PSYC 3265 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Pollyanna Principle, Metamemory, Complement Factor B
9 Nov 2016
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Document Summary
Most of our knowledge of memory comes from experiments. An experiment is a controlled situation in which a researcher manipulates variables of interest, measuring the effect of this manipulation, while keeping the irrelevant variables as consistent as possible. Participants are randomly assigned to different conditions to reduce any unwanted systematicity. The variables being manipulated are the independent variables, such as how much a person has to remember, how long s/he has to remember it, etc. The variables being measured are the dependent variables, such as how much is remembered, how accurate people are, how fast they remember, etc. Irrelevant aspects of the situation are control variables; this can include things like the room light, the instructions, the apparatus used, etc. For each experiment a researcher has a hypothesis about the outcome. A hypothesis is an educated guess or prediction about how the variation of the independent variables will be related to the outcome of the dependent variables.
