1b. Choose a psychological process and a sub-process to study

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

Psychological processes are actions or events that happen in the mind. Common processes that students investigated in previous semesters are: reading comprehension; perception; attention; working memory; long-term memory; learning

These processes are often very complex, so experimenters have to study one part of the process (the sub-process) at a time. If you try to study the whole process, then you can't go into much detail about it. Common sub-processes that students investigated in previous semesters are: stereotype formation (as a part of visual perception); using topic knowledge (as a part of reading), memorizing visual stimuli (as a part of working memory), word choice (as a part of writing), etc.

Read this topic next: Choose your factors.

Example
Take an example that’s totally off topic: assembling a car is a complex process. If you describe the whole process, you can only say things like it costs x dollars and takes y minutes for each car. When you try to compare two factories, one might be cheaper or faster than the other but you can’t say why. This general kind of description just doesn’t provide a lot of information. To understand how or why one factory is faster than the other, you need to break down the assembly process into parts or sub-processes: build the engine, install all the windows, put together the seats, etc. Describing the factories in terms of these more detailed, more precise sub-processes will allow you to understand better exactly how the factory works and why it might be better or faster.

Back to psychology. Clearly, communication and behavior are processes or actions, but they are far too general to be an acceptable research problem, like “assembling a car”. Writing, reading, translating are much better as a start – because they are much more specific than behavior in general. So, by moving from a general process (communicate) and to a more specific process (reading) you make your problem more specific and easier to research effectively. In the case of psychology, you can’t observe the sub-processes directly, as you can in the case of car factories. This means that researchers have to be more creative in how they measure what’s happening during different sub-processes.


Just for this example, then, say that the process that you want to study is reading.
So far, the formulation of your research problem would be just: Reading

However, there are very, very many studies of reading. It is still too broad for a research problem. You want to take your thinking a step further than that and define which sub-process of reading that you will focus on. Reading for your Lit Review will help you identify the sub-process that interests you. Reading is usually viewed as having parts like word recognition, sentence building, sentence interpretation, use of topic knowledge. For this example, then, assume that word recognition is the sub-process of reading that you want to study.

The same is true of other psychological processes: existing research breaks each process like thinking, learning, seeing, etc. into more specific sub-processes. To make your research problem more specific and more focused, you have to identify both the process and the sub-process that you want to study.

Now, the formulation of your research problem would be something like:
Word recognition during reading
The general format of the research problem, so far, is:
[subprocess] during [process]

[Amy]

I want to do:

the effects of exercise on mood


shall i specify the kind of exercise? and what effects? such as how is mood being measured? I think the answer is yes, Dr. Dilinger?

Amy and Ben

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

Yes, the next step is to be more specific.

Not measurement yet, that's later.
What kind(s) of exercise?
Which is the other factor?
Which aspects of mood?
Best,
\md

[Brandy Spindel]

My partner and I are trying to come up with our research problem. I have read the instructions on how to pick a psychological proccess and sub-proccess and so on. I am still a little confused and wondering if thinking and making things happen is an acceptable problem. What this means is, if by thinking about something so much, can you make it happen. For example, if you pray or believe and think that someone can get better from an illness, can it happen? Factor one can be if one single person does it and factor two can be if a group of people do it.

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

OK, so you've chosen a psychological activity (thinking or praying).
And now your problem looks like this:
thinking -causes?-> improvement in illness
In words: Does thinking/praying cause improvement in illness?

So, thinking is your factor and physiological improvement is the process that you're focussing on.
Now you have to be careful to move around the pieces: we're not doctors, so we don't usually focus on physical illnesses. As psychologists, we want to focus on how other things affect psychological processes such as thinking. Like this:
???? -causes?-> changes in thinking

So, for example, you might have:
food -> changes in thinking
information -> changes in thinking
instructions -> changes in thinking
gender -> changes in thinking [you might want to look at the previous student study on gender stereotypes and how they affect mathematical thinking, as an example]

Also, I need to push you to be more specific about what kind of thinking you want to focus on.

HTH

[Jose Hernandez]

Wow this is a cool idea. Sort of like mind over matter.

[Brandy Spindel]

I am sorry, but I am still a little confused and I want to make sure I do this right. So if I specified thinking to willing something to happen such as making an inatimate object move, would that be the process? Then the factors could be a group of believers versus a group of non believers. Please help me. I am so nervious about this because I really want to do it right. I am sorry if I ask too much.

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

First, don't be nervous : ) I'll help you along until it's right.
Second, you formulated a problem where one process affects another. That's why it seems confusing.
You still have [thinking something should happen] as a factor that causes [an object moving].
We usually focus on the process that's on the right side of "causes" and in your case, an object moving isn't a psychological process.
Does this help? Keep asking until it gets clear -- that's your job at the moment! : )

[Brandy Spindel]

Okay, I think I am starting to get this. So could my psychological process be attention, sub-process learning, and my factors be hot and cold temperature. Basically, does temperature affect how well we pay attention in any learning environment.

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

I need to get you to start saying "we" and "our" factors ; )

Yup. You got the idea: you're focusing on psychological processes like attention and learning and then finding factors that make these processes change.

We can talk more about whether learning is a part of attention or vice versa.

[Brandy Spindel]

okay, so we decided on learning as a psychological process and academic learning as our sub process and a hot room for one factor and a nice air conditioned room for another. Is this more correct? Do we have to have the literature search-plan worksheet and the draft bibliography done by tomarrow nights class? We have the research problem worksheet done, but we are not sure what to do for the others because we are still unsure if our processes and factors are right?

[Mike Dillinger, PhD]

Process and sub-process sound fine.
Hot and cold are two "levels" of the same factor: Temperature.
Think of a second factor.

You need a first version of the Search Plan for tomorrow. You'll be working on the bibliography and refining the research problem as we move ahead.

You'll be more sure as you get used to it all. Not necessarily this week, though.

[Vince Zolezzi]

My partner and I are going to write about how somebody's recollection of a particual event is greatly influenced by leading questions and word choices. This is known as the "misinformation effect" on eyewitness memory.

Can you help us identify a process, sub-process and factors based on this information?

Thanks,

Vince and Eumi