Exam code: 8182
You have been asked to investigate the effect of emotion on perception.
Explain how you would design an experiment to do this.
You need to include the following information in your answer:
what you would ask the participants to do and what data you would collect
the experimental design you would choose and why this would be suitable
the results you would expect to find from your experiment including both conditions of the independent variable.
Was this exam question helpful?
A researcher wants to investigate the most common behaviours displayed by children during the sensorimotor stage of development.
The researcher and an assistant decide to carry out a controlled observation study.
One behaviour being observed is ‘shaking a rattle’.
Describe how you would carry out this controlled observation study.
You need to:
identify a suitable age range of the target population
suggest two suitable behaviour categories that could be used during the observation. Do not include ‘shaking a rattle’ as one of your categories
briefly describe two ways the researcher could make sure there is interobserver reliability
identify one way the researcher could make sure her study is carried out in an ethical manner.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following box information
Watch out – dinosaurs about! A mobile phone company produced an app called DinoCatch to encourage people to exercise and enjoy more time outdoors. Someone playing DinoCatch would ‘catch’ digital dinosaurs on their mobile phone. These dinosaurs appeared on their screen when the player arrived at outdoor locations such as parks. A researcher wanted to assess the impact of DinoCatch in the town of Waterlake. She counted the number of visitors to Waterlake Park between 1–2 pm during each of the 7 days before DinoCatch was introduced and at the same time during each of the 7 days afterwards |
Table 3 Number of hours playing DinoCatch and mood improvement rating
Participant Number | Number of hours spent outdoors playing DinoCatch | Mood improvement rating |
|---|---|---|
1 | 7 | 5 |
2 | 3 | 5 |
3 | 12 | 6 |
4 | 15 | 7 |
5 | 4 | 4 |
6 | 24 | 10 |
7 | 27 | 9 |
8 | 2 | 2 |
9 | 22 | 10 |
10 | 12 | 7 |
Use the graph paper to sketch a scatter diagram to show the results given in Table 3. Provide a suitable title for your scatter diagram and a label for the x axis.
Title __________________________________________________________
Estimate the mood improvement rating for someone who played the app for 20 hours.
Use the results from the study to help you.
The researcher concluded that playing DinoCatch caused participants’ mood to improve.
Suggest why the researcher is not correct to draw this conclusion.
Was this exam question helpful?
Outline and evaluate the use of interviews in psychological research.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following article.
A psychology researcher’s shocking findings about obedience!!! The results of a psychology experiment show that most people will obey someone who gives them orders – even if that means giving someone else a life-threatening electric shock!!! The shocks were actually fake – but the participants didn’t know that. The researcher carried out different versions of the experiment. He changed the method to test the effect on obedience levels. In every version, participants were ordered by the researcher to give shocks of increasing voltage. The highest possible voltage was 450. In the original experiment, 65% of the participants were willing to give the highest shock. The participants could not see the person being ‘shocked’ but they could hear fake screams. Obedience levels fell when the researcher wore everyday clothes instead of a lab coat. Obedience levels were also lower when the experiment was carried out in an office instead of a scientific lab. Only 19% of the participants were willing to give the highest shock when the orders were given by telephone rather than in person. |
The experimental design used in all of the versions of the described obedience research was independent groups.
Using your knowledge of how to plan and conduct psychological research, discuss the reliability and validity of using independent groups.
Was this exam question helpful?
Research has been carried out with different cultures to see whether or not non-verbal behaviour is innate.
The results show that the facial expressions of anger and happiness are commonly recognised by most cultural groups around the world.
Outline how you would design a study to investigate whether or not the facial expression of surprise is also commonly recognised.
In your answer:
identify who your participants would be and explain why you would choose these participants
describe what you would ask your participants to do and what data you would collect
identify whether the data you collect would be qualitative or quantitative and explain your answer.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following information.
A neuroscientist studied language difficulties and anxiety levels in people who have had a stroke. Damage to the language areas of the brain can result in difficulties with speech, reading, writing and understanding what others are saying. The neuroscientist asked 10 participants from a stroke rehabilitation centre to take part in the study. The participants were ranked on the level of language difficulties they were experiencing (1 = least difficulty; 10 = most difficulty). Each day for 30 days, the participants recorded a daily anxiety score using the scale shown in Table 2. |
Table 2 Daily anxiety scale
Very low | Low | Medium | High | Very high | |
Today my anxiety level is... | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 |
At the end of the 30 days, the neuroscientist added up the daily scores for each participant. The results are shown in Table 3.
Table 3 Each participant’s ranking of the level of language difficulties and each participant’s total anxiety scores for 30 days
Participant’s identifying number | Ranking of the level of language difficulties experienced | Total anxiety scores for 30 days |
|---|---|---|
001 | 5 | 119 |
002 | 2 | 100 |
003 | 10 | 143 |
004 | 3 | 109 |
005 | 7 | 127 |
006 | 9 | 138 |
007 | 8 | 135 |
008 | 1 | 97 |
009 | 4 | 114 |
010 | 6 | 120 |
The following scatter diagram also shows the results found by the neuroscientist.
The possible locations of two of the participants’ results are shown by the letters A–F.
Identify the correct locations on the scatter diagram for the results of participant 002 and participant 010.
Choose two choices.
A
B
C
D
E
F
Name the type of correlation the neuroscientist has found between language difficulties and anxiety levels.
When the neuroscientist saw the results, she claimed to have found the cause of anxiety in people who have had a stroke.
Explain why the results do not show that language difficulties cause anxiety.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following information.
Some social psychologists believe that men and women react differently to highly stressful social situations. They believe that men are more likely to have a ‘fight or flight’ response. However, women are more likely to do something called ‘tend and befriend’. ‘Tending’ behaviours would include protecting vulnerable others, such as children. ‘Befriending’ behaviours include spending time with friends and asking for help. |
You have been asked to investigate possible gender differences in the fight or flight response to a highly stressful social situation.
Describe how you would design a study to do this.
You need to include the following information in your answer:
what you would ask your participants to do
what data you would collect and a justification for why this should be collected
Was this exam question helpful?
A researcher wanted to investigate the effect of context on the accuracy of memory.
Describe how she could design a laboratory experiment to do this.
You need to include the following information in your answer:
a task that she could ask participants to carry out and a description of the data she would collect
what the conditions of the independent variable would be
one extraneous variable that could affect the results and how the researcher could control this variable.
The researcher considered different experimental designs when planning her experiment.
Identify and explain one strength and one weakness of an independent groups design.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following information.
At a school sports day, students were asked to run 100 metres on the running track as quickly as they could before and after drinking 150 ml of an energy drink. The researcher recorded the times taken to run 100 metres for each student. |
Identify the type of experiment used in this study.
Field
Independent groups
Laboratory
Matched pairs
Repeated measures
Identify the experimental design used in this study
Field
Independent groups
Laboratory
Matched pairs
Repeated measures
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following information.
In a sixth form centre, students have independent study lessons as well as subject lessons. Students use the sixth form learning area during their independent study lessons. They are expected to use their study lessons to finish work related to their subjects. Teachers are concerned that some students spend more time chatting to friends than finishing work during study lessons. A researcher is asked to investigate how students are using study lessons. The researcher asked 30 students to fill in a questionnaire about how they spend their study lessons. They selected participants using stratified sampling. |
Sketch a frequency table the researcher and their assistant can use to collect information about the types of learning activity participants do during study lessons.
Include two categories of behaviour about types of learning activity in your frequency table.
Do not include ‘chatting to friends’ and ‘completing work’ as categories of behaviour.
The psychologist and their assistant had high interobserver reliability in their observation study.
Define what is meant by ‘interobserver reliability’ in observational research.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following information
Researchers wanted to find out how personality traits affect whether or not people will say something when they witness anti-social behaviour (eg littering or vandalism). Participants were given a questionnaire to rate themselves on a number of different personality traits. The personality traits included confidence, extraversion, respect and self-control. Participants were also asked how likely it is that they would say something if they saw someone doing something anti-social. The researchers’ results showed a number of correlations between the likelihood of saying something and the bystander’s dispositional factors. |
Outline one strength and one weakness of using correlations in psychological research.
Participants were asked to rate their confidence levels on a scale. box
The scale went from 1 (low) to 5 (high).
Participants used a similar scale to rate how likely they are to say something when they see someone dropping litter.
The results are shown in Table 1.
Table 1 Ratings for participants’ confidence and the likelihood of saying something when witnessing littering.
Participant | Confidence rating 1–5 | Rating for the likelihood of saying something when witnessing littering 1–5 |
|---|---|---|
A | 5 | 4 |
B | 3 | 3 |
C | 2 | 1 |
D | 4 | 3 |
E | 4 | 5 |
F | 1 | 1 |
G | 3 | 2 |
H | 5 | 5 |
I | 2 | 3 |
J | 4 | 4 |
Use the results in Table 1 to sketch a suitable graph to show the ratings for participants’ confidence and the likelihood of them saying something when witnessing littering.
Also include in your answer:
a label for the Y axis
a scale for both axes
a suitable title for your graph.
Title___________________________________________________________
The researchers who carried out the described questionnaire would like you to do a follow-up study.
The participants who took part in the questionnaire have also agreed to be participants for your study.
You are also able to use the ratings they gave themselves for the different personality traits.
Describe how you would design a field experiment to find out more about how personality affects whether people would say something when witnessing anti-social behaviour.
In your answer include:
a description of the procedure you would use
what your dependent variable would be.
Was this exam question helpful?
The ‘One day at a time’ research study asked people with a diagnosed mental health problem to regularly answer the question ‘What did you find difficult to deal with today?’
On 6 days, spread throughout the year, people were asked to write about their day.
An analysis of the answers was carried out and the difficulties most commonly mentioned by the participants were identified.
Many participants mentioned more than one of these common difficulties.
The results are shown in Table 2.
Table 2 Difficulties most commonly mentioned by females and males.
Difficulties | Number of females who mentioned difficulty | Number of males who mentioned difficulty |
|---|---|---|
Physical health issues | 143 | 70 |
Relationship issues | 95 | 43 |
Experiences of mental health services | 105 | 60 |
Sleep issues | 126 | 71 |
Experiencing stigma about their mental health problem | 128 | 67 |
Work issues | 97 |
Outline one strength of using questionnaires to carry out psychological research.
Imagine you have been asked to carry out a follow up study to the ‘One day at a time’ research.
One of the individual effects of having a mental health problem is the negative impact on physical wellbeing.
The researchers have asked you to find out more about how the negative impact on physical wellbeing affects people with a mental health problem.
You have decided to carry out your study by doing a questionnaire. You plan to use opportunity sampling to select your participants.
In your answer:
explain how you will select your opportunity sample
write one question that will help you to collect relevant quantitative data
write one question that will help you to collect relevant qualitative data.
Was this exam question helpful?
You have been asked to conduct an experiment to investigate the effects of serial position when learning a list of words. Describe how you would conduct this experiment.
You need to include:
the experimental design you would choose, and why this would be suitable
the task participants would be required to do and the data that you would collect
the results you would expect to find from your experiment.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the item and then answer the questions that follow.
A teacher asked her students to record how long they spent on social media and how long they spent reading for pleasure over a 14 day period. This is what she found.
Table 3: Table to show the time spent on social media and the time spent reading for pleasure
Participant number | Variable A (hours on social media) | Variable B (hours reading for pleasure) |
|---|---|---|
1 | 2 | 18 |
2 | 16 | 7 |
3 | 14 | 9 |
4 | 6 | 17 |
5 | 10 | 11 |
6 | 20 | 3 |
7 | 9 | 13 |
8 | 12 | 10 |
9 | 17 | 5 |
10 | 7 | 15 |
Identify the type of correlation the teacher found.
Negative correlation
No correlation
Perfect correlation
Positive correlation
Was this exam question helpful?
Which of the following is a strength of using an independent groups design in psychological research?
Fewer participants are required for the study.
Individual differences between participants are controlled.
Order effects such as practice or fatigue are avoided.
Participants are more likely to succumb to demand characteristics.
Was this exam question helpful?
Explain what is meant by counterbalancing and why it is used in repeated measures designs.
Was this exam question helpful?
Professor Sharma is conducting an experiment to test whether eating chocolate before a psychology test affects the results students achieve.
Half of the 40 students were randomly allocated to condition A: eating 50 g of milk chocolate 30 minutes before the test. The other half were allocated to condition B: eating no chocolate before the test.
The test score (out of 100) was recorded for all students.
Professor Sharma randomly allocated the participants to Condition A and Condition B.
Briefly explain one reason why random allocation was used in this experiment.
Was this exam question helpful?
Outline and evaluate the use of questionnaires in psychological research.
Was this exam question helpful?
Read the following information.
A neuropsychologist carried out an observational study to investigate language function in patients who had suffered neurological damage to Wernicke’s area.
10 patients with Wernicke’s aphasia (difficulty understanding speech) were assessed on their speech comprehension difficulty using a rating scale (1 = low difficulty; 10 = high difficulty). The scores were: 3, 5, 5, 6, 7, 7, 9, 10, 10, 10. |
High levels of damage to Wernicke’s area are typically associated with high levels of difficulty understanding speech.
Name the type of correlation this finding represents.
When the neuropsychologist saw the results, she claimed to have found that damage to Wernicke’s area causes speech comprehension difficulties.
Explain why the results do not show that neurological damage causes language difficulties.
Was this exam question helpful?