An experimenter wanted to determine whether the style of type in which words wer

Question

An experimenter wanted to determine whether the style of type in which words were printed had an effect on how memorable they were. In a within-subjects design, he presented lists of eight words to participants: four words were in one type font, and four were in another. Across subjects words were counterbalanced across fonts, and each participant received a different random order of the words. The participants saw the list of eight words on a sheet of paper and studied them for two minutes. After the study period, they had unlimited time to write down as many of the words as they could in any order that they wished. The results showed no difference in how memorable the words were. What was the problem? How do you fix it?

Explanation / Answer

Two fonts were used in this study where eight different words were presented in either of the two fonts. Four words at one font and the four words words had another font. The problem was that when the participants were presented the words, the experimenter wanted to know which font is memorized more, but the participants instead categorized the memorization into two categories. The first category was based on first category font words and the second category was the second category words font. So, the purpose of the research was defeated.

In order to know which font may be more memorable, the words can be presented in many different fonts so that categorization does not happen. If the experimenter wants to use only two fonts then only two words can be used in different trials. For example. four trials could be used in which both font words are shown to the participants. This way they will nor categorize the words and the actual effect of fonts on memory can be observed.

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