Lab report marking guide

Cognitive Psychology (PSYC20007)

Overview

In your lab classes, you participated in an experiment in

which you were required to categorise amoeba-like

stimuli based on their internal features (i.e., the

organelles). Classification learning difficulty was varied

between conditions. The features relevant to this

categorisation decision were not revealed to you, so you

were required to learn how to correctly classify the

stimuli from the feedback you were given.

i

This assignment is worth 40% of the

total mark for Cognitive Psychology

(PSYC20007).

This experiment is a partial replication of one by Shepard et al. (1961), who explored how different types of category

structure affected classification learning. In their first experiment, Shepard et al. (1961) demonstrated that learning

difficulty increases with category structure complexity. Our experiment was designed to test the reproducibility of

this result using more confusable stimuli.

In your tutorials, we described Shepard et al.'s (1961) first experiment and contrasted their design with that of our

experiment. In your lab report, your task is to demonstrate an understanding of Shepard et al. (1961)'s original

experiment and findings, citing other relevant literature where appropriate to explain their results. In doing so, you

should provide a rationale for the current study that justifies our predictions. You will also need to report the results

from the lab report experiment and discuss your findings in the context of Shepard et al.'s (1961) results and the

broader classification literature.

Due date

A template for writing the lab report, including the method section, is available on the Lab Report Assignment page.

Please note that, while the method is not assessed, you are still expected to complete this section by replacing

the missing values with the appropriate numbers.