What is a hypothesis?

1

• What is a hypothesis?
• Give an example of a hypothesis, based on a study
  you know about.

2
Todays session
You will learn about Context
Formulating testing experimental hypotheses Summarising data using mean standard deviation Studies of social and cognitive psychology
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Hypothesis

• A prediction about the outcome of a piece of
  research
• An experimental hypothesis must predict the
  effect of the IV on the DV

4
Experimental hypotheses

• A researcher dressed in uniform will be obeyed
  more often than a researcher dressed in civilian
  clothes.
• Words that PPs have processed semantically are
  more likely to be recognised than words that they
  have processed structurally.

5
Experimental hypotheses

• Suggest experimental hypotheses for the following
  studies
• Jenkins Dallenbach (1924)
• Godden Baddeley (1975)

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Experimental hypotheses

• Directional hypotheses predict the direction in
  which the results are expected to run
• Non-directional hypotheses predict an effect of
  the IV on the DV, but not a direction

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Jenkins Dallenbach (1924)

• PPs who learn the word list before sleeping will
  recall more words than PPs who learn the list
  after waking.
• There will be a difference in the number of words
  recalled between PPs who learn the list before
  sleeping and those who learn it after waking.

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Testing hypotheses

• Hypotheses predict results of experiments
• They must be tested against the data and either
  accepted or rejected

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Summarising data

• Before we can assess whether the data support or
  challenge the experimental hypothesis we must
  prepare a statistical summary
• Any set of data can be summarised to two figures
• Central tendency
• Dispersion

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Summarising data

• Central tendency
• Tells you a typical value from a set of data
• Mode
• Median
• Mean

• Dispersion
• Tells you how close to the central tendency the
  values in the set are
• Range
• Standard deviation

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Concept maps vs. notes

• IV revision strategy used
• DV score on a recall test (max. 20)
• H1 PPs using concept maps will recall more than
  PPs using notes.

Concept map Notes
Mean 15.6 13.7
S.Deviation 5.2 2.3
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Organised vs. disorganised

• IV info in categories or randomised
• DV score on a recall test (max. 20)
• H1 there will be a difference in recall between
  PPs who are give organised info and PPs who are
  given disorganised info.

Organised Disorganised
Mean 13.4 12.3
S.Deviation 1.6 6.2
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Review

• Identify
• One thing you already knew
• One fact you learned
• One skill you developed
• Something that was difficult and will need more
  work.