What is the best topic for an IB Psychology IA?

There is no single best topic, but simple cognitive experiments are usually the most manageable. Strong choices include levels of processing, Stroop interference, phonological similarity, word length, and low-stakes framing. Each provides a clear manipulation and a dependent variable that can be scored numerically. The best choice for you also depends on access to participants, suitable materials, and a published study you can understand. Your supervisor should approve the study and its ethical safeguards before you begin.

Can I create my own experiment for the IB Psychology IA?

For the older experimental-study format, the safest approach is a partial replication of a published experiment rather than an unrelated original idea. You may need to simplify materials, conditions, or procedures to make the study feasible in school, but the connection to the original research must remain clear. Students first assessed in 2027 design a research proposal and may propose an experiment as one of the permitted methods. That proposal must investigate a meaningful problem affecting a specified population and should be grounded in relevant psychological research. In either course, do not invent a study citation or claim that an adaptation exactly reproduces the original procedure.

Do students still conduct an experiment for the IB Psychology IA in 2027?

No, students first assessed in 2027 design a research proposal rather than conducting the proposed IA study. They select an experiment, interview or focus group, observation, or survey/questionnaire as their proposed method. The proposal must explain and justify how the investigation would address a real-life problem affecting a population of interest. Students still complete class practicals during the course, but these are distinct from conducting the proposed IA research. Students assessed in 2026 should follow the older experimental-study requirements supplied by their school.

How many participants should an IB Psychology experiment have?

Use the sample requirements and guidance in the subject guide applying to your assessment session, together with your teacher's instructions. A very small sample can make results unstable and leave an inferential test with little ability to identify a pattern. However, recruiting more people than you can test consistently may reduce procedural control and create unnecessary data-management problems. Consider whether you are using independent measures or repeated measures because this affects recruitment and statistical analysis. Finalize the design and intended statistical test with your supervisor before deciding on a target sample.

Does an IB Psychology IA need statistically significant results?

No, a successful IA does not require a statistically significant finding or confirmation of the research hypothesis. Your responsibility is to use an appropriate method, record data honestly, apply suitable statistics, and interpret the result accurately. A non-significant result can support thoughtful evaluation of measurement, sample size, controls, and differences from the original study. Never remove inconvenient scores, change values, or repeat testing simply to obtain significance. The quality of your research reasoning matters more than producing an impressive-looking effect.

Is deception allowed in an IB Psychology IA experiment?

Deception is ethically sensitive and should be avoided whenever a non-deceptive procedure can answer the question. Withholding the exact hypothesis may sometimes be considered necessary to reduce demand characteristics, but this must be discussed with and approved by your supervisor. Participants must not be exposed to distress, humiliation, coercion, or a misleading procedure that could alter their willingness to participate. Any approved concealment requires a clear debrief and an appropriate opportunity for participants to withdraw their data. Leading-question and false-memory replications therefore need more careful ethical review than straightforward recall tasks.

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IB Psychology IA Topics That Actually Work

IB Psychology Internal Assessment IB IA

• 6 Oct 2026•11

IB Psychology IA Topics That Actually Work

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IB Psychology IA Topics That Actually Work | RevisionDojo

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IB Psychology IA Topics That Actually Work

IB Psychology Internal Assessment IB IA

• 6 Oct 2026•11

Choosing among IB Psychology IA topics is less about originality than finding a study that is clear, ethical, and manageable. Strong topics usually involve a simple psychological effect, one well-defined independent variable, one measurable dependent variable, and materials that can be standardized.

There is also an important syllabus distinction. Students assessed in 2026 complete the older experimental-study IA, while students first assessed in 2027 complete a research proposal instead of conducting the proposed study. Confirm your assessment session with your teacher before choosing a topic.

Check which IB Psychology IA applies to you

Under the course assessed through 2026, the IA is a report on an experimental study. It contributes 25% at SL and 20% at HL.

For first assessment in 2027, students develop a research proposal using one of four methods encountered through class practicals: an experiment, interview or focus group, observation, or survey/questionnaire. The proposal is worth 30% at SL and 20% at HL, and is marked out of 24.

Assessment session	IA task	How these ideas apply
2026	Conduct and report an experimental study	Select a published experiment that can be replicated ethically at school.
2027 onward	Design a research proposal	Use an idea to propose research connected to a real-life problem and population. The proposed IA study is not conducted.

Students in the newer course should consult the official IB Psychology subject brief and RevisionDojo's IB Psychology First Exam 2027 IA Guide. Students assessed in 2026 must follow the older requirements supplied by their school.

What makes an IB Psychology IA topic workable?

A workable experimental topic should meet five conditions:

Published foundation: You can identify and understand the experiment being replicated.
Manipulated variable: The researcher changes something rather than comparing existing groups.
Measurable outcome: The dependent variable produces numerical data, such as recall scores, errors, choices, or completion time.
Practical procedure: Materials are affordable and the procedure can be standardized.
Acceptable ethics: The task avoids distress, coercion, sensitive disclosures, and physical risk.

Comparing participants by gender, age, language, diagnosis, or personality does not manipulate an independent variable. Similarly, examining the relationship between sleep duration and test performance creates a correlational study, not an experiment.

Complete this sentence: “The researcher will manipulate ___ and measure ___.” If either blank remains vague, the topic needs further development.

Feasible IB Psychology IA topics

These ideas are starting points rather than complete procedures. Read the original research, define what you will replicate, and obtain supervisor approval before collecting data.

Replication topic	Possible independent variable	Possible dependent variable	Main issue to control
Stroop interference	Congruent versus incongruent colour words	Completion time or correct responses	Colour vision, reading ability, and choice of one primary outcome
Levels of processing	Structural versus semantic encoding	Words recalled or recognized	Word familiarity and condition difficulty
Phonological similarity	Similar-sounding versus dissimilar words	Correct serial recall	Word length, frequency, and familiarity
Word-length effect	Short versus long spoken words	Words recalled in order	Frequency and pronunciation time
Articulatory suppression	Silent rehearsal versus repeating a neutral sound	Immediate recall score	Speaking pace and accessibility
Serial-position effect	Immediate versus briefly delayed recall	Recall of final list items	Distractor-task difficulty and accidental rehearsal
Decision framing	Equivalent outcomes framed as gains or losses	Safe or risky choice	Sensitive scenarios and data analysis
Leading questions	Neutral versus leading wording	Estimate or accuracy score	Deception, debriefing, and harmless stimuli
DRM false memory	Related versus control word lists	False recall of a missing word	Concealment, withdrawal, and debriefing

Useful foundations include Stroop's interference research, Craik and Tulving's levels-of-processing experiments, and Baddeley's acoustic-similarity research. Other models include Tversky and Kahneman's framing study and Loftus and Palmer's reconstructive-memory experiment.

Three particularly strong choices

Levels of processing

A manageable replication could compare structural processing, such as identifying whether a word contains a letter, with semantic processing, such as deciding whether it fits a sentence. Researchers could then measure the number of target words recognized.

The manipulation is explicit and the result numerical. However, questions and word lists must be balanced for familiarity, response time, and difficulty.

Phonological similarity

Participants study similar-sounding and dissimilar word lists before immediate serial recall. The dependent variable could be the number of words recalled in the correct position.

This connects clearly to short-term memory and phonological coding. Lists still require careful piloting because word length, spelling, frequency, and semantic association may create confounds.

Framing effects

Two groups receive mathematically equivalent scenarios described using positive or negative language. Researchers compare participants' choices between the conditions.

School replications should replace serious scenarios with harmless outcomes involving points, tickets, or study-time allocations. Confirm that the design and response data suit the intended statistical test.

Topics that often fail

Some interesting topics create methodological or ethical problems:

Social media and anxiety is usually correlational and potentially sensitive.
Sleep deprivation and memory requires an unsafe manipulation.
Caffeine and reaction time introduces dosage, allergy, consent, and health concerns.
Conformity or obedience may involve pressure, embarrassment, or distress.
Music and concentration is difficult to control for preference, familiarity, lyrics, and volume.
Mental illness or trauma involves sensitive clinical material.
Personality and achievement compares measured characteristics rather than manipulating a variable.

A modest cognitive effect with defensible controls is normally more suitable than a controversial topic.

Ethics and supervisor approval

Ethics must shape the design from the beginning. Your school may also impose consent, safeguarding, and data-protection requirements beyond general IB expectations.

Discuss:

Voluntary informed consent and avoidance of pressure.
The right to withdraw and applicable data-withdrawal procedures.
Permission requirements when participants are minors.
Anonymous or confidential storage of consent forms and response data.
Whether concealing the hypothesis requires a formal debrief.
Possible embarrassment, anxiety, discomfort, or personal disclosure.
Accessibility, colour vision, reading proficiency, and language background.

If extensive argument is needed to establish that a procedure is harmless, choose a safer topic. RevisionDojo's Psychology ethics and research-integrity guide offers a useful checklist, but it does not replace supervisor approval.

Turn an idea into a precise research question

A useful question identifies the population, conditions, manipulation, and outcome:

To what extent does semantic rather than structural encoding affect the number of words correctly recognized by students aged 16-18 under standardized classroom conditions?

Before seeking approval, identify the original experiment, relevant theory, operationalized variables, design, participant allocation, controls, ethical safeguards, scoring method, and suitable statistical analysis. Use one primary dependent variable rather than selecting whichever result appears most favorable.

Pilot the instructions and materials with people excluded from the final dataset. Piloting can reveal ambiguous wording, ceiling effects, unequal lists, timing problems, and clues to the hypothesis.

Using exemplars appropriately

Exemplars should demonstrate structure and reasoning, not supply wording, materials, or data to copy. RevisionDojo's Psychology IA exemplar library includes investigations involving memory, recall, and framing.

Compare how students operationalize variables, justify controls, present findings, and connect limitations to realistic improvements. The Psychology IA grading tool supports self-assessment for the older format, while 2027 students should use the new-course criteria.

Jojo AI can help clarify concepts, test whether a variable is measurable, or identify possible confounds. It should not invent sources, data, or assessed writing, and any AI use must follow school and IB academic-integrity expectations.

Conclusion

The most reliable IB Psychology IA topics are published, measurable, ethical, and feasible with school resources. Stroop interference, levels of processing, phonological similarity, serial position, and low-stakes framing are strong possibilities because their variables can be operationalized clearly.

First confirm whether you are completing the 2026 experimental study or the research proposal first assessed in 2027. Then discuss one or two candidate studies with your supervisor. RevisionDojo's IA guides, exemplars, grading tools, and Jojo AI can help you examine your reasoning while keeping the final decisions and writing your own.

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Check which IB Psychology IA applies to you

Under the course assessed through 2026, the IA is a report on an experimental study. It contributes 25% at SL and 20% at HL.

Assessment session	IA task	How these ideas apply
2026	Conduct and report an experimental study	Select a published experiment that can be replicated ethically at school.
2027 onward	Design a research proposal	Use an idea to propose research connected to a real-life problem and population. The proposed IA study is not conducted.