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Mass VS Distributive Learning Assignment

   

Added on  2020-03-16

11 Pages3033 Words98 Views
1Running Head: MASS VS DISTRIBUTIVE Mass VS Distributive NAME Affiliate Institution

2Mass VS DistributiveMETHODParticipantsNumber of involved participants: 212Number of feedback forms received in each task; Part 1: 184 Part 2: 184Participants in the study described their Gender as follows:GenderNumber of Participants(Percentage)Male63 (34%)Female117 (64%)Unreported gender4 (2%)Total118(100%)The participant’s age was between 18-56 years. The mean age was 26.56 and standard deviation was 7.60.The study was given a go ahead by the Swinburne University Human Research Ethics Committee (SUHREC) and 212 participants, who were psychology students voluntarily enrolled to the program through the Swinburne Psychology Research Experience Program. There was no compensation but the students enrolled in exchange for the course credit. In addition, the students were informed that if they could withdraw anytime from the study without penalty.ApparatusThis study, used a website called Qualtrics, where each volunteer would log in at the specified time. The participants would then fill in details plus do their tasks and submit them online through the same platform.MaterialsMaterials used for this study included: Study materials, test materials, specific instructions to massed practice condition and specific instructions to distributive conditions and finally demographic questions.Study materials used was a chapter from a book titled; “Research in Psychology”. All Students, regardless of condition were to read chapter 2 of the book from page 30-60. This material was selected because it was relevant to the students since they were psychology students. The topic, Research in psychology was also relevant because it gave the students and background information of research methods in a field they were involved in. The study material was 30 pages and this was enough and suitable amount of material that could be studied and comprehended in four hours.

3Mass VS DistributiveTest materials included a twenty item questions (attached in the appendix) Students were expected to fill in the gap with the correct answer. The questions were answered by all students regardless of the condition. The items (questions) were derived from the study materials. Since they were fill in the gap questions, the ability to answer them depended on the ability of the students to remember what they had studied from the study materials. These type of questions were preferred to multiple choice questions because unlike multiple choice questions that may give leeway to the students guessing the response, fill in the blank questions are fully dependent on students ability to recall what they read. This was in line with the objective of this study.Specific instructions to both the students in mass and distributive study involved details on how they would study and do the tests. Instruction to the mass study students was that they were supposed to study the content provided in four hours continuous in one day with no interruptions. The distributive study group were on the other hand supposed to spend two hours continuously studying the content ach day for two days. In the study time, the students were not supposed to have any breaks or interruptions aside washrooms and refreshments. These instructions were formulated based on the research objectives and on the quantity and content of the study material.Demographic questions were open ended and required each individual to fill in their age and gender. Age was important because from theory, (Wray, 1973), argues that Learning process is affected with age and that the older you grow the less the ability to learn. Comparisons within same age or different age was not an objective in this study but it was important. The knowledge of whether the students were male or female was important because this would influence to some extent the way they would study and answer the questions (Balhara, Gauba & Deshpande, 2011). For example, ladies tend to be distracted often and they also tend to havemore washroom breaks than Men.ProcedureParticipants read the consent information statement after which they agreed to participate in the study by clicking “continue”. Participants were then later randomly assigned a study strategy condition. Half of them received the massed practice condition strategy while the other half received the distributed practice condition.Those on the massed strategy studied a given material for four hours in one day continuous without breaks. The distributive type, studied the same material for four hours also but in two days, studying two hours continuously each day. This marked part 1 of the study and also included presentation of relevant instructions and answering demographic questions. In part 2, the two groups then were randomly assigned a specific strategy which involved answering of fill the blank questions based on the study material in part 1. In one group, the students logged in the website 24 hours after they studied the material in part 1. The other half logged in 2 weeks after study part 1 and they did the questions in Part 2 study. All students completed the same type of 20 item fill-in-the-blank in 20 minutes. The questions were then marked as either right or wrong.

4Mass VS DistributiveResultsThe results of this study was based on the number of right or wrong responses participants got from the 20 item fill in the blank questions. For easy analysis and discussions the results were expressed as a mean of the correct responses given by each category of participants which included:Massed practice with 1 day test delayMassed practice with 2 weeks delayDistributive practice with 1 day delayDistributive Practice with 2weeks delay.Table 1.1 below represents the mean and standard deviation of the correct responses given in the 4 scenarios.StudyStrategy1 day2-weeksOverallMeanSDNRSDMeanSDNRSDMeanSDNRSDMassed19.291.53450.07914.482.87470.19816.892.31920.137Distributive18.451.52470.08217.031.45450.08517.741.49920.084Overall18.871.52920.08115.762.29920.14517.311.941840.112From the means and standard deviation, the relative standard deviation (RSD) can be calculate by dividing the standard deviation with the mean. The RSD can be used in making comparisons and the following graphs were derived:Graph 1.1: Represents the comparison in mean marks between the four scenarios;

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