SAMPLE SIZE & SAMPLE DEMOGRAPHICS At least 120 undergraduate students attending Mount Saint Vincent University (MSVU) in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada will participate in the study during the Fall 2013 semester. Following the replication protocol, the sample of participants will most likely consist of significantly more females than males, approximating the 20% male and 80% female ratio in the original experiment. This ratio is comparable with the male-to-female student population of MSVU (as of 2012, there were 74% female undergraduates). The primary criterion with respect to sex is that there will be no less than 20% of either sex included in the sample. Additionally, 78% of the student population at MSVU were between the ages of 17-34; therefore, it will not be difficult to ensure that participants are between 18 and 25 years of age. The approved protocol also specifies that only White participants are to be included in data analysis. While there is no official demographic information regarding the race of students at MSVU, this should not be an issue as 68% of students are from the province of Nova Scotia (a predominantly White province), and international students represent only 13% of the total student population. Given these characteristics, it is highly unlikely that we would be unable to recruit 100 White participants. With respect to visual acuity, the recruitment information will include a statement concerning the necessity to have normal or corrected-to-normal vision. Note that on the basis of the ethical principle of inclusion, individuals will not be excluded from participating in the experiment due sex, age, or race. Therefore, in order to reach the minimum of 50 participants per condition, all of whom meet the prescribed sample demographics, it is anticipated that the experiment will be administered to at least 120 participants. Although the prescribed analyses will be conducted after data not meeting inclusion criteria are removed, all of the data collected will be sent to the replication editors in an Microsoft Excel spreadsheet with notes included concerning exclusion criteria. This will enable researchers from the various labs included in this replication project to conduct analyses comparing the facial memory accuracy for Whites versus Non-Whites. EXPERIMENTERS The replication will be conducted by Dr. Angela Birt (Assistant Professor of psychology) and her research assistant Philip Aucoin. Dr. Birt has been conducting psychological research of this type for over 18 years and is well versed in statistical analyses as well as how to create a proper research environment for participants. Philip Aucoin is an undergraduate Psychology student who has been working in Dr. Birt’s lab since the spring of 2013, and has experience recruiting and administering experiments to participants. He will practice administering the experiment on a number of participants before data collection begins to ensure everything is running smoothly. The data from these practice participants will not be included in the analyses or the data submitted to the replication editors. Mr. Aucoin is highly familiar with the Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990) original study, as well as the research protocol. He developed the computerized version of the experiment that will be used to run participants. He will be primarily responsible recruiting participants and collecting the data. Dr. Birt will closely supervise Mr. Aucoin throughout this process, and will check with him on a regular basis in order to follow the progress of the experiment and assist with any issues that may arise. DESIGN Participants will begin the experiment by viewing a video of a bank robber and immediately afterward will be asked to spend 5 minutes either describing the robber (experimental condition) or listing countries and their capitals (control condition). Following this, they will spend 20 minutes completing a filler task (a crossword puzzle). The crossword puzzle will be given to the participants at the beginning of the study in an envelope. The envelope will be sealed and will have a notice written on it to not open it until they are instructed to do so. This approach will be used because, (a) it will allow the experimenter to run participants in different rooms at the same time (meaning there will be no need to deliver the crossword puzzle at the exact time to participants in the different rooms), and (b) it will ensure that participants do not know ahead of time that they will be completing a crossword puzzle; which could potentially confound the results. Given that participants will be run in different rooms, there will be a short lag between the time participants in one room begin the study and participants in the other room begin the study. However, participants within the same room will begin the experiment at the same time. In addition, they will receive a prompt on the computer screen instructing them to continue to work on the puzzle or, if they have finished it to wait patiently until the 20 minute mark appears on the screen and prompts them to continue to the next part of the experiment. Following the 20 minute filler task, participants will view an 8-person photo array and will be asked to indicate which one of them was the robber in the bank robbery video, or if none of them committed the robbery, and to rate their confidence in their selection. This marks the end of the study, which is when demographic information will be collected (i.e., age, sex, race, level of visual acuity). Collecting this information at the end of the study prevents it from interfering with the protocol put forth by the replication editors. DATA COLLECTION Participants will be invited to volunteer for a study investigating how their perceptions for events may differ from those of their peers. Recruitment will begin with the student researcher sending an e-mail to professors teaching undergraduate courses at MSVU requesting to recruit participants in their classes. The next step for recruiting participants will continue upon permission of the course instructor. If given, the student researcher will go into the classroom and give a brief synopsis of the study. The students will be informed that if they are interested in participating, they can sign up to be contacted by the researcher to schedule a participation time. If the course instructor offers, he/she can provide the same synopsis to the students and provide the necessary instructions for signing up to be contacted by the researchers. Or if the course instructor prefers, the brief synopsis of the study along with information on how to sign up to be contacted will be posted directly on the course website. Experiment 1 of the Schooler and Engstler-Schooler (1990) study (as specified in the replication protocol) has been reconstructed through the use of SuperLab, making it possible for participants to complete the entire experiment electronically (with the exception of the crossword puzzle, which will be completed manually). As specified above, the experiment will be conducted in the MSVU Psychology Department Research Lab, and will be administered individually to participants (i.e., each will work on their own computer independently with headphones on) in groups of 1-5 individuals (a maximum of 3 participants in one room, and 2 participants in another room). Participants will be randomly assigned to either the experimental or control condition, and each will be assigned a participant number. For example, the first participant in the control condition will be participant C001; the second would be C002, etc. Similarly, the first participant in the experimental condition will be given the participant number E001; the second would be E002, etc. To ensure equal number of participants in each condition, random assignment will occur in a predetermined order using a table of random numbers, and as the number of participants gets close to 60 in one condition, the conditions will be assigned in an order necessary to create an equal number of participants in each condition. Appointments with participants will be set up on a first-come, first-served basis; therefore, the condition to which they are assigned will be random for them. All of the experiment’s instructions will be provided on the computer monitor in front of the participant. One exception to this will be the envelope containing the crossword puzzle (and a pencil) used for the filler task. On this envelope, the following will be written: “DO NOT OPEN UNTIL INSTRUCTED TO DO SO.” After reading the instructions on the screen to describe the robber or listing countries and their capitals for 5 minutes (as well as the reminders to continue working on the tasks), instructions on the computer screen will prompt participants to open this envelope to complete the crossword puzzle. They instructions will also indicate that they should work on the puzzle until a new set of instructions appear on the computer screen (a total of 20 minutes, and, again, a reminder will appear on the screen for participants to continue to work on the puzzle or wait patiently until 20 minutes have passed). At the end of the study, participants will be asked to provide some demographic information (age, sex, race, visual acuity) that will be used for exclusionary purposes. Following this, participants will be given the 4-item questionnaire, referred to as the participant’s awareness of research hypothesis (PARH) questionnaire. This will inform the researchers if participants were aware of the study’s hypotheses during their participation. Again, this questionnaire will be used as a means of excluding participant data. After completing the questionnaire, participants will be given information about the purpose of the experiment, and will be asked to not share information about the experiment to other students until after December 15, 2013. This will decrease the likelihood that future participants will know details about the experiment before participating. PROCEDURE The following is taken directly from the approved protocol (with a slight edit made to step #7 and additional steps added at the end): 1.Participants will be recruited to participate in a study of memory and perception 2.Participants will be randomly assigned to the experimental condition or the control condition. 3.Participants will be informed: “This experiment consists of several tasks. First, please pay close attention to the following video” 4.Participants will view a 30-second video depicting a bank robbery. 5.Participants will receive different instructions depending on their condition assignment: a.Experimental Condition: “Please describe the appearance of the bank robber in as much detail as possible. It is important that you attempt to describe all of his different facial features. Please write down everything that you can think of regarding the bank robber’s appearance. It is important that you try to describe him for the full 5 minutes”. b.Control Condition: “Please name as many countries and their capitals as you can. It is important that you try to name them for the full 5 minutes”. 6.After 3 minutes, the following reminder will appear on the computer monitor: “Please continue with your task. It is important that you continue working for the full 5 minutes to provide as complete an answer as possible.” 7.After 5 minutes of writing, all participants will received a prompt on the computer monitor to open the envelope in front of them and to spend 20 minutes completing the task. Each participant will be given a printed copy of the puzzle along with a pencil. 8.Participants will then view the lineup of 8 faces on a computer screen and identify the one they saw in the robbery video or report that it is not present. They will read the following instructions: “Next you will see a lineup with 8 faces. Please identify the individual in the lineup who you believe was the bank robber in the video you watched earlier. If you do not believe the bank robber is present please indicate ‘not present’” 9.Participants will rate their confidence in their selection. They will be given the following instructions: “Please indicate your confidence in your selection from the lineup on a scale from 1 (guessing) to 7 (certain).” 10.The 4-item PARH questionnaire will be completed. 11.Participants will receive information about the purpose of the study. 12.Participants will provide any information necessary for the purposes of keeping track of their participation, if their professors are offering course credit in exchange for their participation and/ or if they wish to receive a copy of the results of the experiment once it is complete. DATA EXCLUSION (A POSTERIORI) Data will be excluded from analyses and submission to the replication editors based on the following criteria: •failure to complete the study in its entirety, •failure to properly follow the specified instructions, •data collected from Non-White participants, •data collected from participants over the age of 25 years, •poor visual acuity (even though normal or corrected-to-normal vision will be a participation eligibility requirement specified during recruitment) •any other irregularity that might occur (e.g., a computer issue) and compromise the validity of the data. Note: A lab log will be kept to record any potential issues that arose that may have affected the data/ data collection process.