Research Method Practical Exam Question Practice (Answers)
Aim
Outline what is meant by an aim. Write a suitable aim for this study. (2 marks)
A general statement of the purpose of the study/a general statement about what the researcher intends to study.
The aim of this study is to investigate whether performing a revision test is affected by notification monitoring.
Type of Experiment
Identify the type of experiment used in this study. Justify your answer. (3 marks)
It is a lab experiment because the researcher has manipulated the independent variable (silent focus vs. notification monitoring), and it is taking place in a highly controlled setting.
Hypotheses
Write a Null hypothesis for this study:
There be no significant DIFFERENCE in the time taken to correctly complete the revision questions between those in the silent focus condition and the notification monitoring condition.
Briefly explain whether a directional or non-directional hypothesis would be most suitable for this experiment. (2 marks)
Directional because there has been previous research into how the presence of a phone can impact cognitive performance.
Write a directional hypothesis for this study (3 marks)
Participants will take less time to complete the revision questions in the silent focus condition compared to the notification monitoring condition.
Experimental Design
Explain why a repeated measures design was more appropriate than an independent groups design in this study. (2 marks)
A repeated measures design was more appropriate because the same participants completed both the silent focus and notification monitoring conditions. This controls for individual differences, such as natural ability or prior knowledge of psychology, which could otherwise affect how quickly participants complete the revision questions.
Explain one limitation of using a repeated measures design in the context of this study. (2 marks)
One limitation of a repeated measures design is order effects. For example, participants may complete the revision questions faster in the second condition because they have already practised the task, rather than because of the notification or silence condition.
Controlling Variables
Outline what is meant by standardisation and suggest one way standardisation could have been used in this experiment. (2 marks)
Standardisation means keeping procedures the same for all participants in an experiment. In this study, the researcher could ensure that all participants complete the same set of revision questions.
Explain how we could counterbalance the participants in this study. (3 marks)
Counterbalancing could be used by dividing participants into two groups.
One group would complete the silent focus condition first (A) followed by the notification monitoring condition (B), while the other group would complete the notification monitoring condition first (B) followed by the silent focus condition (A).
Ethics
Write a brief consent form that would have been suitable to obtain informed consent from the participants in this study. (4 marks)
• I confirm that I have read and understood the information about this study. I understand that I will be asked to complete a set of A-level psychology revision questions under two different conditions while the researcher records the time taken to complete the task.
• I understand that my participation is voluntary and that I am free to withdraw from the study at any time without giving a reason.
• I understand that all data collected will be kept confidential and anonymous and will only be used for the purposes of this study.
• I agree to take part in this research study.
• Participant signature: ______________________
Date: ______________________
Descriptive statistics
What are the most appropriate descriptive statistics to use in this study? Justify your choice. (4 marks)
The mean would be the most appropriate because the data in this study (time taken in seconds) is interval data, which makes the mean suitable to use.
Standard deviation would be the most appropriate measure of dispersion because it also uses all of the scores to show how much the results vary around the mean.
This makes it more representative than the range, which only uses the highest and lowest scores and can be strongly affected by outliers.
What do the mean and standard deviation values presented in the table above suggest revision and notification monitoring ? Justify your answer. (4 marks)
· The mean SUGGESTS that monitoring notifications negatively impacts your cognitive abilities to complete a revision task than when working in silent focus.
· This is because the mean time taken in the notification monitoring condition is HIGHER than in the silent focus condition.
· The standard deviation suggests that participants’ performance in Condition B was more variable/more spread-out/less consistent when they were monitoring notifications.
· The standard deviation was HIGHER Condition B (notification monitoring) than in Condition A (silent focus).
Graph
Explain which type of graph would be the most appropriate for this study? (2 marks)
A bar chart because the independent variable (attentional condition: silent focus vs notification monitoring) is categorical.
Inferential Statistics
Briefly explain how the use of inferential statistics would improve this investigation. (3 marks)
Possible answers:
• Would allow the researcher to establish whether the different is significant/due to chance
• Allows the (alternative) hypothesis to be accepted/null to be rejected
Suggest an appropriate statistical test to improve this investigation. Explain three reasons for your choice in the context of this study. (7 marks)
Related t-test.
• It is a test of difference because we want to see if there is a difference in time taken between the silent focus and notification monitoring conditions.
• It is related data as this study uses a repeated measures design where the same participants complete both the silent focus and notification monitoring condition.
• It is appropriate for interval data, as the dependent variable (time in seconds) is measured on an interval scale using fixed equal units.
Using Table 2, explain whether our results are significant or not. (4 marks)
The results are (not/significant) because the calculated value of _______ is less than / greater than the critical value of _________ (___________________)
Explain why we (the researchers) decided to use the 5% level of significance rather than the 1% level in this study. (2 marks)
• The topic of this study does not involve extremely high-risk consequences, so it does not require a very strict 1% level of significance.
• A 5% level is sufficient because the study is exploring cognitive performance under different phone conditions, where a slightly higher chance of a Type I error is acceptable.
Type I & II Errors
When the researcher compared the calculated and critical values, he began to wonder if he might have made a Type II error. Explain what is meant by a Type II error in the context of this study. (2 marks)
• A Type II error is a false negative.
• The researcher has failed to detect a real difference in completion times between the silent focus and notification monitoring conditions.
• The null hypothesis has been accepted (or the experimental hypothesis rejected) when in fact phone notifications did affect performance.
Validity
We used a set of A-level psychology revision questions to measure attentional performance. Explain what is meant by face validity in the context of this study. (2 marks)
Face validity refers to whether a measure appears, on the surface, to measure what it is intended to measure.
In this study, the revision question task would have face validity if it clearly appears to measure psychology revision questions under different phone conditions, rather than measuring something unrelated such as prior knowledge or general ability.
After the investigation was completed a report of our investigation was submitted to a journal for peer review. What would you expect the process to involve? (2 marks)
• The research report would be sent to other independent psychologists with expertise in cognition or research methods.
• They would assess the study’s methodology, statistical analysis, ethical considerations, and conclusions.
• They would decide whether it should be published or recommend revisions.
Features of Science
Researchers have identified different features of science, including:
replicability
hypothesis testing
empirical methods
Explain one of these features of science in the context of this study. (3 marks)
Replicability
• The study uses standardised revision questions and timed conditions.
• Instructions were delivered verbatim.
• This means other researchers could repeat the study under the same phone conditions to check for consistent findings.
Empirical methods
• Data were collected through direct measurement of completion time in seconds.
• This is observable and quantifiable rather than based on opinion.
Hypothesis testing
• A testable hypothesis predicted a difference in performance between conditions.
• Statistical analysis (Pearson’s test) was used to determine significance.
Abstract
Write the abstract for this investigation that would be part of a the psychology report.
This study investigated whether monitoring a smartphone affects attentional performance during an academic task. Cognitive psychology suggests that attention is a limited resource, and previous research indicates that the presence of a smartphone may reduce cognitive capacity. The aim was to examine whether students complete revision tasks more efficiently in a silent focus condition compared to a notification monitoring condition.
A repeated measures design was used. Participants completed A-level psychology revision questions under two conditions: a silent focus condition, where phones were placed out of sight, and a notification monitoring condition, where phones were visible on the desk but not used. Counterbalancing was used to control order effects. Standardised instructions were given to all participants. The dependent variable was the time taken, measured in seconds, to complete the questions correctly.
The findings showed that monitoring a phone divides attention and affects performance on academic tasks, with implications for understanding attention in modern learning environments.