What is a hypothesis? Give an example of a hypothesis, based on a study you know about.

1. What is a hypothesis? • Give an example of a hypothesis, based on a study you know about.

2. Today’s session

3. Hypothesis • A prediction about the outcome of a piece of research • An experimental hypothesis must predict the effect of the IV on the DV

4. Experimental hypotheses • A researcher dressed in uniform will be obeyed more often than a researcher dressed in civilian clothes. • Words that PPs have processed semantically are more likely to be recognised than words that they have processed structurally.

5. Experimental hypotheses • Suggest experimental hypotheses for the following studies: • Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924) • Godden & Baddeley (1975)

6. Experimental hypotheses • Directional hypotheses predict the direction in which the results are expected to run • Non-directional hypotheses predict an effect of the IV on the DV, but not a direction

7. Jenkins & Dallenbach (1924) • PPs who learn the word list before sleeping will recall more words than PPs who learn the list after waking. • There will be a difference in the number of words recalled between PPs who learn the list before sleeping and those who learn it after waking.

8. Testing hypotheses • Hypotheses predict results of experiments • They must be tested against the data and either accepted or rejected

9. Summarising data • Before we can assess whether the data support or challenge the experimental hypothesis we must prepare a statistical summary • Any set of data can be summarised to two figures: • Central tendency • Dispersion

10. Central tendency Tells you a typical value from a set of data Mode Median Mean Dispersion Tells you how close to the central tendency the values in the set are Range Standard deviation Summarising data

11. Concept maps vs. notes • IV: revision strategy used • DV: score on a recall test (max. 20) • H1: PPs using concept maps will recall more than PPs using notes.

12. Organised vs. disorganised • IV: info in categories or randomised • DV: score on a recall test (max. 20) • H1: there will be a difference in recall between PPs who are give organised info and PPs who are given disorganised info.

13. Review • Identify… • One thing you already knew • One fact you learned • One skill you developed • Something that was difficult and will need more work.