DE300: Investigating Psychology 3

Developing a research question and working with

ethical issues
With thanks to all of the ALs who have generously shared resources for these
slides

Dr Nancy Rowell – supervises experiment projects

Aims of this session

• Consider your project goals within the module

context
• Outline TMA02
• Turning an idea into a project
• Literature review
• Ethics

2
DE300 learning outcomes
• The ability to use IT to search for and access
digital resources
• The ability to derive and justify research
questions and hypotheses using
psychological theories and evidence
• The ability to design an independent research
project
• Development and demonstration of independent
learning skills

3
What are the goals of
research?

• Description
• Prediction
• Explanation
• Experiments enable cause and effect to be
investigated
• Manipulation of one or more variables
• Measurement of another variable
• Random allocation to conditions OR quasi-experiment
• Control of situation as much as possible

4
What are your goals in the
project?

• Find out what is already known about something

• Generate a new question from previous theory (or
explore new avenues)
• Test your question
• Describe, infer from, and communicate your
findings
• Generate new theories about the state-of-the
world

5
Stages of your project
You have an idea to test
Write report (TMA05)

Refine the idea

Carry out
experiment Check the
literature
Write literature review
Refine proposal
(TMA02)

Write project proposal

(TMA03)
6
TMA02

For this TMA you are required to:

• provide a working title for your project
• You will probably write this last
• provide a literature review outlining the rationale
for your study
• 3-5 primary sources – peer-reviewed journal articles
• state your research question or hypothesis
• 1200 words (50 for title and RQ)

7
Where should you be in the
process?
For this TMA you are required to:
• provide a working title for your project
• You will probably write this last
• provide a literature review outlining the rationale
for your study
• 3-5 primary sources
• state your research question or hypothesis
You need to be working on this already,
by literature searching, having agreed
the basics of your project with your tutor
8
Developing your
research question
What is a research question?

This is a broad question which you seek to set out

and examine in the experiment
For example you might start with the question
“Does the type of object replaced in a flicker
experiment affect the time taken to spot the
change?”

10
Sources of ideas for your
research question
• Topics from the module text
• Suggestions at the end of the chapters
• Topic from a previous module e.g. attention
• Additional reading you have done
• BPS research digest
• Real world observations
• Something you are interested in
• Something you want to investigate further

11
Turning an idea into a
research question

12
Developing the idea

Thinking about testing the slave systems of WM

and the idea that tunes are more easily
remembered than lists
• What IVs could you manipulate?
• What would your DV be?
• What would your research question be?

13
Keep a research diary

• Your ideas
• Potential research questions
• What you found in the literature
• Why you chose each IV
• What stimuli you will use
• Changes in procedure (especially from piloting)

14
The research question

• Your research question should emerge from the

literature and be supported by what others have
found
• The literature provides a rationale for your study
• Links with and may extend existing research
• Learn from others – what worked?
• Should be in the form of a question which you will
investigate through your proposed experiment

15
The literature search
Checklist for carrying out
literature search (Barker, 2014)
Remember to both
broaden and narrow the Know when to stop
Search, read, search
focus of your literature searching (once you
some more (repeat as
search to get a have identified what
necessary!)
reasonable number of seems to be key)
materials

Work to organise and

structure your literature
Collate a reference list as
search for example by
you go, rather than
compiling research
writing it at the end
records or using a mind
map

Barker, M. (2014) ‘Doing a literature review’, in Vossler, A. and Moller, N. (eds) The
Counselling and Psychotherapy Research Handbook. London: Sage, pp. 61-73.
Available as e-chapter through OU library services.
17
Keeping organised
• Allow enough time to read and evaluate papers
• Make notes on each paper you read
• What is relevant to my project and why
• What is its full reference?
• Maybe use a table to draw up features of each
• Select the ones that provide the most justification for
your project (method/IVs/findings etc.)

18
Two common issues

Not enough papers Too many papers

• You may have been too • Be more specific
specific – putting too many • Narrow the hits down by
terms in limiting to a particular
• Start broadly and then period of time of publication
narrow when you see you e.g. more recent papers
have hits • Using AND reduces hits
• Use OR to increase hits
• Try both Google Scholar
and a database search

19
You have found some articles
– what next?
Read the research critically to identify a gap and
develop your research question
• What are the main debates and key theories in this area?
• What methods or stimuli were used?
• Were the methods used reliable and valid?
• Are the results consistent?
• Does the conclusion highlight any unresolved issues?
• What evidence exists to support (or not) the theories and
ideas?
• Do alternative explanations exist that fit the information
and evidence better?
20
Tips for reading critically

• Locate and identify main points and argument

• Use key sections – Abstract, Summary,
Conclusion – to help identify key ideas
• Use ‘signposts’ in the text to help you:
• be alert for gaps or possible weaknesses
• see the shape of the argument
• Are there any suggestions for future research?
• Are there issues that have not yet been
addressed?

21
Evaluating suitability of book
or article: OU PROMPT
method
Topic being reviewed What to look for

PRESENTATION Is information presented and communicated clearly?

RELEVANCE Is the article relevant to the topic you are researching?

OBJECTIVITY Is the article biased, or motivated by a particular agenda? Is the language

emotive?
METHOD If statistical data presented, what is this based on? How was data
gathered? Was sample really representative? Were methods appropriate,
rigorous, etc.

PROVENANCE Is it clear where the information has come from?

Can you identify the authors/ organization and are they trustworthy?
TIMELINESS Does the date of writing/publishing meet your requirements, or is it
obsolete?

22
Let’s have a go!

Please copy down the questions below. You will

use them to assess the abstract from a study on
the next slide
• Presentation – is the information clear?
• Objectivity – is there evidence of bias?
• Method – do the methods seem appropriate for the
topic?
• Timeliness – when was it published?

23
Journal of Speech, Language and Hearing Research, vol.59, pp.1520-1532, December 2016
24
Would you use it?

Given this additional information:

Provenance – who are the authors?
They work in Dept. of Head and Neck surgery in a
hospital, affiliated to a university. The lead author is a
professor in the speech development lab in the
department
Please give a green thumbs up if you would use
this paper if you were interested in verbal
working memory or a red thumbs down if you
would not
Can you justify your choice?
25
Is the article relevant to you?
The following are areas you may need to identify
when reading a paper:
• Methodology
• Ethics
• Key authors, findings and debates
• What is known / not known
• Quality of the evidence
• Development of knowledge
• Terminology used/Definitions
This will help to build the rationale for your study
26
Extracting information from an
article - an example
The next few slides contain extracts from the
Havard and Memon paper about the Mystery
Man study
We will think about some aspects of this study to
illustrate what kind of information you may need
to extract for your summary of the study

Havard, C. and Memon, A. (2013) ‘The Mystery Man Can Help

Reduce False Identification for Child Witnesses: Evidence from Video
Line-ups’, Applied Cognitive Psychology, 27, pp.50–59.
27
Abstract
It is well established that children (as young as 5 years) can correctly
identify a target from a target present (TP) line-up as accurately as
adults; however, when shown a target absent (TA) line-up, children
make more false identifications. In the present study, children aged 5–
7 and 8–11 years viewed a film of a staged theft, then 1–2 days later
were shown either a TP or TA video line-up. Half of the witnesses
viewed line-ups that included a ‘mystery man’ (a black silhouette with
a white question mark), which they could select if they did not
recognise anyone from the line-up. When the ‘mystery man’ was
present in the line-up, there were significantly fewer false
identifications for the TA line-ups. This study shows that including a
silhouette in a video line-up can help reduce false identification.
a. What topics might this be relevant for?
b. What methodology was used?
c. Who were the participants?
d. What was the key finding?
28
Introduction
Laboratory studies investigating how children perform on line-up tasks
confirm the field research. When a culprit or ‘target’ is present (TP) in
a line-up, children older than 5 years can perform as accurately as
adults (Goodman & Reed, 1986; Lindsay, Pozzulo, Craig, Lee, &
Corber, 1997; Parker & Carranza, 1989; Parker & Ryan, 1993;
Pozzulo & Balfour, 2006; Pozzulo & Lindsay, 1998). However, when
faced with a culprit or ‘target’ absent (TA) line-up, children are
significantly more likely to make a false identification than are adults
(Beal, Schmitt, & Dekle, 1995; Dekle, Beal, Elliot, & Huneycutt, 1996;
Lindsay et al., 1997; Parker & Carranza, 1989; Parker & Ryan, 1993;
Pozzulo & Balfour, 2006; Pozzulo & Warren, 2003). A meta-analysis of
eyewitness studies also reported that children were less likely to
correctly reject TA line-ups compared with adults (Pozzulo & Lindsay,
1998).
What has previous research established?
The introduction may also lead you to some other papers that would
be relevant 29
Introduction continued
…several hypotheses were tested:
First, it was predicted that using the silhouette or ‘mystery man’ would
help to reduce false identifications for the TA line-ups, as children
would be able to choose a person from the line-up without making a
false identification.
Secondly, it was predicted that using the silhouette in the line-up
would have no adverse effect on correct identifications for the TP line-
ups and that they would be similar to responses for the control line-
ups.
Thirdly, it was predicted that if the ‘mystery man’ reduced false
identification rates for TA line-ups without compromising accuracy for
TP line-ups, then performance on TA line-ups would be equal to that
of TP line-ups. For the control condition, it was predicted that
responses would be more accurate for the TP line-ups than for the TA
line-ups.
What were the authors trying to find?
30
Method
Participants (note here that this includes an ethical statement)
“A total of 268 children were recruited from state-run primary and
secondary schools in Aberdeen, Scotland. There were 129 children
aged 5–7 years …etc. Consent to carry out the research was obtained
from both the head teachers of the schools and the children’s legal
guardians.
Design “A short film was created using a young Caucasian man aged
27 years as the target (actor). Eight 9-person line-ups were created,
according to VIPER specifications. Half of the line-ups were target
present (TP) and half target absent (TA), and half contained the
‘mystery man’ and half did not.

Only look in detail if you wish to replicate the method, and if so, note
any controls in place

31
Design
The study employed a 2 (witness age: 5–7 years versus 8– 11 years)
X 2 (line-up: control versus ‘mystery man’) X 2 (line-up type: TP
versus TA) between subjects design. A total of 63 children aged 5–7
years and 68 aged 8–11 years viewed the TP line-ups, and 66
children aged 5–7 years and 71 aged 8–11 years viewed the TA line-
ups. The dependent variables were the line-up identification decisions.

How many IVs were there, what were they and what
was the DV?

32
Discussion
Our first hypothesis, that false identifications would be reduced in TA
line-ups, was supported. The addition of the ‘mystery man’ reduced
false identifications from 75% to 40% for witnesses as young as 5
years of age, despite the younger children in the ‘mystery man’
condition being significantly younger than those in the control
condition...

Key findings (quant) or key themes (qual) need to be

summarised – these are usually given at the start of
the discussion
They are likely to be important for building your rationale
for your project

33
Discussion - interpretations
There are a number of reasons why using an additional option of a
silhouette may be beneficial in reducing false identifications from TA
line-ups. As mentioned previously, it aligns the decision to reject a
line-up more closely with the decision to identify someone from a line-
up by allowing the witness to choose a member of the line-up. It also
allows a child witness to conform to the implicit pressure to choose
from a line-up (Beal et al., 1995; Ceci et al., 1987), but by choosing
the silhouette, a witness is not making a false identification. It also
allows the witness to make a positive response, rather than saying
‘no, I don’t think the person is there’, and it has been suggested that
children view positive responses as being more favourable than
negative responses (Zajac & Karageorge, 2009).

Can help in identifying where further research could be

done
May also highlight some limitations
34
The literature review and
leading into your
experiment
What should the literature
review do?
• Outline the area to be researched and current knowledge
• Summarise relevant previous research
• Background – key concepts/methods
• Significant patterns/relationships/themes
• Assess previous research
• Identify unresolved questions
• Identify conflicting evidence
• Identify under/not researched areas
• Present the reasoning behind your particular project
• Allow someone who is not an expert to understand why
you plan to do your project – give rationale
• Present research question
Structure of the literature
review
• Working title General / broader related topics

Focus and specificity

Subtopics / more
• Brief introduction to topic area specific research /

increases
theories
(Are they similar? Are
• Main body covering each paper in turn they contrasting?

• 200-300 words per paper Your

project
area
• Only describe method if relevant
• What were the findings and why are they relevant to your
project?
• Were any suggestions made for future research that your
project will address?
• Brief conclusion
• Research question
• References (not included in word count)
What you need to remember

Good rationale Backed up with

for doing the Is it doable?
relevant literature
study

Concise and
Ethical? Time-frame
coherent

38
Remember your
research
question needs
to be Specific,
Measurable and
Testable!

Johnson, 2016
What will your experiment
involve?
• Two independent variables: that is two main
effects
• Cannot use vulnerable participants (e.g. children,
adults classed as vulnerable, patients, prisoners)
• The research question should indicate both IVs
and your DV
• There will be one hypothesis for each main effect
and one for the interaction between them
• ANOVA will be used to analyse your data

40
What is an independent
variable?
• This is the variable that is manipulated i.e.
deliberately changed, to see what effect this has
• There must be at least 2 conditions
• One may be a control condition where what is
being studied is absent,
• Often it is two variations (or ‘levels’) of the thing
being manipulated

41
What is a dependent variable?

This is the variable being measured by the

researcher
• It is usually some sort of behavioural measure
e.g. Response time or Accuracy

42
What is an hypothesis?
• A prediction about what the effect of manipulating
the IV will be
• Should be written as a statement that can be
tested
• Describes exactly what will be tested in the
experiment, naming the variables that are being
studied and the way that the IV will affect the DV
• Are tested using inferential statistics – could the
results have arisen by chance or as a result of
sampling error?

43
Ethics
Ethics

What are ethics?

• Principles that determine right and wrong conduct. In
psychological research, ethics refers to the codes and
principles that researchers should adhere to
What is the ultimate source of our ethical
considerations?
• The British Psychological Society
A reminder:
• Cannot use vulnerable participants (e.g. children, older
adults, patients, prisoners)

45
Ethics principles
• Participant safety
• Researcher safety
• Confidentiality and anonymity
• Informed consent
• Debriefing participants
• Storage of participant information and data
• Right to withdraw from study
• Disposal of participant information and data
• Managing disclosure issues/complaints

46
When to do things

• TMA02 is due on 14 December 2021

• Work backwards
• When should you start your literature search?

47
Any questions?

The next tutorial is on Writing your research

proposal and looking ahead to data collection
(with me) Tuesday 10 January 7-8.30pm
(with Fiona) Saturday 14 January 10.30am – 12
Or Saturday 14 January 1-2.30pm
(with Ana) Wednesday 18 January 7- 8.30pm
48
Thank you for coming