Edexcel A-Level Psychology AS 2.2.1 Experiment Design and Conduct Topic Practice

Question 1

[Maximum number: 12]

Damon and Elisa's psychology lecturer is teaching his class about the importance of good research design when planning an investigation. He suggests that in their planning they need to consider field experiments and laboratory experiments. The lecturer gives them a scenario from which they need to plan an investigation.

Scenario
Design and carry out an investigation to measure the short-term memory capacity of local 12-year old children.

The children will need to learn five number lists. The first list contains six digits and each following list increases by two digits, up to the final list of 14 digits. The children will be asked to recall the numbers from each list in the correct order.

Damon decides to carry out a field experiment with children from a local school. Elisa decides to carry out a laboratory experiment, bringing children to one of the research rooms at the university.

Evaluate whether Damon's choice of a field experiment was a more appropriate method than Elisa's choice of a laboratory experiment for this research scenario.

You must make reference to the context in your answer.

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