Will knowing what you are being tested on skew Survey results - Assignment Example

? Will knowing what you are being tested skew survey results This experiment seeks to determine whether priming influences skewing of survey results by testing the experimental hypothesis, which infers that priming participants into believing they are taking a feminist survey would cause them to score significantly higher than participants who were not primed. The experimental design was a 2x2 mixed factorial design with the two independent variables being priming and the question type whereas, the dependent variable was the survey results. Data collected from the study revealed that priming had no impact on whether primed participants scored significantly higher than non-primed participants did on feminist based questions. An analysis of the data also revealed that all participants scored significantly higher on feminist based questions compared to what they scored on stereotypically feminine and general questions. Possible reasons for these results included participants’ loss of interest in the survey and the subjects’ failure to detect the word “feminist” as a prime when mentioned by the experimenter at the start of the experiment. The aim of the experiment is to yield relevant information that will shed light on the topic of priming and lay ground for further studies on the same. Literature Review Marsolek (1999) defines priming as the cognitive ability to process a stimulus due to recent processing of that specific stimulus or one that is highly similar. In order to test priming, different researchers conduct experiments where they measure response time and naming accuracy (Marsolek, 1999). For example, the response time of an individual with prior exposure to the color yellow is shorter compared to that of another individual with no prior exposure to the color when both are asked to identify a banana. Priming activates different mental pathways, which results in an individual’s enhanced ability to process cognitively subsequent stimuli. There are different forms of priming. They include: Perceptual and conceptual priming- entails the use of primes that have the same form or those that have a similar meaning respectively (Matsukawa et al, 2005). Semantic priming- entails the use of primes with similar semantic features; for example, an individual will envision animals in the same dichotomous category because they share similar features. Syntactic/ associative priming- entails the use of syntactic structures that are similar to structures of phrases or sentences heard recently by an individual. In associative priming, the primes do not have parallel semantic features. For example, dog is an associative prime of cat because of the common use of the phrase “it’s raining cats and dogs”. Masked priming- entails the use of pseudo words or words represented by symbols as a priming tool with the aim of assessing phonological and orthographic activations during word recognition. Positive and negative priming- these primes alter the speed of cognitive processing; whereby, positive priming increases processing speed whereas negative priming decreases processing speed. Positive priming results from experiencing the stimulus in spite of an individual’s conscious awareness of the stimulus. Direct priming of repetition is a type of positive priming, which entails using long lasting changes in behavior due to experience as a prime. Conversely, negative priming results from ignoring a stimulus after experiencing it (Foster et al, 1984). Whether priming results in the skewing of survey results remains a contentious issue among different scholars. Proponents for priming’s role in skewing results base their argument on researches done on priming that yielded valid results after measuring subject’s response times and accuracy of responses. For example, in a study done by Bargh et al (1996), subjects demonstrated that unconscious priming plays a part in advancing stereotypes. The researchers implicitly primed subjects with stereotypic prime words about the elderly such as forgetful and wrinkle, and then observed how they exited the testing booth. Subjects in the experimental group exited the room while walking slowly compared to those in the control group who received a neutral stimuli in spite of the researchers not explicitly mentioning slowness or speed (Bargh et al 1996). The counterargument raised by their opponents is that the successful replication of priming research studies is yet to occur. Moreover, they believe that priming studies suffer from publication bias and experimenter effect, which undermine the reliability and validity of these studies (Bower, 2012). Priming results in skewing of survey results either positively or negatively. Skewing is a statistical term, which refers to the asymmetrical distribution of data. Psychologists use statistical procedures to analyze data collected using experimental and non-experimental methods. In order to assess the distribution of scores, psychologists use a ‘bell-curve’ to plot the results from the measure of central tendency (mean, mode, median). In a normal distribution, the mean divides the population into two equal parts; however, the reverse holds true for skewed distributions. A positively skewed distribution has a greater mean than the median shifting the curve towards the right. The high mean is a product of the few extremely high scores. Conversely, a negative distribution has a lower mean than the median shifting the curve towards the left and it results from a few extremely low scores. With this in mind, it is possible to visualize the effect of priming on skewing survey results by assessing the distribution of scores on a “bell-curve”. High response times and high number of correct responses serve as indicators of successful priming of subjects. These high results raise the mean of the population without altering the median resulting in a positively skewed distribution. Priming experiments that do not record the priming of subjects have normal distribution curves with no skewed results. An analysis of the data from this experiment revealed that priming had no effect in the responses given by participants in the feminist questions. Moreover, all participants scored significantly higher on feminist based questions compared to what they scored on stereotypically feminine and general questions. Therefore, a distribution curve of the scores from the feminist questions would be a normal curve with no skewed results. This experiment revealed some complications likely to affect studies done on priming by other researchers in future. For example, participants were unable to hear the prime meaning the priming technique used was inadequate. Knowledge of such complications allows future researchers to implement changes that will lead to desired results. However, future researcher can view this complication as a gap in research; hence, design an experimental study assessing the impact of subtle priming cues in influencing survey results. The procedures outlined such as the choice in experimental design and the distinction of independent and dependent variables and the analysis of results provides an outline, which future researchers are able to replicate. References Bargh, J. A., Chen, M., & Burrows, L. (1996). Automaticity of Social Behvior: Direct Effects of Trait Construct and Stereotype Activation and Action. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 71(2), 230-44. Bower, S. (2012). The Hot and Cold of Priming: Psychologists are Divided on Whether Unnoticed Cues can Influence Behavior. Science News, 181. Foster, K. I., & Davis, C. (1984). Repitition, Priming andd Frequency Attenuation. Journal of Experimental Psychology:Learning, Memory and Cognition, 10(4). Marsolek, C. J. (1999). What is Priming and Why? In J.S.Bowers, & C. J. Marsolek, Rethinking Implicit Memory (pp. 1-24). New York: Oxford University Press. Matsukawa, J., Doniger, G. M., & Snodgrass, J. G. (2005). Conceptuual versus Perceptual Priming in Incomplete Picture Identification. Journal of Psycholinguistic Research, 34(6). Read More