Question

Imagine a study in which you will visually present participants with a list of 20 words, one at a time, wait for a short time, and then ask them to recall as many of the words as they can. In the stressed condition, they are told that they might also be chosen to give a short speech in front of a small audience. In the unstressed condition, they are not told that they might have to give a speech. What are several specific things that you could do to standardize the procedure?

Answer 1

Things to standardize the procedure of data collection in the study

• Word lists to be shown to participants should be prepared such that there are two lists of 20 words, the same for all in a stressed condition and the other list same for all in an unstressed condition
• The lists should be printed and not handwritten
• A4 sized sheet of wordlist
• Font used for one condition should be the same for all participants
• The distance from eye to the place sheets are presented should be constant for all participants
• The distance between the words should be constant
• Color of font should remain the same for all, so no color-related effect on the study
• The words used to tell them that they will have to give a small speech and all should be the same for all participants
• The words used in unstressed condition should be the same for all
• The illumination of the room in which the study is being done should be constant
• Noise should be controlled as far as possible
• Distractions should be removed