Cognitive Psychology Mini-Research Project

1. Understand and apply key concepts in Cognitive Psychology in daily life;

2. Critically evaluate relevant journal articles and identify research questions;

3. Design and conduct a Cognitive Psychology experiment;

4. Analyse and report findings using the cognitive approach.

Students are required to conduct a mini research based on the given topic. You need to study indepth on the chosen topic and collect data followed by presenting your finding in a meaningful way. You need to submit your work in a poster format.

1 Assignment Team: Form a group of 5(minimum) or 6(maximum) members. Members should from the same tutorial class to avoid clash of time during presentation.

2 Design and conduct a simple demonstrational experiment looking at one of the theories or issues described in association with any of the following topics.

a. Sensation and Perception

b. Pattern recognition

c. Attention

d. Memory

e. Semantic Organizational

3 You may conduct other experiment on other topics which is not mentioned above with the approval of your lecturer/tutor.

4 You may replicate an available classic experiment/design own experiment.

5 Research Questions: Think of questions* you wish to answer by using statistical way (descriptive statistics), which are related to your topic.

Example: Does music improve memory retention/attention when studying?

Manipulated variable : Presence of Music

Constant Variable : Study material (List of 20 names)

Responding variable : Number of name/s recalled

6 Research Sample: Get at least Thirty (30) sample* to be your participants.

a. Each member of the group needs to conduct the demonstration individually with 6 samples. For example, if your group has 5 members; each member will run the experiment with 6 samples. In total, there will be 30samples in a group.

b. Make sure the variables, method used are same for all the members in group.

c. Once the demonstration/experiment done individually, compiled all the data from all members into one.

7 Result: Analyse the data using suitable and correct statistical techniques (simple descriptive statistics only) that able to answer your research questions, include the graphical presentation of your analysis.

8 In your poster, you must include:

a. Describe the theoretical basis for your demonstration.

b. Describe what you did in your demonstration and describe the results.

c. Provide an interpretation of these results: Do they fit with your expectations? Why? Why not?

9 You may use the poster template (Attachment A) provided. You are free to edit the colors, etc. accordance to your creativity and needs. However, please remain with the font size given in the template.

10 Students’ written works are expected to have proper grammar, punctuation, sentence structure, paragraph development, and logical sequence of thought.

11 Use APA Referencing 7th Edition* for referencing

(a) Should consist of a background, literature review, problem statement, aims and hypotheses;

(b) Clear justification for aims, research questions and hypotheses based on the literature cited in (a).

(a) Include how participants were recruited etc, experimental design, materials, venue, and procedure. Provide sufficient detail for future replication.

(b) Include figures and tables as and where appropriate.

(c) Describe and justify how the independent and dependent variables will be measured.

(a) Mention the statistical test(s) used to analyse the results and provide reason(s) for using this/these test(s)

(b) Include figures and tables as and where appropriate.

(c) Briefly summarise the results.

(a) Restate the hypotheses, whether your results support/do not support the hypotheses, and whether your results are consistent or inconsistent with the literature. Justify how and why they are consistent or inconsistent with the literature.

(b) Mention strengths, limitations, implications and future direction of your study. Summarise with a conclusion.