1. Pilot Studies

2. Starter
Imagine that a psychologist wanted to investigate the effect that chocolate has on memory…
How could the psychologist investigate this?

3. Learning Objectives: 1) To develop an understanding of pilot studies
Learning Objectives: 1) To develop an understanding of pilot studies. Success Criteria: 1) Carry out a pilot study of a psychological investigation. 2) Draw a graph showing results of a pilot study. 3) Complete a practice question to assess your knowledge of pilot studies.

4. Pilot Studies
Often psychologists carry out a ‘dress rehearsal’ of their study before they go out into the world and conduct the research on a large number of people.
This is called doing a pilot study.
This enables the researcher to check for design faults.
It is done to check that all elements of the study work,
Checks that the participants understand the instructions,
Makes sure that no one can guess the true aim of the study.
It saves a lot of time and money in the long-run!

5. Chocolate and Memory
Imagine that I am about to test the effects of chocolate on memory...
How can I ensure no design faults?
How can I make sure all elements of the study work?
How can I check participants understand the instructions?
How do I ensure no one can guess the true aim of the study?
How can I save money?!
How can I ensure that our study is reliable and valid?

6. Instructions Do you understand? Two groups One list of words
Group 1 – no chocolate (sorry)
Group 2 – chocolate
One list of words
Remember as many words/items as you can in 60 seconds
Recall the words at the end
No cheating!
Do you understand?

8. Recall the items… Results??? Fish Carrot Hen Magician Newspaper
Football
Pen
Crab
Nose
Apple
Saucepan
House
Car
Vicar
Rollerblades
Results???

9. How could you present the results?
A graph to show how chocolate effects memory recall 15
Chocolate
No chocolate

10. Pilot Study Complete!
If we were to repeat the study what would we keep the same?
If we were to repeat the study what would we improve?
Answer the past paper question on page 20 of your booklet

11. Mark Scheme