What is psychology?
What does an experimental psychologist do?
How do psychologists discover the conditions that lead to good (and not so good) memory performance?
Scientific
Method
|
|
Non-Scientific
(everyday) |
Scientific
|
|
General Approach |
intuitive |
empirical |
|
Observation |
casual, uncontrolled |
systematic, controlled |
|
Reporting |
biased, subjective |
unbiased, objective |
|
Concepts |
ambiguous, surplus meaning |
clear definitions, operational specificity |
|
Instruments |
inaccurate, imprecise |
accurate, precise |
|
Measurement |
not valid or reliable |
valid and reliable |
|
Hypotheses |
untestable, impossible to disprove |
testable (must be!) |
|
Attitude |
uncritical, accepting |
critical, skeptical |
Today you are going to perform some tasks that psychologists have used to study how people learn and remember.