Why taking photos can actually make your memory worse
Purpose:
Throughout this class, you have been learning to read research articles and understand the methodology used to generate that research. In this assignment, you will put that knowledge to use by critiquing the quality of a research study, researchers interest, independent and dependent variables and evaluating how accurately a newspaper reports the results of that study.
Assignment:
1. Read both the newspaper & academic journal article combinations below
Experimental evidence showing that taking photos may decrease your memory of an event:
• Why taking photos can actually make your memory worse (newspaper)
• Point-and-Shoot Memories: The Influence of Taking Photos on Memory for a
Museum Tour (journal):
USE ONLY THESE TWO REFERENCES ABOVE!!!
2. Write a brief (1-2 paragraph) summary of the research.
3. In a short essay (about 5 double spaced pages, including the summary), address the following questions:
How well does the research study test its own hypotheses? and
How accurately does the newspaper article represent the findings of the research study?
To do this, you can use the questions below as prompts. (This essay should not be an allinclusive critique—I prefer that you thoroughly justify a few points instead of trying to touch on all points.) Make sure to always answer in your own words rather than quoting the original articles.
Did the researchers do a good job of conceptualization? Is their definition of the thing they want to study clear? Are there important components missing from the definition? Are there components included in the definition that shouldn’t be included? Do the researchers sufficiently ground their hypotheses in prior research or are you uncertain how their results fit in with the existent scientific literature?
Did the researcher select a good methodology for testing their theory? Does it generate the type of knowledge that tests their hypotheses?
Do the researchers do a good job of operationalization? Do they succeed in measuring the concept that they are interested in? Do their measures seem reliable and valid?
Do the researchers do a good job of sampling and/or randomization? Are they justified when they extrapolate their findings to a broader population?
Are the results of the study valuable? Is it worth knowing the answer to the questions that were asked? Are they worth being reported in a newspaper?
Did the newspaper article correctly interpret the findings of the study? Did the reporter understand the results? Did they overgeneralize (that is, make claims that were too broad given the findings of the research study)? Was there a bias in the reporting that wasn’t
present in the original study?
Did the newspaper article leave out things from the research study? If so, were they important for understanding the research or were they irrelevant to the story?