School of Psychology
PSYC3001 – Research Methods 3 – T1 2024
Assignment 2
This Exercise is due by 9 am AEST Monday April 15, 2024 (Week 10) and is worth 20% of your course mark. Submit your assignment to the Assignment 2 Turnitin link on Moodle in the Assessments Hub.
Please Note:
• In lieu of a Short Extension (unavailable for Assignment 2), the due date has been extended by approximately two days from the previous due date of Friday Week 9.
• Assignments submitted after 9 am AEST Monday April 15, 2024 will incur a late penalty of 5% per day late. Assignments will not be accepted five days after the deadline.
Feedback and comments may not be provided for late assignments.
• Special consideration requests to waive a late penalty are to be made online. Please See https://student.unsw.edu.au/special-consideration.
• Marked assignments will be available from Turnitin after approximately 10 working days from the submission deadline.
The Exercise requires you to undertake the following:
1. Design a two factor 2 × 4 between-subjects randomised experiment with two levels on the first factor (Factor A) and four levels on the second factor (Factor B). The experiment is to have at least 10 observations per cell.
• Both factors should involve random assignment (ie factors should be chosen that allow for participants to be randomly allocated to one of the 2 × 4 cells in the design).
• The dependent variable should be a continuous measure (with at least interval scale properties). It can be a made-up measure or one referenced in the literature, either way it should be a plausible measure.
• The design should allow for the examination of questions of interest to researchers in some area of psychology.
• Make up a plausible set of raw data (scores obtained by participants on the dependent variable), so that you have 10 observations in each of the 2 × 4 = 8 cells of your design.
• Do not use data sets and research examples from PSYC3001 course materials. You are being asked to make up your own design and data for this Exercise.
2. Carry out a standard factorial post-hoc analysis, controlling the familywise error rate at C = .05. Your post-hoc analysis should include overall tests and follow-up contrasts. Analyse your data using SPSS (or Jamovi) and PSY.
Use SPSS (or Jamovi) to carry out overall tests of the homogeneity hypothesis for the A main effect, the B main and the AB interaction effect.
Your analysis must produce a significant ANOVA F for the B main effect and the AB interaction effect. What happens to the A main effect is up to you.
NOTE: You may find that you need to modify the data in order to achieve the results you are looking for. A very large ANOVA F ratio contrast would usually indicate that MSE (mean square error) is implausibly small, given the pattern of differences between means. For the purpose of this exercise, an ANOVA F of 100 or greater will be regarded as implausible.
3. Having carried out overall tests for each effect, use PSY for the post-hoc contrasts analysis. Base your analysis on tests and raw confidence intervals.
Choose a plausible set of follow-up contrasts (for B main effect contrasts and AB product interaction contrasts). Do not include simple effect contrasts in your analysis.
Your chosen contrasts should allow for a satisfactory account of the data, with minimal redundancy. Avoid including an exhaustive set of contrasts in your write-up.
Your post-hoc contrasts analysis must produce at least one significant B main effect
complex contrast and at least one significant AB interaction complex contrast (product of A contrast with B complex contrast). What happens to the other contrasts is up to you.
Whatever the outcome, the results should be plausible.
With respect to confidence interval inference, you should propose a minimum difference in dependent variable units of theoretical or practical importance.
Write up of Exercise (this is what you need to submit)
You should create a single word or pdf document for upload to the Turnitin submission link on Moodle that includes all of the following (in this order):
. A brief description and rationale for the design, clearly stating the independent and dependent variables and how these are to be operationalised.
. A write up of the overall tests, clearly indicate the decision rule being applied and include an ANOVA summary table (as produced by SPSS or Jamovi)
. A clearly labelled table of means and plot of cell means.
. A clearly labelled table of A, B and AB contrast coefficients, identifying which contrasts are included in your analysis (and the levels of A and B that each of the JK coefficients refer to).
. A summary of the outcome of your contrast analysis (both tests and raw confidence
intervals). State the decision rule used for tests. Include the PSY summary table (test output) and edited CI table in the body of your report. Provide a concise interpretation for your contrasts analysis (what does it all mean?). Your interpretation should include directional and confidence interval inference.
. Appendix – At the end of your single Assignment document, copy and paste into a single Appendix the text from your PSY input file(s), and text from the complete
(unedited) PSY output file(s).
What is meant by unedited PSY files? Include the complete text content of your PSY input
files and output content for each run through PSY. Clearly label each run of PSY. PSY output should show contrasts, descriptive statistics and test and CI output as given for each run.
This will allow the marker to check against the relevant tables you have provided in the body of your report. Your Assignment cannot be marked unless the analyses can be verified from the PSY input and unedited PSY output.
Note: Make sure all your tables and graphs are clearly labelled.
Summary of tables/chart to include in your report:
o ANOVA Summary Table
o a table of cell means
o plot of cell means
o table of contrast coefficients
o PSY Summary table
o PSY confidence interval table (edited from PSY output to produce a single table for A, B and AB contrasts).
Length:
There is no strict word length for Assignment 2. However, you should find that you are able to provide a description of your design and a written account of your analysis (excluding tables and graphs) in about eight typed pages or fewer (1½ spacing, 1500-2000 words).
Evaluation: Assignments will be evaluated on the basis of:
. The rationale of the design (Do your two factors make sense in combination with each other? Are the levels of each factor sensible and appropriate to your research question?).
. A clear description of variables (How is the DV operationalised? How are the factors and factor levels operationalised?).
. The plausibility of the data and choice of contrasts (given the pattern of means).
. The data analysis (correct execution of overall tests using SPSS or Jamovi; and correct contrasts analysis in PSY).
. Interpretation of overall tests and the clarity and conciseness of the interpretation of the contrasts analysis.
Rambling or lengthy reports will not be highly regarded. You do not need to include a long introduction or a literature review. If you wish to refer to one or two key references in the course of showing the relevance of the design to (say) a theory, then by all means do so, but in most cases this should not be necessary.
Provide enough background information to enable the reader to understand the logic of the design and how the variables were operationalised, but no more than this.
How to Avoid Plagiarism
For inspiration in choosing variables, students may refer to the psychology literature and other Psychology courses.
However, DO NOT use designs and data sets referred to in the PSYC3001 course materials.
For example, do not choose the same levels for one or both or your factors as appear in Course examples. You may choose a similar factor for one (not both) of your factors but then make up different levels (different from Course examples).
If you wish, you may choose a similar dependent measure (to a Course example), but make sure it is operationalised differently.
Use common sense. If your design is too similar to a Course example, your assignment will be given a low mark.
Most importantly, the data for this Exercise should come from you (no other source).
YOU ARE REMINDED THAT THE WORK YOU SUBMIT MUST BE YOUR OWN AND NOT THE WORK
OF ANOTHER PERSON OR GENERATIVE AI.
Please be aware that all assignments will be closely scrutinised for evidence of collusion.
The consequence of plagiarism at third year level can be severe. What you submit should be your own work and not that of another student or a private tutor or any other person. Do not give another student access to your assignment and do not ask another student to ‘help’ you write the assignment.
Whilst we recognise that you may find it beneficial to discuss the assignment amongst
yourselves – and to some extent we encourage this – when it comes to the writing stage you must do this alone, and not as a group. The best way to avoid plagiarism is not to put yourself in a situation where there is any chance of it occurring.
For this assessment task, you may not use Generative AI. If the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT is detected, it will be regarded as serious academic misconduct and subject to the standard penalties, which may include 00FL, suspension and exclusion.