A psychologist investigated whether the method used to make notes affects later recall. Different Year 10 pupils took part in each condition.
All pupils read the same 300-word account and had five minutes to make notes. In one condition, pupils wrote with a pen on lined paper. In the other condition, pupils typed into a blank document on a laptop. The notes were then removed. Pupils had two minutes to write down as many of 15 key ideas from the account as they could remember. All pupils received the same written instructions and their recall was marked using the same checklist.
| Note-making condition | Mean reading age | Session start time | Mean number of key ideas recalled out of 15 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pen and lined paper | 14 years 4 months | 09:00 | 11.6 |
| Laptop and blank document | 12 years 9 months | 15:00 | 8.7 |
The psychologist concluded that writing notes by hand caused better recall than typing notes.
Evaluate whether the psychologist's handling of variables supports this conclusion.
182 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 7.1 Planning Research, covering 7.1.1 Hypotheses, 7.1.2 Variables, 7.1.3 Experimental Designs, 7.1.4 Populations and Sampling, 7.1.5 Ethical issues, and 7.1.6 Dealing with ethical issues and BPS Code. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.