thought piece 1
PSYC1000B General Psychology
2012-2013, First Term
Thought Piece # 1
Due: 5pm, 15 Oct 2012
We have discussed different learning theories (e.g. classical conditioning and operant conditioning) in Lecture 3. Please derive ONE hypothesis related to any real-life issues based on one of these theories and then design an experiment to test your hypothesis.
When you work on this assignment, try to think of and answer the following questions:
What is your hypothesis?
What are your independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV)?
How will you manipulate your IV (i.e. what is your treatment) and how will you measure your DV?
What are your experimental and control groups?
What are the possible confounding variables and how would you control them?
How would you decide that your hypothesis/es have been supported? (i.e. whether or not your hypothesis is supported by your data)?
What may be potential problems with your experiment? How can they be solved?
The major goal of this assignment is to apply what you have learned about the key elements of experimental design to real-life situations. You will need to describe the design of an experiment to best test your hypothesis. Please be specific about all of the key elements of your design and also about what results will be consistent or inconsistent with your predictions.
Issues like sampling, group assignment, confounding factors etc. should be considered when designing the experiment. Basically you will not need to read anything extra apart from the textbook and lecture notes for this assignment. Of course if you find it helpful to use ideas from other sources, you may do so, and in that case you should clearly state the source. Whenever you cite others’ work, please acknowledge the source. Plagiarizing others’ work will be penalized with severe mark reduction. Late submission will also be subject to mark reduction
(marked down by 10% per day after due
2012-2013, First Term
Thought Piece # 1
Due: 5pm, 15 Oct 2012
We have discussed different learning theories (e.g. classical conditioning and operant conditioning) in Lecture 3. Please derive ONE hypothesis related to any real-life issues based on one of these theories and then design an experiment to test your hypothesis.
When you work on this assignment, try to think of and answer the following questions:
What is your hypothesis?
What are your independent variable (IV) and dependent variable (DV)?
How will you manipulate your IV (i.e. what is your treatment) and how will you measure your DV?
What are your experimental and control groups?
What are the possible confounding variables and how would you control them?
How would you decide that your hypothesis/es have been supported? (i.e. whether or not your hypothesis is supported by your data)?
What may be potential problems with your experiment? How can they be solved?
The major goal of this assignment is to apply what you have learned about the key elements of experimental design to real-life situations. You will need to describe the design of an experiment to best test your hypothesis. Please be specific about all of the key elements of your design and also about what results will be consistent or inconsistent with your predictions.
Issues like sampling, group assignment, confounding factors etc. should be considered when designing the experiment. Basically you will not need to read anything extra apart from the textbook and lecture notes for this assignment. Of course if you find it helpful to use ideas from other sources, you may do so, and in that case you should clearly state the source. Whenever you cite others’ work, please acknowledge the source. Plagiarizing others’ work will be penalized with severe mark reduction. Late submission will also be subject to mark reduction
(marked down by 10% per day after due