Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology

1. Research Methods in Cognitive Psychology A “Real Life” Example

2. Centre Daily Times – AP Article • Preschool Prevents Crimes, group says • Poll: Kindergarten teachers say pupils less disruptive • Group = Fight Crime: Invest in Kids • Poll = Mason-Dixon Polling & Research – National Kindergarten Teacher Survey, 2004

3. Fight Crime: Invest in Kids • Founded in 1996, Fight Crime: Invest in Kids is a bipartisan, nonprofit anti-crime organization led by more than 2,000 police chiefs, sheriffs, prosecutors, victims of violence and leaders of police officer associations. • Our mission is to take a hard-nosed, skeptical look at the research about what really works-and what doesn't work-to keep kids from becoming criminals. We then put that information in the hands of policy-makers and the public. Among the strategies proven to be effective are early care and education programs for preschoolers, good schools, after-school programs and prevention of child abuse, as well as programs that nip delinquency in the bud by getting troubled kids back on track. • National operations and state offices in California, Illinois, Maine, Michigan, New York, Ohio and Pennsylvania • Fight Crime: Invest in Kids receives no funding from state or federal governments. • http://www.fightcrime.org

4. National Kindergarten Teacher Survey • Data collected July 9 – July 14, 2004 via telephone • 800 kindergarten teachers were interviewed • Interviewees were randomly selected from a commercially available list compiled from state licensing records • Margin for error - ± 3.5% • Number of questions? Possibly 25 • http://www.fightcrime.org – PDF Poll

5. Majority of teachers said fewer than 20 of their pupils last year were inadequately prepared for kindergarten Majority of teachers said that 41% or more of their students had attended Pre-K programs; 42% said that 61% or more of their students had attended Pre-K Approximately 99% of the teachers said that the children attending Pre-K programs were equally or better prepared to start school ready to succeed. Approximately 40% of the teachers responded that measures of learning were very important or essential to be ready for Kindergarten (measures including counting to 20, possessing problem solving skills, and knowing letters) Approximately 85% of the teachers responded that measures of good behavior were very important or essential to be ready for Kindergarten (measures including not disruptive, gets along with others, pays attention) Interesting Findings • How much of your class time is spent dealing with child misbehavior: • 67% responded less than 25% of the time • 34% responded more than 25% of the time

6. How much more likely is a child from quality pre-K program to possess the following characteristics: Count to 20 – 92% Problem solving skills – 86% Knows letters – 93% Learning (90.3%) Not disruptive – 78% Gets along with others – 88% Pays attention – 88% Behavioral (84.67%) Children in your class last year who attended pre-K typically will do better in school than those who did not attend pre-K 86% agree Substantially more children would succeed in school if all families had access to quality pre-K programs 93% agree The time I devote to dealing with disruptive behavior by poorly-prepared children, and helping them catch up, negatively affects the progress of well-prepared children 86% agree Other Findings

7. Other Research to Consider • High/Scope Perry Preschool – Ypsilanti, MI • http://www.highscope.org/Research/PerryProject/perrymain.htm • 123 African American 3 and 4 year olds; Experimental Group=58 children; Control Group=65 children • Attended program for one or two years • Attended the program 2.5 hours everyday from October to May; Teacher/student ratio was 1 to 5.7 • Home visits also occurred • Data were collected on program participants and no-program participants every year between ages 3 and 11, and then at ages 14-15, 19 and 27; Raw data not readily available • General findings: • By age 27, only one fifth as many preschool program group members as no-preschool program group members had been arrested five or more times (7% vs. 35%), and only one third as many had ever been arrested for drug dealing (7% vs. 25%). • Almost a third again as many preschool program group members as no-preschool program group members graduated from regular or adult high school or received General Education Development certification (71% vs. 54%). • Although the same percentage of preschool program males and no-preschool program males were married (26%), the preschool program males had been married nearly twice as long as no-preschool program males (averages of 6.2 years vs. 3.3 years). Five times as many preschool program females as no-program females were married at the time of the age-27 interview (40% vs. 8%). Further, preschool program females had only about two thirds as many out-of-wedlock births as no-preschool program females (57% vs. 83%). • At age 27, four times as many preschool program group members as no-preschool program group members earned $2,000 or more per month (29% vs. 7%). Almost three times as many preschool program group members as no-preschool program group members owned their own homes (36% vs. 13%); and over twice as many owned second cars (30% vs. 13%). Only three fourths as many preschool program group members as no-preschool program group members received welfare assistance or other social services at some time as adults (59% vs. 80%).

8. Chicago Child-Parent Centers • The Chicago Child-Parent Center (CPC) Program (n = 989 children) provides comprehensive education, family, and health services and includes half-day pre-school at ages 3-4 years, half- or full-day kindergarten, and school-age services in linked elementary schools at ages 6-9 years. • The comparison group (n = 550) consisted of children who participated in alternative early childhood programs (full-day kindergarten): 374 in the pre-school comparison group from five randomly selected schools plus two others that provided full-day kindergarten and additional instructional resources and 176 who attended full-day kindergartens in six CPCs without pre-school participation. • The main outcome measures were rates of high school completion and school drop-out by age 20 years, juvenile arrests for violent and non-violent offences, and grade retention and special education placement by age 18 years. Pre-K No Pre-K High-School Completion 49.7% 38.5% Years of completed education 10.6 10.2 Lower rates of juvenile arrest 16.9% 25.1% Fewer violent arrests 9.0% 15.3% Fewer school dropouts 46.7% 55.0%

9. Conclusions from Fight Crime: Invest in Kids • Recent long-term studies show that at-risk children who attend quality early childhood care and pre-kindergarten programs are far less likely to become criminals than those denied access to such programs. • Poor quality early childhood care multiplies the risk that children will grow up to become criminals.

10. Interesting Quotes Reeves confirmed that the poll accurately depicted her experience during 28 years as a kindergarten teacher: “I’ve seen 5-year-olds without pre-k who couldn’t count to five. Some don’t know their full names. It’s really sad. You can tell the children who are going to get in trouble with the law. I’ve seen it happen.” She said high quality pre-kindergarten gives children the chance to succeed in school. - Knoxville, Tenn. kindergarten teacher Patricia Reeves; Fight Crime News Release, August 11, 2004 Through its free preschool program, Georgia hopes to set poor children on a course of academic achievement. . . Sanford Newman, president of the advocacy group Fight Crime: Invest in Kids, understands that taxpayers in Georgia and elsewhere will dismiss publicly funded preschool for 3-year-olds as free day care. “They’re wrong,” he says. “They should see it as an investment.” “When we know that quality early childhood programs cut crime and increase school success, it’s just common sense to make those investments,” he says. “Otherwise, we’ll pay down the road in violent crime and disruptive students.” - Atlanta Constitution 14 April 2001

11. Association to Promote Importance of Learning over Behavior • Perceived Problem = educators emphasize the importance of behavior over learning in students as young as kindergarten age • Mission = to stress, through research, to educators that methods of effective learning should be their top priority in the classroom rather than spending a majority of their time on behavior management. • Supporting Research • Fight Crime: Invest in Kids Kindergarten Poll • How much of your class time is spent dealing with child misbehavior: • 67% responded less than 25% of the time • 34% responded more than 25% of the time • Approximately 40% of the teachers responded that measures of learning were very important or essential to be ready for Kindergarten (measures including counting to 20, possessing problem solving skills, and knowing letters) • Approximately 85% of the teachers responded that measures of good behavior were very important or essential to be ready for Kindergarten (measures including not disruptive, gets along with others, pays • Bennett KJ, Brown KS, Boyle M, Racine Y, Offord D (2003). Does low reading achievement at school entry cause conduct problems? Soc Sci Med. 2003 Jun 56(12), 2443-2448. • The findings show that an eight point increase in reading scores (equivalent to an moderate effect size of 0.5) would result in a 23 per cent decrease in the risk of conduct problems 30 months later, after controlling for gender, income and baseline conduct problem symptoms. We conclude that reading problems may contribute to the early onset of conduct disorder.

12. Research Methods Issues • What kind of study was the Kindergarten Poll? • Descriptive • Correlational • Experimental • Quasi-Experimental • What are the major constructs to be defined? • Do you think it is internally valid? Ecologically valid? • Are there any biases present in this research? • Is any of the research presented for this example experimental?

13. Experimental Research • Systematic manipulation and measurement of variables • Observation of the effects of manipulated variables on one another in controlled settings/conditions • Allows for causal statements • Regardless of the type of research method (even experimental), no research study PROVES an outcome • More research with similar outcomes allows us to make statements that outcomes “are more likely to occur” (or less likely) under the same conditions • Primary components of experiments: • Independent Variables (manipulated variables) • Dependent Variables (measured variables)

14. Next Class • Read Chapter 2 (if you haven’t already) • Review material from previous courses in Research Methods and Statistics