This assignment is designed to help you develop

This assignment is designed to help you develop an important skill related to lab reports: hypothesis writing.

 

Hypotheses are usually developed from a specific theory or build upon previous research. It is a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables and should be a testable prediction about what you expect to happen in a study. Hypotheses can be thought of as a bridge that links the introduction of your lab report together with your results and discussion. Hypotheses that are not written well or accurately will have negative impacts on major sections (e.g. Introduction, Results, and Discussion) of your lab report. The feedback from this assignment will directly relate to Assignment 1B: Lab report.

 

Note: Although this assignment does not contribute to your final mark for this unit, your hypotheses will form part of Assignment 1B: Lab report, which contributes 35% to your final mark.

This assignment supports unit learning outcomes 3, 4 and 5.

Assignment details

Background

This lab report examines the effects of two different studying techniques on people’s test performance: massed practice versus distributed practice. Massed practice refers to studying or rehearsing information in one period (i.e. cramming), whereas distributed practice (also known as spaced practice) refers to spacing out the time spent studying over several sessions with a break in between (see Figure 1 from Carpenter et al., 2012, p. 370).

 

The study design shows the student studying something once, follwed by a gap, then study it again, then a gap, follwed by the test of the information

Figure 1 Design of a typical study on the spacing effect (2012) supplied by Carpenter, Cepeda, Rohrer, Kang, & Pashler, p. 370

Importantly, the key difference is not the amount of time spent studying, but rather when the person spends the time studying and how much time passes between study periods. For example, you can either study for eight hours straight for an exam (i.e. massed practice), or you can study for one hour each across eight different days (i.e. distributed practice).

 

In addition to exploring study strategy, in this lab report, you will also examine the relationship between mind wandering during studying and people’s ability to learn and recall information (Risko et al., 2012). Mind wandering is a growing topic of research that builds on existing knowledge about the importance of attention in encoding. Thus, you will also learn about the research into the role of attention and staying on task when trying to learn information.

 

Aim

The study you will be writing about in Assignment 1B: Lab report will compare two study strategies (massed practice versus spaced practice) on participants’ performance on a fill-in-the-blank test. The study will also examine the relationship between mind wandering and test performance. Therefore, in the study, you will manipulate one independent variable with two levels—study strategy with massed practice versus spaced practice. In addition, two dependent variables will be measured—test performance and mind wandering. The two main research questions that the study will try to answer are:

 

Which study strategy will lead to the most accurate test performance?

Is there a relationship between mind wandering and test performance? If so, what is the strength and direction of the relationship?

 

 

Assignment 1A FAQS document

 

Operationalising Hypotheses (read this for support writing your hypotheses)

 

Starting references

Locate and read the following articles to provide you with an overview of the topic and variables:

 

7.1 The nature of memory (concluding at Types of memory) (pp. 295–297) in your Bernstein et al. eText

7.7 Applications of memory research (concluding at Design for memory) (pp. 333–337) in your Bernstein et al. eText

The provided ‘starter’ articles (select the next heading to find these).

Starter articles

Authors: Shana Carpenter, Nicholas Cepeda, Doug Rohrer, Sean Kang, and Harold Pashler

Title: Using Spacing to Enhance Diverse Forms of Learning: Review of Recent Research and Implications for Instruction.

Journal: Educational Psychology Review

Details: Published in 2012, in volume 24, on pages 369–378

DOI: 10.1007/s10648-012-9205-z

 

Authors: Evan Risko, Nicola Anderson, Amara Sarwal, Megan Engelhardt, and Alan Kingstone

Title: Everyday Attention: Variation in Mind Wandering and Memory in a Lecture

Journal: Applied Cognitive Psychology

Details: Published in 2012, in volume 26, on pages 234–242

DOI: 10.1002/acp.1814

Completing your assignment

For this assignment, you are required to develop two hypotheses related to the following:

• Which study strategy will lead to the most accurate test performance?
• Is there a relationship between mind wandering and test performance? If there is, what is the strength and direction of the relationship?

Your hypotheses will be specific predictions that operationalise the independent and dependent variables. The starter articles will provide you with an overview of the topic, but you may need to find additional articles in order to understand and develop a prediction about the kind of relationship you’d expect between the variables.

Assignment criteria

Hypotheses.

Your work will be assessed using the following marking guide:

 

Assignment 1A marking guide

Criteria

 

No Pass

 

Pass

50–59%

 

Credit

60–69%

 

Distinction

70–79%

 

High Distinction

80–100%

 

Hypotheses

(10 marks)

 

Did not operationalise independent and/or dependent variables.

 

Presented no hypotheses or unrelated hypotheses (e.g. did not use correct variables).

 

Incorrectly operationalised independent and/or dependent variables.

 

Hypotheses contained some irrelevant or incorrect elements.

 

Operationalisation of independent and/or dependent variables lacked clarity.

 

Relevant hypotheses, but they lack precision (e.g. direction of difference, strength) or clarity.

 

Concise and accurate operationalisation of independent or dependent variables.

 

Appropriate and well-written hypotheses. Some room to improve clarity or conciseness.

 

Concise and accurate operationalisation of independent and dependent variables.

 

The directional hypotheses are clearly written and appropriate.