Week 4 - Experimental design

Question 1

What is selective attention?

Answer 1

The processes that allows an individual to select and focus on particular input for further processing while simultaneously suppressing irrelevant or distracting information

Question 2

What is inattention blindness?

Answer 2

When you engage in a task, attention can act like a set of blinders, allowing salient stimuli to pass totally unnoticed right in front of our eyes

Question 3

What was the Gorilla opacity test?

Answer 3

Radiographers to look at scans and note down everything they saw, non of them saw the gorilla on the scans

Question 4

What are the 4 types of cognitive bias?

Answer 4

1) Confirmation bias
2) Authority bias
3) Availability cascade
4) Framing effect

Question 5

What is confirmation bias?

Answer 5

The tendency to interpret new evidence as confirmation of one’s existing beliefs or theories.

Question 6

What is authority bias?

Answer 6

The tendency to attribute greater accuracy to the opinion of an authority figure (unrelated to its content) and then be influenced by them

Question 7

What is availability cascade?

Answer 7

This is a self-reinforcing cycle that explains the development of certain kinds of collective beliefs

Question 8

What is the framing effect?

Answer 8

The framing effect is the cognitive bias wherein an individual’s choice from a set of options is influenced more by how the information is worded than by the information itself.

Question 9

What are the 5 principles of the scientific method?

Answer 9

1) Empirical data - A scientific theory requires empirical testing

2) A key determinants of a scientific theory is that it is falsifiable

3) Replication - Importantly we must accept that sometimes evidence is found in favour of a theory which is wrong

4) The use of measurement that is consistent and comparable

5) Effort must be made to establish cause and effect

Question 10

What is an IV?

Answer 10

The thing that changes

Question 11

What is the DV?

Answer 11

The thing you measure

Question 12

What are ceiling effects?

Answer 12

When the task is too easy

Question 13

What are floor effects?

Answer 13

When the task is too hard

Question 14

During the research you must uphold certain ethical standards such as informed consent. What are the other ethical standards?

Answer 14

• Deception
• Protection from harm
• Right to withdraw
• Debrief
• Confidentiality

Question 15

What is articulatory suppression?

Answer 15

Articulatory suppression refers tothe repetition of verbal informationas a concurrent task to actively attempting to memorise a list of information

For example repeatedly saying the word ‘Ba’ while trying to recall a list of information