This experiment investigated the effect of the presence of others on the number of word associations produced by a single individual. It was a replication of an experiment carried out by Allport (1920).

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Title: “An Experiment to Investigate the Effect of the Presence of Others on the Number of Word Associations Produced by a Single Individual” AbstractThis experiment investigated the effect of the presence of others on the number of word associations produced by a single individual. It was a replication of an experiment carried out by Allport (1920). The research hypothesis states that the presence of others around a person will help him come up with a greater number of word associations from a set list of words than he would if he had to perform the designated task on his own. The independent variable of the experiment was whether the participants were working individually or in a group; the dependent variable was the number of associations participants would come up with for 2 lists of words, each one containing 15 words. Results showed that group work can help an individual come up with a greater number of word associations for 2 lists of stimulus words when compared to the number of associations produced by an individual working solo. The results suggest the presence of others around an individual can affect his performance in the designated task in a positive manner, meaning it can help him become more productive while attempting to produce word associations, which is in line with the original study by Allport.Table of ContentsAbstract                                                                                    p.1Introduction                                                                              p.3Method                                                                                     p.4      Design                                                                                p.4      Participants                                                                        p.5      Materials                                                                            p.5      Procedure                                                                           p.6Results                                                                                     p.7Discussion                                                                               p.8References                                                                               p.10Appendices                                                                             p.11Introduction    The term ‘social facilitation’ refers to the tendency for individuals to be aroused into putting on a better performance on less complex tasks when under the eye of other individuals, rather than while they are working on their own, or when competing against somebody. More complex tasks, though, are quite often performed in a rather non-productive manner when it comes to such situations. This is known as the audience effect and has been demonstrated in a variety of species (Zajonc, 1965).    The earliest published research conducted on social facilitation is attributed to Norman Triplett in 1898. Triplett observed that among bicycle racers, the presence of other cyclists tended to improve overall performance, leading to faster race times.    A renowned study on social facilitation was conducted by Floyd Allport in 1920. Participants were asked to perform a variety of tasks under two different conditions. Some subjects had to work on the task while sitting around a table, isolated from the rest of the participants. Other participants were asked to work in groups while seated around the table. Tasks performed by participating individuals included word association, vowel cancellation, multiplication, problem solving and finally judgment of odors and weights. The results that were obtained showed that in all tasks apart from problem solving
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and judgment test, overall performance was better for individuals working in groups. The results can be attributed to the fact that tasks such as word association have responses that are generally well-established, whereas tasks like the problem solving test given to participants (disproving arguments of ancient philosophers) had less established responses. In other words, the probability of answering a question incorrectly was quite high.    In 1965, Robert Zajonc managed to breathe new life into social facilitation research by taking into account the previously unexplained dual nature of the phenomenon. According to the researcher, the presence of others serves as a ...

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