There are independent variables ivs processing

Age, with 6 age groups

There is one dependent variable (DV)

Within subjects design:

This is a within-subjects design – all participants undergo all 3 conditions of the Levels of Processing task. Everyone’s performance across them all is compared – so it is everyone’s performance on structural processing vs phonemic processing vs structural processing that is compared (not the performance between people or groups as in a between subjects design).

I want to extend my previous message about the research design of the experiment in order to explain what is wanted in the lab report, more clearly.

My earlier message focused on the different levels of processing and talked about being a within-subjects design. However do note that the second hypothesis investigating age and memory involves a quasi-experimental between-subjects design.

Firstly, there is 1 independent variable (IV)

Levels of processing, with 3 levels or conditions (structural processing, phonemic processing, structural processing)

This sort of design has implications for what you would be considering when thinking about confounds and limitations. Random assignment into groups is not needed – there are no groups (as there are in between subjects designs). In a within subjects design individual characteristics are controlled for by everyone undergoing all conditions – so individual characteristics cannot affect differences between performance in the conditions.

Variables:

There is one IV

Number of words accurately recognised in each level of the Levels of Processing tasks (if you want to look at each of them separately – but you are not required to do this when investigating age)

This is a quasi-experimental between-subjects design. It is between-subjects in that we are comparing the age groups in their recognition of the words. It is quasi experimental in that the groups are not randomly assigned.