Essay Instructions: The purpose of this assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to examine topics discussed in class in more depth and to further familiarize you with how cognitive psychology research is applied to real-world situations. For the current assignment, you need to choose one of the following research articles and complete all of the tasks described below. I recommend that you choose an article that is of interest to you.
Choose one of the following articles:
Option A:
Beilock, S. L., & Carr, T. H. (2005). When high-powered people fail: Working memory and ?choking under pressure? in math. Psychological Science, 16(2), 101-105.
Option B:
Hirst, W., Phelps, E. A., Buckner, R. L., Budson, A. E., Cuc, A., Gabrieli, J. D., ... & Vaidya, C. J. (2009). Long-term memory for the terrorist attack of September 11: flashbulb memories, event memories, and the factors that influence their retention. Journal of Experimental Psychology: General, 138(2), 161.
Assignment
Please read the article thoroughly and answer the following questions. Please address all sections of the assignment in sentence format. Please type your answers to each of the following questions. Your answers will be graded on content, the quality of the content, spelling, and grammar. You should not have any direct quotes. Please use your own words and cite properly. If you cite something other than your text book or your class notes, please cite appropriately (in APA format) and include a Reference page.
SUMMARY
1. Briefly describe the research area [e.g., provide a brief review of the previous literature discussed by the current author(s)]. Please limit your summary to 8 sentences.
2. Why was the current study conducted?
3. State the independent variable(s). If the author(s) of the article you chose to read conducted more than one experiment, please state the independent variable(s) for each experiment.
4. State the dependent variable(s). If the author(s) of the article you chose to read conducted more than one experiment, please state the dependent variable(s) for each experiment.
5. State the hypothesis(es). If the author(s) of the article you chose to read conducted more than one experiment, please state the hypothesis(es) for each experiment.
6. Describe the experimental procedure (e.g., what took place, the tasks that the subjects/participants completed). If the author(s) of the article you chose to read conducted more than one experiment, please describe the general procedure for each experiment.
7. Describe the results of the study.
IMPLICATIONS FOR COGNITION RESEARCH
8. How are these findings relevant to everyday life? Provide at least two examples. At least one of these examples should be an original example. That is, it should not be mentioned by the author(s) of the research article.
9. Describe two ways in which this research expands upon the theories and concepts discussed in class? You may wish to consult your textbook and lecture notes. Please cite appropriately (in APA format) when you discuss information from your text (e.g., Goldstein, 2011) and from your class notes (e.g., Trammell, personal communication, 2013). Please limit your response to 8 sentences.
10. What research questions remain unanswered? That is, describe at least two areas for future research. Please limit your response to 8 sentences.