In the study by Andrade (doodling), the participants were people from the general public who were members of an Applied Psychology Unit participant panel. Explain one advantage and one disadvantage of using participants from a participant panel in this study. Advantage: Disadvantage:

Mark scheme

Marking points from the official mark scheme (Oct/Nov 2020). The mark or mark type is shown in brackets.

1. 1 mark for advantage
2. 1 mark for link
3. They would be more varied than opportunity samples (e.g. of commonly used students) = 1 advantage
4. They would do a range of interesting and boring jobs so might vary in doodling habits = 1 link
5. Volunteers so less likely to withdraw = 1 advantage
6. Less likely to give up because deliberately boring task = 1 link
7. Easy to get a big sample size = 1 advantage
8. Useful if doodling/attention/memory varies a lot in the population = 1 link
9. 1 mark for disadvantage
10. 1 mark for link
11. They were volunteers on a research panel so would tend to be highly motivated people = 1 disadvantage
12. So they would try even when the source is hard so would have made more effort than normal to remember the names = 1 link
13. Knew they would be / interested in participating in a psychological study = 1 disadvantage
14. So doodlers more likely to be affected (= confounding variable) / demand characteristics so focus on message/names = 1 link
15. The volunteers may all be similar, e.g. mainly female = 1 disadvantage
16. And some people may doodle more / pay attention better / have worse recall = 1 link