- This assignment has two parts: A and B. Respond to BOTH parts. Your total response must be at least 15 sentences. It can be longer.
- View the videos in PART A, pick at least two videos and respond to the questions under the videos. Your response to part A must discuss at least a couple of the videos attached here. You don’t need to use APA format when referring to the videos here, but label the study strategy (e.g. dual coding).
- For PART B, come up with one correlation example (either pick question 1 or 2) and write it in your own words.
- Label your responses as PART A) and PART B)
- Your post must be written entirely in your own words. You don’t need to cite sources other than the videos for this assignment, but if you do use other sources, use APA format citations. We’ll learn more about this for future discussions that do require sources. See my announcements and the resources in the first Canvas module.
- Respond to two other students’ posts. Your responses have no specific length requirements, but you need to refer to something in the student’s post, showing deep engagement with the topic(s) discussed by the other students: something like “I agree” or “Interesting!” is NOT enough for the points. See the discussion instructions for responses to students.
PART A: Memory strategies
Watch the study strategy videos below. Choose at least TWO study strategies from the videos that you think will work for you or you recognize using them before. Why did you choose those strategies? Explain IN DETAIL how you will use these strategies, and/or how you have used them in everyday life.
PART B: Correlation
Pick one of these questions (1 or 2) and clearly label which one you are responding to:
Question 1: Even though two things are correlated (reliably co-occur in a systematic manner), some third factor can be behind both of them. Come up with two variables that could be correlated but don’t in fact influence each other. Instead, there’s a THIRD VARIABLE that affects them and explains the correlation. Clearly identify the two variables that are measured (for clarity use bold letters or highlight them), and clearly identify what you think the third variable is and explain why.
The third variable must be something that systematically influences both of the measured variables and it must explain why the measured variables are correlated. See the example below and more in this lectureLinks to an external site., but come up with your own example.
- There’s a positive correlation between amount of ice-cream sold and frequency of boating accidents. The more ice-cream is sold, the more boating accidents occur, and vice versa. Does ice-cream eating cause accidents on the water? Do boating accidents cause people to eat ice-cream? Nope! This correlation is coincidental because there is a THIRD VARIABLE that directly and systematically influences each of the measured variables (making it look as if there is a correlation between the measured variables). Ice-cream sales and boating accidents DO correlate, but they do NOT influence each other directly. Ice-cream sales are regulated by weather/temperature (warmer weather leads to more sales, colder weather to lower sales). At the same time, people are more likely to go boating in warmer weather which can lead to accidents on the water. Weather/temperature is the third variable that predictably and consistently influences BOTH ice-cream sales and accidents on the water.
Question 2: We often believe that two things are related, even though in actuality we just notice random coincidences. We easily perceive patterns even when they are not there. Believing that two variables are associated with each other when they are not is called an illusory correlation. Note that this is different from question 1 in which the variables are correlated but there’s a third variable that explains that correlation. With illusory correlation, there’s really no correlation at all, but the person feels like there is.
Can you identify any illusory correlations that you or people you know hold (or have held in the past)? Why do you think you or others had that belief? What kinds of thinking patterns might contribute to the illusory correlation?
