Psyco 105 Individual and Social Behaviour Help Psych home
Sec. B4, T 3:30 E-mail

 
 

Reading Reports of Empirical Studies

The Method section is a detailed description of exactly how the study was conducted. The detail is important so the reader can determine the appropriateness of the method for answering the scientific questions. It is also important for another researcher to be able to replicate the study. This section reads a lot like a recipe. The following questions will help you evaluate the method: 
  • Who are the participants in the study? 
  • Are the participants appropriate for the study? 
  • What is the research design? 
  • Is the design appropriate for the research question(s)? 
  • What are the measures? 
  • Are the measures appropriate for addressing the research question(s)? 
  • What ethical considerations are important to address? Are they all addressed in the article? 
These questions are a mix of fact-finding questions and critical thinking questions. The Method section contains a lot of scientific jargon and it is essential to understand exactly what was done in order to evaluate whether it was done "right". Read the Method section in the article then work through the summary and questions below. 

Who are the participants in the study?  Are the participants appropriate for the study?self-test

 

What is the research design?  Is the design appropriate for the research question(s)? self-test
 
 

What are the measures? self-test
 

Are the measures appropriate for addressing the research question(s)?  Discussion Group
 

What ethical considerations are important to address? Are they all addressed in the article? self-test
Method


Participants

Participants were 9 people with DID.  Each participant could alternate among at least two personalities at the request of the experimenter.  In addition, each personality expressed amnesia between the two participating personalities. 

Materials

Eich et al. developed lists of nouns and sets of picture fragments.  Separate sets of each were developed so that the explicit and implicit memory tasks could be sued with each personality. 

Procedure

The specific procedure is quite confusing.  Essentially, both personalities completed all the tasks, with different sets of materials presented to each personality. 

Each personality rated the words on visual imagery and pleasantness and did a picture-fragment completion task.  These are typically called the "study" phases for an implicit memory task. 

Each personality recalled the words they had seen and tried to recall the words the other personality had seen.  Performance on these tasks comprised the explicit memory measures. 

Each personality completed a word-stem completion task using stems for words they had seen before and stems for words the other personality had seen before. Each personality also completed the picture fragment task again using fragments they had seen and fragments the other personality had seen.  Performance on these tasks comprised the implicit memory measures. 
 

[Please remember to complete the evaluation survey for this Reading the Research. The evaluation  link is on the References page at the end of this module. Thanks!]
read.gif (919 bytes)   Reading the Research Questions to Consider
  Title Abstract Introduction Method Results Discussion References