Edexcel A Level Psychology Paper 3 June 2018 question paper 9PS0/03

Lecture notes and learning

Researchers wanted to see whether providing learning aids during a lecture would help students. Students attended an audio lecture on how car brakes function. Before the lecture, students were given either a skeletal outline (with headings and subheadings) or no learning aid at all (they were given notepaper). After the lecture, students were given a short-answer test that assessed their understanding of how car brakes function.

(Source: adapted from Bui et al. (2015))

Identify the experimental/research design used in the lecture notes and learning study.

Explain how one participant variable could affect the findings of the lecture notes and learning study.

Explain one way the researchers in the lecture notes and learning study could make the study as generalisable as possible to the target population of students.

The researchers in the lecture notes and learning study decided to carry out a Mann-Whitney U test on the data.

Complete Table 1 and calculate Mann-Whitney U for the data in Table 1.

SPACE FOR CALCULATIONS

The researchers of the lecture notes and learning study need to decide whether to accept or reject their null hypothesis. They have been warned not to make a Type I error when doing this.

Explain to the researchers what a Type I error would be in the lecture notes and learning study.

The researchers in the lecture notes and learning study are interested in publishing their work in the British Journal of Educational Psychology.

(Source: statement adapted from the Author Guidelines for the British Journal of Educational Psychology, published by the British Psychological Society (2015))

Explain what the peer review process would involve for the researchers in the lecture notes and learning study, including a consideration of the likelihood of their findings being published.

Analyse the data provided in Figure 1 to explain two conclusions that the researchers in the prosocial behaviour and culture study might draw from these results.

Conclusion 1

3 ‘Instigators’ and an unethical act

A study examined the psychology of ‘instigators’. ‘Instigators’ are people who surround an unethical act and influence the wrongdoer without directly committing the act themselves.

Student confederates were recruited to instruct participants to commit an unethical act. The unethical act was to vandalise a book in the university library by writing the word ‘pickle’ in pen on a specified page.

There were three conditions in the study:

• two student confederates instructed an unknown student to carry out the unethical act

• one student confederate instructed a close student friend to carry out the unethical act

• one student confederate instructed an unknown student to carry out the unethical act.

(Source: adapted from Bohns et al. (2013))

Explain one ethical issue that could be violated in the ‘instigators’ and an unethical act study.

The findings of the study are shown in Table 2 below.

Explain how far social impact theory can support the findings of the ‘instigators’ and an unethical act study.

Evaluate the classic studies by Watson and Rayner (1920) and Raine et al. (1997) in how they could be used as a means of social control.

When commuting to college Sam notices that whichever form of public transport he uses strangers rarely communicate with each other. He notices that people tend to sit alone where possible and avoid eye contact with other commuters whilst listening to music or reading a newspaper.

One morning there is an incident on the bus when he is going to college. Following the event, Sam notices everyone is communicating and making eye contact. Later, when Sam discussed this change in behaviour with his friend, she argued that communication is a learned behaviour and that people are not born to communicate.

Evaluate the extent to which human behaviour such as communication can be explained by learning theories.

You must make reference to the context in your answer.

Animals are sometimes used to conduct psychological research.

Assess the practical and ethical implications of using animals in psychological research.