Cognitive Practical

Question 1

What is the aim of the Cognitive Practical?

Answer 1

To investigate if age effects digit span capacity

Question 2

What is the sample of the Cognitive Practical?

Answer 2

Participants 19 and under
Participants over 19

Question 3

What is the independent variable of the cognitive practical?

Answer 3

Age - 19 and under
19 over

Question 4

What is the dependent variable of the cognitive practical?

Answer 4

Digit span capacity
The longest sequences a participant can recall in order without error

Question 5

What are the extraneous variable of the cognitive practical?

Answer 5

Hearing impairments
Background noise
Sequences should be random (otherwise they might be easier to recall from some if patterns are distinguished)
Same list of sequences are used each time

Question 6

What are the confounding variables of the cognitive practical?

Answer 6

Cognitive impairments
Processing speed
Culture/ native language

Question 7

What experimental guideline does the cognitive practical follow?

Answer 7

Independent groups
Using different age groups as the independent variable

Question 8

How will the ethical guidelines be upheld in the cognitive practical?

Answer 8

Deception- no deception, this is not necessary as it wont effect digit span capacity.
Right to withdraw- explain the aim and get consent before and after
Informed consent- verbal consent given, data is anonymous- the digit span
Protection of participants - no potential harm- only recording digit span. The score is anonymous, however participants can request their score is wanted
Debrief- inform participants that their data will be used but kept anonymous, they have the right to withdraw data and digit span score if requested.

Question 9

State the one-tailed directional hypothesis of the Cognitive Practical.

Answer 9

Participants 19 and under will have a larger digit span compared to participants who are over 19 measured by the capacity of numbers correctly recalled without error out of 10

Question 10

State the two tailed non-directional hypothesis of the Cognitive Practical.

Answer 10

There will be a difference in digit span capacity between 19 and under participants and over 19 participants measured by the capacity of numbers correctly recalled without error.

Question 11

State the null hypothesis of the Cognitive Practical

Answer 11

There will be no difference in digit span capacity between participants that are 19 and under and participants over 19 measured by the capacity of numbers correctly recalled without error.

Question 12

How has the cognitive practical remained a standardised procedure?

Answer 12

Same digits used in the sequence
Read sequences verbally out loud twice to check it has been heard
The participants write the sequences down rather than verbalise- prevents errors in results
All participants proceed to the 10 sequences

Question 13

Explain the descriptive results of the cognitive practical (4 marks)

Answer 13

The mean digit span for 19 and under participants was calculated as 5.6. However, the mean digit span for over 19 participants was calculated as 7. This suggests that the average digit span for over 19 participants was larger, so they has a greater digit span capacity compared to participants 19 and under.
In addition, the standard deviation for 19 and under participants was calculated as 0.98 compared to 1.73 for participants over 19. This suggests that participants over 19 had a greater variation so digit span was less consistent between participants compared to 19 and under participants.

Question 14

What was the mean of the digit span capacity for participants 19 and under?

Answer 14

5.6

Question 15

What was the mode of the digit span capacity for participants 19 and under?

Answer 15

6

Question 16

What was the median of the digit span capacity for participants 19 and under?

Answer 16

6

Question 17

What was the range of the digit span capacity for participants 19 and under?

Answer 17

3

Question 18

What was the standard deviation result of the digit span capacity for participants 19 and under?

Answer 18

0.98

Question 19

What was the mean of the digit span capacity for participants over 19?

Answer 19

7

Question 20

What was the mode of the digit span capacity for participants over 19?

Answer 20

7

Question 21

What was the median of the digit span capacity for participants over 19?

Answer 21

7

Question 22

What was the range of the digit span capacity for participants over 19?

Answer 22

5

Question 23

What was the standard deviation result of the digit span capacity for participants over 19?

Answer 23

1.73

Question 24

What was the calculated Mann Whitney value for the cognitive practical?

Answer 24

11.5- the value was not significant therefore we have to accept the null hypothesis

Question 25

Was the data of the Cognitive Practical significant?

Answer 25

The data is not statistically significant since the observed value of Mann Whitney U= 11.5. The critical value of U when Na=7 and Nb=7 to a P=0.05 for a directional hypothesis is 11. In order to be significant the observed value has to be equal to or lower than the critical. Therefore, as the calculated value is larger, the null hypothesis must be accepted.

Question 26

What are the levels of measurement?

Answer 26

Nominal
Ordinal
Interval/Ratio

Question 27

What is a nominal measurement?

Answer 27

Collection of categorical data where frequency isn’t necessarily important. Data cannot be arranged into an order and can only take certain values.

Question 28

What is an ordinal measurement?

Answer 28

Collection of categorical data where the data will usually be ranked or have some form of order. The order reflects the difference in the data, but the difference is difficult to measure.

Question 29

What is an interval/ ratio measurement?

Answer 29

Involves a standardised measurement unit like time, weight, temperature, distance. These have equal measurement intervals.

Question 30

Evaluate the Cognitive Practical (8 marks)

Answer 30

Generalisability- weakness
Results cannot be generalised because the sample size is too small, 14 participants were used either 19 and under or over 19. Therefore, it cannot be concluded that age affects digit span in the same way for the whole population.

Reliability- strength
Results are reliable because a standardised procedure was used. The same environment, sequences and verbal process was all conducted in the same way for all participants. There was no difference in the procedure that could have influenced results.

Application- strength
Results can be used in society that age impacts digit span. This can aid communication when giving instructions to people, it helps to chunk verbal information dependent on the age group.

Validity- strength and weakness
Lacks ecological validity because the procedure was artificial and does not represent how an individual would recall information in a natural setting
However, because of this controlled setting the risk of extraneous variables are minimised. For example, the sequences chosen had no repetition or patterns to remove the risk of rehearsal.
However, confounding variables such as processing speed could still impact results.

Ethics- strength
The investigation was ethical. This is because participants were given the right to withdraw and provided fully informed consent to participate and use their data- no deception was necessary.
Participants were protected from harm and data was kept confidential and anonymous.