Aim

Outline what is meant by an aim. Write a suitable aim for this study. (2 marks)

• To investigate whether background music affects the time taken to complete psychology revision questions.

• To examine whether students complete revision tasks faster in silence or with background music.

Identify the operationalised IV in this study (2 marks)

• IV: Background music condition

• Operationalised IV: Whether participants complete the revision test in silence or with background music playing.

Identify the operationalised DV in this study (2 marks)

• DV: Performance on the revision test

• Operationalised DV:Score on the revision test measured by the number of correct answers (out of 20).

Type of Experiment

Identify the type of experiment used in this study. Justify your answer. (3 marks)

Field experiment

The researchers manipulated the IV (background music vs silence) but conducted the study in a natural environment such as the school study area, rather than a controlled laboratory setting.

Hypotheses

Briefly explain whether a directional or non-directional hypothesis would be most suitable for this experiment. (2 marks)

A directional hypothesis would be appropriate because previous research suggests that background sound can interfere with verbal working memory and may therefore reduce performance on cognitive tasks such as revision tests.

Write a directional hypothesis for this study (3 marks)

Participants who complete the revision test in silence will achieve higher scores (more correct answers) than participants who complete the test while background music is playing.

Experimental Design

Explain why a repeated measures design was more appropriate than an independent groups design in this study. (2 marks)

• Prevents practice effects because participants complete the revision task only once.

• Participants would perform faster the second time if repeated measures were used.

Explain one limitation of using a repeated measures design in the context of this study. (2 marks)

• One limitation is participant variables. Some students may naturally work faster or be better at psychology revision than others.

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.

• All participants receive the same revision questions.

• Same time of day.

• Same instructions.

Explain how we could randomly allocation the participants in this study. (3 marks)

• Assign participants numbers and use a random number generator.

• Names drawn from a hat.

• Computer randomiser to allocate participants.

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 …

•       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 IV produces categorical data (music vs silence).

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

The researcher decided to rank participants scores from fastest to slowest. [this was missing from the booklet]

Suggest an appropriate statistical test to improve this investigation. Explain three reasons for your choice in the context of this study. (7 marks)

Mann Whitney U test

1. Test of difference (Silence vs. background music)

2. Independent groups design

3. Ordinal (because converted data from interval to ordinal).

Using Table 2, explain whether our results are significant or not. (4 marks)

The results are (significant) because the calculated value of 13 is less than the critical value of 15 (N = 8, 0.05, one-tailed)

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 how silence and music affect recall, 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 and background music conditions.

•       The null hypothesis has been accepted (or the experimental hypothesis rejected) when in fact background music 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 musical 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 background music affects students’ performance on an academic task. Cognitive psychologists suggest that memory and performance can be influenced by the environment in which learning takes place. Many students revise in settings where background music is present, such as cafés or shared study spaces. The aim of this study was to examine whether completing revision in silence or with background music affects how quickly students complete a set of revision questions.

An independent groups design was used. Sixteen participants were randomly allocated to one of two conditions. In Condition 1, participants completed the revision task in silence, while in Condition 2, participants completed the task while background music was playing. The study was conducted in a school study area to reflect a natural learning environment. The dependent variable was the time taken, measured in seconds, to complete the A-level psychology revision questions.

The findings showed that background music influences attentional performance during revision, with potential implications for students’ study habits and learning environments.