Reference no: EM133303799
Morning People (larks) vs. Night People (owls)
For several biological reasons, as people get older, they tend to shift more and more toward being morning people: most alert and active early in the day. Because of this, research comparing the memory abilities of younger and older adults should take the time of day into account. If participants are tested in the afternoon, younger people may have a decided edge, since many of them tend to be night people. If they are tested in the morning, older people may have an advantage.
A study by May, Hasher, and Stolzfus (1993) asked two groups --- older adults ages 66 to 78 and young adults ages 18 to 20 --- to perform a memory task in which they first read ten stories and then tried to determine whether sentences they saw had been contained in those stories. Testing occurred early in the day, at 8:00 am or 9:00 am, or later in the day, at 4:00 or 5:00 pm. Results indicated that during the afternoon, young adults had a decided edge over older ones: They performed significantly better. In the morning, however, this difference disappeared.
These findings indicate that research designed to investigate the effects of aging on memory should take circadian rhythms into account. Ideally, all participants should be tested at the time of the day when they are functioning at peak levels. If they are tested in the afternoon or evening --- times when most psychological research takes place (May et al, 1993) --- any differences between them may be falsely exaggerated.
- What type of research is conducted above? Explain.
- Identify the independent variable(s)
- Identify the dependent variable(s)
- What may be an extraneous/confounding or third variable problem in most psychological research of this type?
- Describe the operational definitions for all the variables