Mood has been shown to have an effect on a variety of cognitive tasks including working memory (Martin & Kerns, 2011). Often in these experiments, mood is manipulated by showing participants videos

March 27, 2019

PSYC2022 Lab Report Trimester 1 2019

Worth: 30%

Word Count: 2000 words (this is a maximum limit – we will stop reading at 2000 words)

Assignment Brief

Mood has been shown to have an effect on a variety of cognitive tasks including working memory (Martin & Kerns, 2011). Often in these experiments, mood is manipulated by showing participants videos. Another way to manipulate mood is through music (Västfjäll, 2002). We want to know if we can manipulate mood using music instead, and whether this would have an effect on working memory performance.

To test this, we will be using a working memory task known as the operation span task (OSPAN). In this task, you will be asked to read and verify a simple math problem (such as “Is (4/2)-1=1 yes/no?) and then read a letter after the operation (such as S). After a series of problems and letters have been presented, you will recall the letters that followed each operation.

In this experiment, you will complete the OSPAN task, then you will listen to some music, and you will then complete the OSPAN task again. To check whether the music has affected your mood, you will also complete the positive and negative affect scale (PANAS-SF) twice – once at the start of the experiment before you start the OSPAN task, and then again after you hear the song and before you complete your second OSPAN task. You will need to write down your scores for the OSPAN task including both your absolute operation span score and your math error score. You will be asked to record these in your survey.

At the end of the experiment you will be asked to provide some basic demographic information (age and gender).

The data you provide will be combined with students from both PSYC2022 and PSYC5222 and analysed by Larissa. No individual data will be reported. The tutorial in week 6 has been set aside to go through the results with you and talk about how to write a lab report.

You should also consult a writing for psychology guide (O’Shea is a good one) and/or check out ACAP’s learning support information on how to write a good lab report.

References (you can use these, but you should also find your own).

Martin, E. A. & Kerns, J. G. (2011). The influence of positive mood on different aspects of cognitive control. Cognition and Emotion, 25(2), 265-279.

Västfjäll, D. (2002). Emotion induction through music: A review of the musical mood induction procedure. Musicae Scientiae, 5, 173-211.

You will need to complete the following sections:

Title
15 words or less outlining the relationship between the principal variables.

Abstract
180 words or less summarising the aims, methods and findings of the study.

Introduction
This should define key terms and provide enough of a literature review to justify the current study as well as a rationale for the hypotheses. At the end of this section you should provide some aims and hypotheses for the research.

Method & Results These sections will be given to you. Please copy and paste them into your report between the Introduction and Discussion section.

Discussion
This section should restate and discuss all of your findings. You will need to discuss and interpret the results in line with the literature. You should provide some directions for future research as well as highlighting any limitations you identify in the study. You should end this section with an overall conclusion.

References
You should provide references in line with APA conventions.

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Mood has been shown to have an effect on a variety of cognitive tasks including working memory (Martin & Kerns, 2011). Often in these experiments, mood is manipulated by showing participants videos