You can implement many experiments as a Power Point presentation if you use the automatic slide advance function to control timing. Requires paper and pencil for responses and eliminates RT experiments, but you can still do a lot of interesting projects this way.
I've implemented implicit and explicit memory tasks. I created a LOP task with one word presented per slide, using anagrammatic words as stuimuli (I found a list of words of 5 letters that are anagrams for one and only one word).I follow the LOP processing task with a filler task, then give an implicit test (solving anagrams that map onto the words in the lists plus some new anagrams that were not studied at all) followed by an explicit test (free recall of all the words presented for study. Students are biased to solve the anagrams with the words they studied (I have two versions of the LOP task so half study words for one solution and the other half study the words for other solution, the anagrams for the non-studied words serves as a control), but level of processing is irrelevant for this task. The LOP effect appears only in the free recall task. You can do an eyewitness experiment by creating a slide show in Power Point (a number of researchers have done their studies with this technology). Requires shooting a lot of digital pictures and there may be some issues in staging a crime (especially with a weapon!) for the stimuli. Students can avoid those issues and simply stage a non-violent event and look at eyewitness errors in the absence of a weapon (race bias in identification of the perpetrator is possible, but creates some problems for students who need to find people to serve as suitable foils in a photo lineup). One group of students stages an automobile accident (with and without an argument between those involved in the accident) by taking pictures of cars places strategically (the "accident" simply showed the two cars as if there had been an impact - they pulled them very close together but there was no actual damage to the cars). Then they staged mock arguments (gestures, facial expressions). One enterprising group staged a 2 or 3 minute video of an event for eyewitnesses. Harder to create a good manipulation with these unless the students are really good with editing and can insert a scene. Good luck! Claudia J. Stanny, Ph.D. Director, Center for University Teaching, Learning, and Assessment Associate Professor, Psychology University of West Florida Pensacola, FL 32514 - 5751 Phone: (850) 857-6355 or (850) 473-7435 e-mail: [email protected] -----Original Message----- From: Mark A. Casteel [mailto:[email protected]] Sent: Sat 8/22/2009 3:28 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: [tips] Question about research project in cognitive psych Every year, I have my students replicate a classic study in the field in small groups of 2-3 students. Every year, I'm ecstatic with the amount of information they learn (as well as the experience of presenting their research to the campus community) but I also wish I could have them do research that would be more intrinsically appealing to most. We don't offer a psych major at my institution, so few of these students will pursue either cognitive or experimental psych. I've often wondered if anyone has had students try to research topics like (1) the negative effects of texting while performing other activities or (2) the influence of the presence/absence of a gun on memory for a simulated crime, without requiring working with experimental software like E-prime or PsyScope. In other words, has anyone thought of a fairly easy way that students could research a topic like this, and collect data that would be both meaningful and (to their way of thinking) more interesting? If I could provide guidance with something like this, so the students don't waste the entire semester simply coming up with a workable protocol, that would be fabulous. Any comments are welcome, including ideas for other topical issues. Thanks! Mark ********************************* Mark A. Casteel, Ph.D. Associate Professor of Psychology Penn State York 1031 Edgecomb Ave. York, PA 17403 (717) 771-4028 ********************************* --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected]) --- To make changes to your subscription contact: Bill Southerly ([email protected])
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