IB Psychology IA SL Exemplar: Introduction

Here is an example of an Introduction for an exemplar IB Psychology Internal Assessment (Standard Level).

Introduction

Learning relies to a large extent on memory, and therefore cognitive research into memory-improving techniques is relevant in education. Recent research has suggested that there are instances in which perceptual disfluency leads to improved memory performance, a phenomenon referred to as the “perceptual-interference effect”.

The original experiment on which this one was based was conducted by Diemand-Yauman et al. (2011) investigating the effect of a disfluent font (bold or italicized) on learning. Their first experiment used 28 adult participants recruited through Princeton University; the second used 222 high school students. The latter is the experiment that was partially replicated (Diemand-Yauman et al., 2011).

Diemand-Yauman et al. left one set of class materials in their original format, as a control, but changed the other identical set into several different disfluent formats. This was a single-blind experiment as the teachers did not know the hypothesis, just that the study was to determine the effects of different fonts on learning. They may well have expected students receiving material in the disfluent fonts to have more difficulty learning it. Disfluency was achieved either by a hard-to-read font or the study materials were copied disfluently (by moving the paper during copying).

The experiment ran for between 1.5 and 4 weeks, depending on teachers’ class plans. Students’ Z-scores were calculated and those in the disfluent condition scored higher on classroom assessments (M = .164, SD = 1.03) than those in the control (M = -.295, SD = 1.03). This means that students in the disfluent condition scored above the mean for all participants, while students in the fluent condition scored below the mean. The researchers found that significantly more material was retained when it was in a disfluent font, compared with when it was presented in a fluent font. (Diemand-Yauman et al., 2011).

This builds on Craik and Lockhart’s (1972) levels of processing theory, that deeper processing leads to an improvement in memory, which was further developed by Craik and Tulving (Craik & Lockhart, 1972; Craik & Tulving, 1975). Diemand-Yauman et al. draw a parallel between semantic processing and the processing generated by disfluency: both are more difficult and both result in better recall.

Diemand-Yauman et al.’s second experiment has been modified, with an identical list of 25 two-syllable words being used for both disfluent font and fluent font conditions.

Aim: To determine whether hard-to-read (disfluent) font results, through deeper processing, in more words being recalled from a 25-word list.