The time of day at which the experiment is conducted links in with fatigue. Therefore, this experiment will be conducted between 1300h and 1500h where fatigue is at a minimum. This may also help to decrease the possibility of hunger being an extraneous variable.
Demand characteristics will also have to be kept under strict control. Demand characteristics are when the participant develops an understanding as to why the experimenter is asking them to carry out the task. Therefore, the participants may concentrate harder on the colour words written in different ink colours which may distort the findings and lead to ecologically invalid results. To overcome this problem, the participants will only be told the aim of the experiment in the debriefing after they have carried out the task.
Evaluation apprehension is when the participants performance becomes inhibited by their concern that they are being judged by the experimenter. Therefore, the participants will not be watched whilst they are reading the words.
Experimenter bias is another possible extraneous variable. This is when the experimenter shows unintentional bias when giving instructions to participants or when recording data from an experiment. To ensure experimenter bias does not play a part in the investigation, a single blind method will be used. This means the participants will be unaware of the nature of the study so they will not be influenced by the experimenter.
Chemical imbalance (eg drugs and alcohol) will have an effect on the ability to concentrate and read words. Therefore, all participants used will be free of drugs and alcohol whilst carrying out the experiment.
The level of noise may also affect the participants ability to concentrate. The greater the level of noise, the slower the participants are likely to say the colour ink which the words are written. To overcome this extraneous variable, the experiment will be carried out in an empty room to ensure the level of noise is at a minimum.
Participants used will also be stress free whilst participating in the experiment as the greater the level of stress the participant is under, the worse they are likely to perform on the task as they may not be paying full attention to the task.
Target Population
The target population for this experiment will be dictated by various factors. For example, in order to produce accurate and reliable results, all the subjects must have the ability to read English fluently. This is because if some subjects could not read English as well as others, when the results are averaged, they may show that the colour words took longer to read than was actually true because the participants were unable to process the words as quickly as participants who could read English fluently. Therefore, to ensure all the participants can read English fluently and that they understand the instructions given to them by the experimenter, all the participants will be aged 18 or over. This also speeds up the investigation as parental consent will not be required.
The participants will not include those who are colour blind. This is because such participants may not be able to identify the primary colours (green, blue, red and yellow) which will produce inaccurate results. These participants may take a longer period of time to identify the words correctly or, the colour the word is written in may be seen differently by a colour blind person therefore, making it easier and quicker for them to read the word.
Thirty male and female participants will be used altogether. This will enable averages to be calculated and it will highlight any anomalous results. It will also produce results with more ecological validity (i.e. the extent to which the study shares the characteristics of real life situations) than say twenty participants.
By using participants of this age range means that the most logical sampling method to use will be an opportunity sample. This is where the sample is selected on the basis of who is available at the time of testing and who is willing to take part in the experiment. An advantage of opportunity sampling is that it is quick and convenient for the time allowed for the investigation and it will provide a representative sample of the target population. This in-turn will lead to more reliable results being produced which will allow scope to generalise the findings more confidently.
The experimental design that will be used a repeated measures design. This means that all the participants will take part in both of the experimental conditions (they wiil all read the colour word list and the neutral word list). The advantages of using this design is that less participants are needed and that it eliminates the influence of individual differences as each participants performance in the first condition is compared to the same participants performance in the second condition. By using this experimental design should help to produce more accurate and reliable results.
Ethical Issues
Before carrying out the experiment, there were a number of ethical issues that needed to be considered. For example, participants will be required to fill in a consent form before carrying out the experiment but they will still have the right to withdraw from the experiment at all times.
The ethical issue of deception will be overcome as the participants will be told the aim of the experiment in the debriefing. They will not be told the aim of the experiment in the briefing as this may alter their performance and hence distort the results.
All participants results will remain confidential and will only be published in the write up of the investigation. However, their results will not be identifiable as a code will be used to identify the results rather than the participants names.
Participants will be debriefed having carried out the experiment.
Task and materials
Participants will carry out the experiment one at a time. The experimenter will place six lists of words face down in front of the participant. When the experimenter says ‘go’, the participant will have to turn over the first list and say the colour in which the words are written in as quickly as possible and without making any mistakes. The time taken to do this will be recorded. This whole procedure will be repeated until all six lists have been completed.
Lists one, two and three will be lists of colour words and lists four, five and six will be lists of neutral words. The participants will read a coloured word list followed by a neutral word list. This pattern will be repeated until all the word lists have been read. The lists will be read in this order because
As this experiment is about automatic processing, the only materials used will be the six lists of words which will be read by the participants, a stop clock to record the time taken to read each list and a blank piece of paper and a pen to record the results on.
For a copy of the word lists, see Appendix One
Procedure
The instructions to the participants were standardised because if participants heard different instructions, it may affect their understanding and performance of the task. This would lead to inaccurate results with low ecological validity. Also, the instructions did not contain any subject specific language as this may confuse and deter the participant from taking part in the experiment.
A candidate who fitted the target population was approached:
Excuse me please, I am carrying out an experiment as part of A-level Psychology Coursework and I would be grateful if you would help me by participating in the experiment.
If the candidate agreed to participate in the experiment they were be given a briefing:
Thank you for participating in this experiment. Due to the nature of the investigation, I cannot tell you the aim of the experiment until you have carried out the task. Before participating in this experiment, I would like you to fill out this consent form (give the participant the consent form).
Do you still wish to participate?
I would like to assure you that it is not your intelligence that is being assessed by this experiment and you have the right to withdraw from the experiment at any time without making me aware of your reasons.
For copy of consent form see Appendix Two.
Instructions to participants.
I will place six numbered lists of 15 words face down in front of you. When I say ‘go’ you will have to turn over list number one and read the colour of the ink in which the words are printed and not the words themselves as quickly as possible and without making any mistakes. When you have successfully completed the list, I will record the time it took for you to read the list. When I say ‘go’ again, I want you to turn over the second list and do exactly the same. This whole procedure will be repeated until all six lists have been completed. Do you have any questions?
After the participant had performed the task, they were debriefed:
I would like to thank you again for participating in this experiment. The aim of this experiment was to investigate the theory of automatic processing. This is where the ability to read and colour identification become automatic processes which are difficult to inhibit. I wanted to find out whether interference of previously learnt tasks interfered with the learning of new tasks. Therefore, I hoped to show that colour words, for example ‘red’ written in blue ink took longer to read than neutral words, for example ‘window’ written in green ink.
Your results will only be published in the write up of this experiment and will not be made available to any one else other than the examiner. Although the results will be published, you will remain anonymous as I will allocate a code to identify the results instead of your name. Therefore, you cannot be pursued further by any other psychologist or member of the public for the same experiment. You do however have the right to have your results withdrawn from the experiment if you do not wish them to be used as part of the experiment.
Do you have any questions?
Results
