Descriptive Statistics Commentary Essay Example for Free

Descriptive Statistics input EssayIn Condition A, participants were told to realize at a list of words whilst listening to music, they were then asked to match the opposes with the music turned off. In Condition B the music was kept on whilst participants were matching the pairs.The mean average for Condition A is 4.8 pairs whilst the mean average for Condition B is 4.15 pairs.The median average for Condition A is 4.5 pairs compared to Condition B that is 3 pairs.The modal average for Condition A is 4 pairs, whilst the modal average for Condition B is 2. Additional Graphical Description of ResultsDescriptive Statistics CommentaryThe highest amount of words learnt in my line graph was 11 and the firstest was 0. The graph shows that people who got low rec entirely in Condition A, to a fault got low recall in Condition B. Only one participant got all eleven pairs matched correctly on twain conditions. Almost none of the participants got any ill-advised and this is shown on the graph. in that respect is one piece of extreme data on my line graph, where the participant matched all the pairs correctly in each condition.There is in addition a lot of overlap between the two conditions and this shows that the outcome for each condition was very similar. The diversity in each condition is difficult to explain. kindred of Results to HypothesisMy results show that people did not learn more words with music on, in fact they learned less. Only one participant matched all eleven pairs in both conditions. The overall result shows that the music didnt act as a cue as it did not aid learning or recall.The results do not relate to my hypothesis, as I did not prove that music aids learning. Therefore I must accept my null hypothesis.The averages for both conditions were 4.8 for Condition A and 4.15 for Condition B, this is very close and there is not a significant difference.DiscussionValidityIn this experiment I manipulated whether or not music was played to the parti cipants. A problem with the experiment is that it lacks in ecological validity. In real life people do not pair words, memory does not work in the same way as an experiment, we do not think in lists. This experiment is trying to look at something that is not true to life.Suggestions for improved validityWays of improving validity could be to do a field experiment, do longitudinal studies or to grasp a diary case. Participants could learn in a classroom what they have to learn and then sit the exams in the same classroom. This may attention them to remember.A case study would provide insight however you cannot generalize.A field experiment is good as you can also get rid of requisite characteristics but you cannot control extraneous variables and you cannot generalise.ReliabilityExperiments are generally reliable because it produces quantitative data and it can be replicated. You can generalise and you can also control extraneous variables.When the experiment took place participan ts, copied off each other, they shouted the answers out and there was generally a lot of noise in the room. There were also more girls than boys. Participants didnt want to ask questions about the task, so it is possible that they may not have fully understood what to do, they are responding to demand characteristics. prospect sampling is also very limited and I was only allowed to experiment on English classrooms.Improving ReliabilityHaving a special room to do the experiment in would help improve reliability. Also maybe getting the participants to take us more seriously would help.Maybe not giving the participants as long to look at the words would also improve reliability or having a person in authority be present.ImplicationsMy background entropy like Tulving and Godden and Baddeley suggest that cues help recall. I used music as a cue in my experiment and that did not appear to help recall. The difference in the two conditions was very narrow. This may indicate that the experim ent was wrong in some way.Generalisation of FindingsThe experiment was done on 20 17-19 twelvemonth olds who are studying AS or A2 levels. You cannot generalise to the rest of the population as students are trained to remember as they have been in upbringing since the age of 5.You could therefore only generalise on 17-19 year olds in full time education. It did not tell us about age or gender.A sample of 20 is far too small to generalise from, as 20 people cannot account for everyone in the rest of the population.Application to customary lifeIn many situations cues can be very helpful. Students use cues to help them to revise for exams and the examiner can use a stimulus to help the student to remember in exams. E.g. after revising for psychology, students could use Tulvings ideas to create categories of information to make the work more manageable and easier to remember.