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Suppose you are designing an experiment to investigate whether participants incidentally learn details about a research assistant during a study. Using the principle of passive deception, outline a brief experimental procedure (1-3 sentences) to test this.

Question: Suppose you are designing an experiment to investigate whether participants incidentally learn details about a research assistant during a study. Using the principle of passive deception, outline a brief experimental procedure (1-3 sentences) to test this.

Sample answer: Participants are asked to read a list of words in preparation for an expected memory test, while a research assistant sits in the room wearing a distinctive shirt. Afterward, instead of testing them on the words, the participants are unexpectedly asked to recall details about the research assistant's appearance. This procedure uses passive deception to ensure that any learning about the assistant's appearance occurs without conscious effort or explicit intention.

Key points:

  • Establish an expected task (such as reading a word list) to direct conscious attention.
  • Expose participants to the target details (the research assistant's appearance).
  • Use passive deception by keeping the true recall target unexpected.
  • Test participants unexpectedly on the assistant's details to measure learning that occurred without conscious effort.

Rubric: The answer must propose an initial task (e.g., reading a word list) to establish an expectation, present a research assistant's appearance details as the environmental target, and use an unexpected recall test on those details rather than the expected task.

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Updated 2026-05-27

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Research Methods in Psychology - 4th American Edition @ KPU

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