Year 12s: what will be the first way you research your future options? >>

I can't think of a rationale!

Hello,
For Psychology (first year, university) we are frequently tasked with writing up reports of lab experiments. The experiments that we write about are predetermined in how we do not use our own experimental findings; we use results from previous versions.

The problem with just doing any old experiment is that it can make it difficult for us to justify why we did the study in the first place. So when it comes to writing a rationale, it can be difficult to say.

For example: we need to write a report about a study on the effects of scene complexity on change blindness. We were not told why we did it nor will we get any help if we ask for assistance building a rationale for it, so we have to guess. When researching other studies, they all do it much better than our pretend procedure. The only thing that is possible as a rationale is for it to be a replication, but change blindness studies have been replicated loads before so that would be pointless in doing it again.

Can anyone help?

Note: I am not simply asking for someone to give me a rationale, but would like advice on how to build one for a study that doesn't even seem worthy of doing.

Reply 1

aylawilde

I always look at other papers investigating similar things and see how they justify the experiments.

In terms of replication -- how long ago was it last replicated? What was the sample like? Is there any inconsistencies in the evidence base that another replication might help to smooth over? Is your sample different to previous ones? Is it the same?

Reply 2

Alien41

A good rationale is to find a flaw with the methodology or the sample size that was used in the original paper and then say yours is better!

Speaking of research however, I'm doing a psychology research project and would be grateful if you'd be willing to fill out my online questionnaire. Here's the link https://bathreg.onlinesurveys.ac.uk/personality-questionnaire-group-2-2016-copy

I scratch your back you scratch mine :wink: