The Psychological Question Thread.

[sillysmile]

I'd like opinions on if my answer would suffice if this was a VCAA question
Be harsh and critical

Insight 2010
Explain how a teacher threatening to give a student detention for not doing homework can be viewed as negative reinforcement. (left off the punishment coz it was much easier)

Negative reinforcement has the effect of strengthening behaviour, which in this case, the behaviour could be the teacher threatening students. If after the student has been threatened they proceed to complete their homework, the unpleasant stimulus/situation has been removed (the unpleasant situation being the student not doing homework).

that's confusing to be honest.
you have the right idea, but the negative stimulus that is being removed is the teachers threats, which increases the likelihood of the student repeating the behaviour (doing hw)

[xoxogossipgirl]

I found the answers unclear and I showed my psych teacher and she thought their answers were quite confusing and unclear.
I think both ways of approaching it would be okay as (I think) there's been a sort of similar VCAA one

I thought it was confusing. I wrote one answer and showed my teacher and she said it was very convoluted and confusing so I tried to fix it, yet found it was still messy.
I thought it could have also been the other way around? Similar to a VCAA one (can't remember what year ahh!) where the parent was being negatively reinforced by the removal of the child/noise/etc - and for this example the teacher is the parent

Does that make sense =/ I find short answer for learning to be my worst at expressing myself clearly

[extcar]

 Sean's grandfather can recall 20 July 1969 because it is when neil armstrong first set foot on the moon's surface. This is an example of ___ memory.
A) declarative
B) procedural
C) semantic
D) episodic

answer says semantic, but i thought a specific event is episodic? or is it cos its specialised knowledge? :S

[sillysmile]

Sean's grandfather can recall 20 July 1969 because it is when neil armstrong first set foot on the moon's surface. This is an example of ___ memory.
A) declarative
B) procedural
C) semantic
D) episodic

answer says semantic, but i thought a specific event is episodic? or is it cos its specialised knowledge? :S

I think it depends, if the grandfather has a personal memory about the moonlanding it's episodic
if he just remembers the date and astronaut, in a factual way, then it's semantic..
this question was unclear about which it was.

[xoxogossipgirl]

Sean's grandfather can recall 20 July 1969 because it is when neil armstrong first set foot on the moon's surface. This is an example of ___ memory.
A) declarative
B) procedural
C) semantic
D) episodic

answer says semantic, but i thought a specific event is episodic? or is it cos its specialised knowledge? :S

on first reading I thought semantic, as it's general knowledge about the world
but it is quite ambiguous. VCAA won't be that cruel (hopefully)

[xoxogossipgirl]

TSSM 2010 SA Q4
"Archer is participating in a study on memory. In the first trial, he is shown fifteen
different items and is then required to recall the items in the same order they are
presented. In the second trial he is shown another set of fifteen items but then required to
complete a distracter task for 30 seconds before attempting to recall the fifteen items in
order.  
On the graph below, sketch the serial position effect curves that Archer would be
expected to show. Clearly label one curve ‘trial 1’ and the other curve ‘trial 2’."

Suggested solution is below
I thought for serial position effect, if it's serial recall (in the same order) the graph at the end doesn't come back up, as in there isn't a recency effect? So for trial 1, the curve wouldn't come back up. That's what I have written in notes from an Access revision lecture..

[Slumdawg]

TSSM 2010 SA Q4
"Archer is participating in a study on memory. In the first trial, he is shown fifteen
different items and is then required to recall the items in the same order they are
presented. In the second trial he is shown another set of fifteen items but then required to
complete a distracter task for 30 seconds before attempting to recall the fifteen items in
order. 
On the graph below, sketch the serial position effect curves that Archer would be
expected to show. Clearly label one curve ‘trial 1’ and the other curve ‘trial 2’."

Suggested solution is below
I thought for serial position effect, if it's serial recall (in the same order) the graph at the end doesn't come back up, as in there isn't a recency effect? So for trial 1, the curve wouldn't come back up. That's what I have written in notes from an Access revision lecture..

Both wouldn't have the recency effect, you're right. A delay of more than 20 seconds and serial recall both eliminate the recency effect.

[masonnnn]

the whole point of serial position effect is that it has to be in serial order, so the items at the end of the list are remembered better as they're still in short term memory
think the notes must be a bit off :/

trial 2 it doesn't come back up as the delay results in the items at the end of the list not being in STM anymore as the limit is ~20 seconds

ok wait.
now i'm a little confused myself.
time to check notes properly...

[xoxogossipgirl]

Forgot to attach their suggested solutions, they're attached now

Yeah I understood why trial 2 didn't come back up
I still think trial 1 wouldn't come back up? The 'serial' in serial position effect refers more to the position of information in a list I thought, not that recall is in serial order..
Yeah it confused me too don't worry. I think maybe company exams with mistakes are more detrimental than helpful as they make me doubt what I know..

[xoxogossipgirl]

Also, would you say matched participants design is an experimental design that can overcome the disadvantages of independent groups? Their answers have only included repeated measures.

[extcar]

Yeah i reckon so. i think it was also in one of the answers for a trial exam. NEAP 2008?? i think

[masonnnn]

yeah definitely, matched-participant overcomes all errors of both other experimental designs, the only neg point is it costs time and money.

OK, one thing i'm definitely struggling with:
what are the key points for working memory?
like, the MAIN roles of the central executive and the BEST definitions for the roles of the visuospatial sketchpad and phonological loop.

i know them generally but having trouble being specific and concise with them...

[xoxogossipgirl]

I'd say the main role of the central executive is integrating information from the visuospatial sketchpad & phonological loop, however you have to have a few other roles up your sleeve as well. I don't think you need many so just go through your notes and figure out which ones you remember best. For instance I remember that it assists in weighing up the pros and cons when making decisions, and.... well maybe that's all I know. *prays they don't ask for 3 functions*

visuo & phono... something along the lines of working on visual and spatial info/auditory info
I'm not as clear on expressing them

[ohyeah]

I'd say the main role of the central executive is integrating information from the visuospatial sketchpad & phonological loop, however you have to have a few other roles up your sleeve as well. I don't think you need many so just go through your notes and figure out which ones you remember best. For instance I remember that it assists in weighing up the pros and cons when making decisions, and.... well maybe that's all I know. *prays they don't ask for 3 functions*

visuo & phono... something along the lines of working on visual and spatial info/auditory info
I'm not as clear on expressing them

This and also to decide which information gets transferred to LTM and which gets ignored and hence lost from memory. Might be good to add that it also "works on" information retrieved from LTM when we bring it consciously to mind.

[jinny1]

Having problems with vcaa 2008 research methods...

A researcher asked all the fi rst year Psychology students (100 males and 100 females) from Kookaburra
University to participate in a study. Students were offered extra marks in their Psychology fi nal score if they
agreed to participate.
Of the 200 students, 40 volunteered for the study (20 males and 20 females). The researcher wanted to investigate
whether the memories of fi rst year Psychology students at Kookaburra University were increased by sugar
intake.
Prior to the study, informed consent was given and all participants were asked to memorise a list of 20 words
(List A). They were then tested on their recall of the words.
The researcher then divided the participants into two groups. For convenience she put the 20 female volunteers
into one group (Group 1 – sugar group) and the 20 male volunteers into another group (Group 2 – no sugar
group).
Group 1 (sugar group) was given a drink containing sugar. Group 2 (no sugar group) was given a drink that
did not contain sugar.
All participants were asked to memorise a different list of 20 words (List B). They were tested again on their
recall of the words.
The mean difference in the recall of words across the two lists was calculated. The results are presented in the
table below.

Question 15.Were the participants in this study randomly selected? Explain your answer.

i wrote yes as the entire population were given the opportunity to participate...even though only some chose to. the actual answer is

"No. The students were 40 volunteers from the population. This biased the sample towards those who were willing to
take part"

WTH??? any participants are volunteers...or else it would breach voluntary participation

Question 22: What ethical standard or consideration was breached by the researcher? Explain how it was breached.

I said Debriefing however the answers were:

"Professional conduct or voluntary participation. The participants were coerced into taking part by being given extra
marks for their participation."

What do you mean coerced!!??? Many participants these days are paid to participate in research but that does make it unethical... besides we already established that participants were VOLUNTEERS....so what matters if they were given a reward..