Running Head: PSYCHOLOGY 1

Short-term Memory across Eyes Blinks (by David E. Irwin)

Name

Institute
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Short-term Memory across Eyes Blinks (by David E. Irwin)

Part One

My Purpose of enrollment in this course

My primary purpose of enrollment in this course is to understand the way research can be

carried out with different perspectives. Though the definition of research might seem very clear,

that is, systematic study of any certain phenomenon, what system to follow in a given scenario

requires detail understanding. I hope this course will help me analyze various methods through

research in psychology can be carried out. This course will also be helpful for me in taking a

mock experiment in which the study should be carried out. To specialize in various discipline

and themes of psychology, it seems very significant to undergo the process through which

various researchers can be performed. Various courses in my academic programs are going to be

based upon this course, as the course will enable me to understand various scenarios and further

allows me to undertake different scientific approaches in a systematic manner to perform the

research. Last, but not the least, the course is interesting, and I will find it intriguing to analyze

the strengths and weaknesses in research publication of various established researchers in the

realm of academics and practice.

Finding a research article

The research paper selected for this assignment is through the use of Empire State

College library. The database was titled Taylor and Francis Online,' in which the journal entry

was available. I opted to take a research publication from last five years so that the contemporary

understanding of research in psychology can be analyzed. The research paper does not follow the

separate section heading for normal research processes but includes all the credentials of
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abstract, literature review, sample population, population size, data analysis, data collection,

discussion, and conclusion. The type of research I was interested in was related to the limits and

strengths of humans short-term memory. The selected research paper of Irwin (2014) meets all

the standard criterions that a research investigation should include in a psychological experiment.

Part Two

The selected research paper is, Short-term memory across eyes blinks. The study is

authored by David E. Irwin and is duly published in the Memory journal. The page shows that

there are not many views on the research and the cross-reference citations for this article is just

one. It was published online in October 2013, and the acceptance for publication happened one

month before that in the same year. The is a considerable short article of only nine pages and

uses the key psychological terms, i.e., capacity, eye blinks, short-term memory, attention, and

change detection. The publication of article took place in the year 2014, by making its place in

the 22nd volume of the respective journal. The research publication can be access through the

following URL of Taylor & Francis Online database,

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658211.2013.847959 (Irwin, 2014).

The paper has abstract and introduction before the discussion of three main experiments.

Each experiment has its defined participants, stimuli and apparatus, and procedures section.

Every experiment has specific mentioning of results, coupled with a comprehensive discussion

section for all three experiments. The discussion section of the research paper is the final section,

followed by a References page. Complete layout of a research paper has standard three levels

of APA referencing style headings. Level one is bold and centered. Level two is left-aligned with

bold letters, followed by level three with 0.5 intended and italic.
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Abstract of the paper provides an overview of the paper, along with the methodology

used, and the resulting findings. It defines eye blinks as cause variable, whereas mentioning

short-term memory as effect variable. The causal relationship is assessed with the help of two

experiments. The capacity of human memory is determined through the blink and no-blink trials

in both the experiments. In the first experiment, the participants were supposed to no-blink

before the completion of the experiment. On the other hand, the second experiment had the one

blink as an intervention to compute the capacity and later compare it with experiment 1. The

experiments were to test the memory capacity by remembering colors only, color and orientation

both, or orientation only. The result was in quantifiable variable stating that there is decreased in

the short-term capacity of memory due to an eye blink. There was an addition control

experiment, number as experiment number 3, to further establish the results of experiment one

and two by bottom press within the interval of retention, which subsequently prevailed no effects

on the short-term capacity of the memory.

The introduction of the paper is based on the literature review process, that establishes

the validity of the experiments to be undertaken in this study. The sample population, as per

methodology of experiment number one, belongs to the broad community of student studying at

University of Illinois. The were made not aware of the purpose of the study to avoid any biased

in the data collection process. Their time and input were paid in the monetary term to retain their

attention for the entire 90 minutes. The selected sample size was 12, and there is not mention of

the demographic variables for this case. Various results did indicate a generalize approach

towards sample size, that is, for example, that there was the exclusion of trials for all in two

cases. 23.2% of non-blink trials and 12.5% of the blink trials faced exclusion from analysis due

to blinking of participants in the no-blink experiment, coupled with not blinking in blink
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experiments, respectively (Irwin, 2014). The various summary statistics doesnt indicate

discrimination by gender, age, ethnicity, income-class, or religious beliefs. Hence, no bias

approach is witnessed in the entire process because the experiment understood each participant

biologically equal to the other irrespective of its demographic variables. The stimuli and

apparatus were identical for all the experiments in this case, except modification in case of

experiment two where the trials included blinking. The Same type of methodology is conducted

for experiment two and three.

The final discussion of the research paper establishes the relevance of experiments results

by defining its place within the current literature. The debate in the discussion as conclusion

indicated that there is a limitation to the study on the participants selection. More studies with

the same methodology could endorse the relationship stated in the thesis. The limitation of the

study on the absence of most of the demographic variables related to partisans doesnt make the

study bias. Still, the conclusion signifies that there may or may not have been similar results for

data from various contents or with various biological disabilities.

Part Three (650 words)

This study is a laboratory observation on various participants for the sake of research that

is applied in nature. The scientific methods of investigation are applied in this study to

understand various behavior and processes that are directly or indirectly related to mental

processes.

Adherence to APA Standards

The paper adhered itself to the APA standard and applied various formatting and

referencing mechanism set by the regulatory body of APA standards. Proper in-text citation and
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text citation are considered while writing the paper. In the text, citation included the author last

names, coupled with the year of publication. Whereas, the end text citation or commonly known

as references follows the sequence of author name, publication year, title of the study, publisher

name, volume, page range, and the respective doi of the study. All the standards of American

Psychological Association (2002) related to research were accounted while proceeding research.

Ethics in Research

Some of the broad principles of research that are kept intact are intellectual property

rights of the material quoted and ideas shared, conscious of multiple roles by researcher and the

data collection team, following informed-consent rules while selecting participants of the study.

Participants of study need to know the duration and various procedures they are supposed to

undergo. Still, the research study managed to remove bias by letting the participants know of the

time and procedures they will undergo, while at the same time blinding them of the true aim of

the study, that is, thesis statement and hypothesis.

The research though excluded various mentioning of aspects related to ethical practicing,

that is, whether the participants were made aware of any benefit arising from the research or the

limits of confidentiality related to outcome. But the studies did mention the incentives to the

participants against the time and consent to undergo experiments. Though the research paper

doesnt exclusively provide a separate section for the ethics, still it seems that the data collecting

procedures were according to the rules of APA ethical standards, like respecting the

confidentiality and privacy of participants, along with other ethical concerns. APA standards of

2002, along with its amendments of 2010 and 2016 respectively, seemed to been regulated in the

research study that is selected for this assignment. List of the ten standards that are supposedly

incorporated in the study pertains to resolving ethical issues, competence, human relations,
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privacy and confidentiality, advertising and other public statements, record keeping and fees,

education and training, research and publication, assessment, and therapy. It is not necessary for

research to use all of them in a study because every study has its objectives and methodologies,

but one is supposed not to violate any of the standards in case it is in practice. The researched

abide in the selected research publication by the various record keeping and fees, research and

publication, assessment, privacy and confidentiality, human relations, and competence clauses.

Limitation of the Study

The concluding portion of the research included all the limitations that the study

possesses and provides avenues for further research. This has been done in such a way that the

discussion of findings is linked to literature review portion hence paving the way for the

limitation this research possesses. Foremost is the limitation of the study on the sample size,

which is low. This sample size isnt debated in the final section, but it is implied in the

conclusion that other similar experiments on various other study groups will try to endorse this

research finding in future.

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References

American Psychological Association. (2002). Ethical principles of psychologists and code of

conduct. American Psychologist, 57(12).

Irwin, D. E. (2014). Short-term memory across eye blinks. Memory, 22(8), 898-906. Retrieved

on 28 February 2017 from

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/09658211.2013.847959