ecological validity. This means it would not be possible to
Field experiment:
Field experiments are done in the everyday (i.e., real life) environment of the
Advantage:
1.Behavior in a field experiment is more likely to reflect real life because of its natural
Disadvantage:
1.There is less control over extraneous variables that might bias the results.
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Quasi experiment:
Advantage:
1.There are several designs to choose from that you can adapt depending on your
context
Disadvantage:
ability to see and accept facts as they are, not as one might wish they were. To
be objective, one has to protect oneself against one’s own prejudices, beliefs,
desires, values and preferences. Objectivity requires that one should set aside
2. Replicability: Reliable in this sense means that any other person may replicate
work cannot be relied upon by others and a similar result replicated, then it
simply means that at the very early stages of the research work, a researcher
attaining a result which is exact with the original research is what makes for the
5. Validity: This refers to how well a scientific test or research actually measures
what it sets out to, or how well it reflects the reality it claims to represent.
ensure that all participants take the same test under the same conditions and are
scored by the same criteria, which in turn ensures that results can be compared
to each other.
Research Question:
most important thing in whole research. It provides enough detail that the audience
shortest possible words. Creswell (2005) explains that the research topic is a broad
area in which “a central phenomenon is the key concept, idea, or process studied in
the researchers predict will be the outcome of the study. By (Monash University)
Types:
1.Null
2.Alternative
statistical hypothesis in which there is no significant difference exist between the set
It is of 2 types
Directional hypothesis: The alternative hypothesis contains the less than (“< “) or
greater than (“>”) sign. This indicates that we’re testing whether or not there is a
Non-directional hypothesis: The alternative hypothesis contains the not equal (“≠”)
sign. This indicates that we’re testing whether or not there is some effect, without
Sampling: The process of selecting for study a limited number of units from a
or a subset of the population to make statistical inferences from them and estimate the
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method
Sampling methods:
Probability sampling: In this researcher selects a few criteria and chooses members
Random sampling: Random sampling gathers a random selection from the entire
population, where each unit has an equal chance of selection. This is the most
Systematic sampling: Systematic sampling draws a random sample from the target
population by selecting units at regular intervals starting from a random point. This
method is useful in situations where records of your target population already exist,
research.
1. Convenience sampling: where samples are selected from the population only
those people who they deem fit to participate in the research study.
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Purpose: sampling is very useful in many ways as this method is time saving, save
References:
variable .https://www.verywellmind.com/279527
https://www.scribbr.com/
https://www.simplypsychology.org/.html
https://bscholarly.com/
https://gdaviesedd.wordpress.com/2015/09/26/edl751-creswell-2009-chapter-7/
#:~:text=Creswell%20say%20a%20researcher%20should,addition%20to%20the
%20central%20question.
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Exploring the role of emotions on short time memory among female college
Aim: To experimentally study the effect of emotions on short term memory among
Introduction:
Emotions are present in almost every moment of our daily lives, adding
others, such as when we feel sad and need some help & emotions also play an
play a role in determining whether we can recall a stored memory at the time we try
to revisit it. We also conducted an experiment to find how emotions affect short
term memory.
Emotions:
circumstance that triggers the emotion. For instance, a person experiences joy when
they receive good news. A person experiences fear when they are threatened. (By
cherry,k.).
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(In 1972, psychologist Paul Ekman) suggested that there are six basic
emotions that are universal throughout human cultures: fear, disgust, anger,
surprise, happiness, and sadness. Emotions,” wrote (Aristotle 384–322 BCE), “are
all those feelings that so change men as to affect their judgements, and that are also
attended by pain or pleasure. Such are anger, pity, fear and the like, with their
opposites.”
Theories of emotion:
physiological arousal. Recall what you have learned about the sympathetic nervous
system and our fight or flight response when threatened. If you were to encounter
some threat in your environment, like a venomous snake in your backyard, your
would make your heart race and increase your respiration rate. According to the
James-Lange theory of emotion, you would only experience a feeling of fear after
this physiological arousal had taken place. Furthermore, different arousal patterns
would be associated with different feelings and physical reactions that occur at the
same time.
● Cannon – bard:
emotional reaction, and vice versa. Cannon-Bard proposes that both of these
were adaptive and allowed humans and animals to survive and reproduce.
According to the evolutionary theory of emotion, our emotions exist because they
the environment, which helps improve the chances of success and survival.
experiencing emotion. Richard Lazarus was a pioneer in this area of emotion, and
this theory is often referred to as the Lazarus theory of emotion. According to this
theory, the sequence of events first involves a stimulus, followed by thought, which
emotion. For example, if you encounter a bear in the woods, you might
immediately begin to think that you are in great danger. This then leads to the
emotional experience of fear and the physical reactions associated with the fight-or-
flight response.
Memory:
and retrieving information (Squire, 2009). Psychologists have found that memory
these kinds of memory have different attributes, for example, sensory memory is
not consciously controlled, short-term memory can only hold limited information,
information over time; retrieval is the ability to access information when you need
and Shiffrin,R. in 1968). Atkinson and Shiffrin believed that once information
enters the brain, it must be either stored or maintained and that the information
which is stored goes into three distinct memory systems: the sensory register, short-
term memory, and long-term memory. Let's look at each of these components more
carefully.
In the sensory register process, the brain obtains information from the
environment. This activity is short, lasting at most a few seconds. During sensory
register, the brain gathers information passively through visual and auditory cues,
term memory is when the brain stores information temporarily so that it can be
repeated, such as remembering a phone number you see on TV. Working memory
refers to the brain storing information for the purpose of manipulating it, such as
within the brain. Once a memory arrives there, the mind stores it completely and
indefinitely. In truth, this is not the case. Although the long-term memory process
allows information to remain in the brain for an extended period, nothing in the brain
avoids risk. Information stored in long-term memory can stay in the brain for a short
Theories of memory:
Multi store model (Atkinson & Shriffin 1968)This model suggested that information
exists in one of 3 states of memory: the sensory, short-term and long-term stores.
Information passes from one stage to the next the more we rehearse it in our minds,
According to this model, memories do not reside in 3 stores; instead, the strength of a
other words, the more we think about something, the more long-lasting the memory
we have of it .
for over-simplifying STM (as well as LTM) as a single storage system . So WMM
visuo-Spatial Sketchpad.
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history that vast numbers of people seem to hold vivid recollections of. You will
likely be able to recall such an event that you hold unusually detailed memories of
yourself. When many people learned that JFK, Elvis Presley or Princess Diana died,
or they heard of the terrorist attacks taking place in New York City in 2001, a detailed
memory seems to have formed of what they were doing at the particular moment that
Review of Literature:
studies shown that people often remember emotional events clearly rather than
One research study shows that people who are in a positive mood are more likely
mood (i.e., sad or angry) are less likely to remember the information that is
an emotional climate in the classroom that can be conducive to learning. This study
(Bower 1978) study participants to recall words from two lists, one lists learned
while they were happy and the other learned while they were sad. Emotional states
(happiness & sadness) were induced via hypnotic suggestions. Highly hypnotizable
(happy& sad) for 5 to 20 minutes. Later they recalled both lists when they were in
one mood or the other. People who found to be in general sad state recalled more
while they being sad from hypnosis, and people who were found to be generally
Another important finding is that participants recalled more event- related words
from list when exposed to emotional stimuli related to the words. Consistently,
emotional items have been found to be remembered better than neutral items
(Kensinger, 2009; Mather & Sutherland, 2011; Payne et al., 2008; Yonelinas &
Ritchey, 2015). Theories suggest that positive emotion may have a distinct effect
but not in pairings of one positive and one neutral word, indicating that this
Alzheimer's disease, and give a clue to the management of people with dementia.
Rationale: I have chosen this topic for study because, in present world the most
important thing is the Youths mental physical state. Specifically, students in school
and colleges. They have another burden of studies, parents’ expectation, peer pressure
etc which leads to mental breakdown also students often make poor academic progress
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because they become overloaded by classroom demands and other pressures. So, our
study will show that will emotion effect short term memory.
Hypothesis: Participants watching happy video will have better recall as compare to
Methodology:
Participants: There are 30 female students which are divided into 3 group each group
have 10 students. Two groups are experimental group and other one is controlled
group. Group one student shown happy video , other group student shown sad video
Sex: Female
Research design: There are 2 experimental groups and one control group.
Independent variable is emotions i.e., emotions were manipulated by showing sad and
happy video.
Dependent variable is memory. resulted that group showing happy video recall better
Statistical descriptive:
Procedure:
First, we discussed and then selected the topic,' Does emotions affect short
term memory’. Then we chose four videos in class and circulated them over google
forms. Through voting two videos were selected. After that we created a list of ten
words that were shown just after the video was played . After selecting the video
we decided to divide the groups into control and experimental group and
experimental group was further divided into two groups i.e. happy and sad. To the
happy group, happy video was shown & too sad group sad video was shown
Repport Formation: We let the participants to sit and feel comfortable while asking
A short video will be shown to you, further instructions will be given after the video
ends.
A list of 10 words will now be presented to you for 30 (time to be adjusted) seconds
You will be expected to retain the words verbally shown in the list in any order/
After which, you have to orally reproduce the words you have memorized from the
list.
A list of 10 words will now be presented to you for 30 (time to be adjusted) seconds to
You will be expected to retain the words verbally shown in the list in any order
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After which, you have to orally reproduce the words you have memorized from the
list.
7 4 7
6 6 4
4 6 6
5 2 5
6 3 5
5 7 8
6 4 9
6 3 6
10 6 5
4 5 7
The mean value of happy group is 5.9, sad group have 4.6 and controlled
group value is 6.2. So, our hypothesis is partially correct because participants recall
better after seeing happy video as compare to sad one but the mean value of control
group is greater than happy group because of outliers. There were two participants
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in controlled group who were excited to perform and they also like to learn new
words which lead them to recall more than those participants who were in happy
group.
But if we remove those two outliers who score 8 and 9, than our hypothesis
will be fully proved because then mean of control group comes less than happy
group.
on short term memory, our interpretation of the data is limited due to small number
Conclusion: Study proves that participants showing happy video recall better than
Summary:
The process was to choose a happy video and one sad video. Then we
divided the groups into control and experimental. Experimental group was further
divided into two groups happy and sad. A list was prepared of 10 words. After that,
we noted down the instructions that we took care of during the experiment and
instructions were also given to the participants about the experiment. After that we
comfortable them and then start our experiment, participants in happy and sad
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group were firstly shown the video happy video to happy group and sad video to
sad one after that further instructions were given to participants about the list that
we showed them a list for 25 sec and after that they have to recall the words ….
And to controlled group no video was shown directly list was presented and ask to
recall. After recalling we ask them to fill the scale 1 to 5 according to your feelings
and it is already proved that result of happy group is positive then sad and control
one.
Implications: This study proves that living in happy environment or seeing happy
thing affect our memory positively. It can help to decrease exam anxiety or help to
Limitations: This study in conducted on small sample only 30 sample has been taken
have an equal chance of getting selected, without any bias. But we choose participants
by own convinced
This study is conducted only on female college students whose age lies between 18 to
20.
Suggestions:
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Appendix A:
Valid N 16
Appendix B:
1. Transport
2. Drain
3. Adjustment
4. Outbursts
5. Blizzard
6. Noises
7. Bombardment
8. Eruptions
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9. Conscious
10. Lawn
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