Instructions for Elaborative Rehearsal (Imagery) & Maintenance Rehearsal Lab

This lab is designed to test the hypothesis that storing items in memory through the use of mental imagery is a more effective rehearsal technique than merely rehearsing information through rote repetition. You will be tested for your comprehension of word pairs and you will analyze your results with a chi-square statistical test. In real research, psychologists must use statistical tests to determine if the differences that they find between groups in their experiments are large enough to be due to something other than chance.

Your lab report will be typed in the same format as the “Method” and “Results” sections that you find in journal articles that report the results of experiments. The format for the report is presented below, with questions and directions to help you know what should be found in each section.

Method

Participants

Who were the subjects in the experiment and how were they selected?

Materials

What equipment or other materials were needed to conduct the experiment?

Procedure

Describe the setting in which the experiment took place. Who was the experimenter? How were the instructions given? What were the independent and dependent variables? How were the data collected? Describe what happened in enough detail that someone reading your report could fairly accurately imagine what went on.

Results

How many did you get correct on the rehearsal trials? How many did you get correct on the imagery trials? What were the results of your chi-square test; was the difference between the two conditions statistically significant? What do you conclude about the hypothesis that was being tested in this lab?