‘Pen and Paper’ Experiments

Here are some simple experiments that can be converted to online data collection using an online survey app such as Google Forms or you could do them ‘face-to-face’ using Skype or Zoom.

One day we’ll get around to creating online versions!

What you get

Each experiment comes with:

  1. A brief summary of the research
  2. Information for experimenters
  3. A step-by-step procedure for scoring and analysing the data
  4. A set of questions for understanding the results thinking about their implications
  5. Tutor notes (available on request!)
  6. Materials to be provided to participants

The Experiments

  1. Levels of Processing. This is a classic experiment that shows that we (often) have better memory for things when we focus on their ‘deep’ aspects (such as meaning) rather than superficial characteristics (such as the appearance).
  2. Memory for Everyday Objects and the Knowledge Illusion. This experiment demonstrates how poorly we remember the features of objects most of us have frequently encountered and used. It can also be used to show how recognition performance is (often) better than free recall performance.
  3. Discourse Comprehension. This experiment explores the ways in which activating schemas (or frames) can bias the inferences we make when we read material.
  4. False Memory. This is a do-it-yourself version of the classic Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm studies. Participants are asked to remember three lists of related words. Typically a good a number of people falsely remember a highly-related, but not presented, ‘lure’ word.