Psychology Research Methods Weekly Practice

[Bri MT]

Weeks 4 and 5

Psych students,

You may have wondered why I have delayed starting the next week of questions. The explanation for this is:
1. Last week had received no suggestions of answers in the final stage and I wanted to provide extra time for this to happen
2. This week will be extended and run until the end of next week due to my absence from 12-15th Feb (owing to university).

As you have extra time, I’m providing an extra challenge.  This week you are to design an experiment that you could feasibly carry out. I’ll provide feedback on your idea and if you write up an introduction I will provide feedback on that also. If you submit your idea before Friday 5pm and what you would be using to collect data (eg. send a blank table with appropriate headings, or a sample questionnaire) I will provide mock data based on this, for you to visually display in an appropriate manner and use as the basis of a conclusion.
There’s no pressure to get through all of this, and it is highly unlikely that this will be your first priority now that we are in the academic year – but the more you submit the more I’ll be able to review.

As always, I encourage you to look at each others’ work and provide feedback and welcome any psych students to join in.

[Balfe]

Week 3 Questions

Sarah designs an experiment to take place at her school. First, she learns how many people are in each year level and draws her sample based on that ratio. 80 participants in total are selected from the school of 1400 students. Each participant returns an appropriate consent form with a parent’s or legal guardian’s signature. The participants are allocated into two different groups by drawing paper from a hat. Over the next week, all of the participants gather in one room and take a short test. If the participants get over 50% on the test they receive a coloured drink. All of the drinks look the same; however, Group A receives sweet drinks whereas Group B receives bitter drinks. Sarah keeps track of the scores each student obtains, and at the end of the experiment has each student pass her their slip so that their results can be matched to their group. Sarah then fully debriefs all participants.

1.   Write a hypothesis for this experiment (1)
It is hypothesised that students from Sarah's school who receive sweet drinks will show greater improvements in test scores than those who receive bitter drinks.
2.   Would this experiment be considered single blind or double blind? (1)
This is a double-blind
3.   List two advantages of double-blind experiments. (2)
Double-blind experiments remove the placebo effect and the experimenter effect.
4.   Would Group A or Group B participants be expected to achieve higher scores? Why? (2)
Group A, as sweet drinks are generally perceived as more enjoyable or pleasing stimuli than bitter drinks.
5.   List one limitation of this experiment. (1)
Sarah's use of the Independent groups research design is a limitation as individual participant differences between the groups may still be an issue.
6.   Explain one suggested improvement (1)
Sarah could instead utilise a matched-participants design in an effort to reduce participant differences.
7.   Would this experiment be considered ethical? Why? (2)
This experiment would be considered mostly ethical as it follows the principles of 'voluntary participation' (consent form), 'debriefings' and 'informed consent procedures'. It is also notable, however, that we do not know whether she has followed the principle of 'confidentiality'.
8.   What sampling procedure has been used? List one advantage and one disadvantage of it. (3)
The sampling procedure used was stratified sampling. This can be advantageous as it allows for the sample to contain population characteristic ratios relevant to the population. It can also be disadvantageous in the sense that it is time-consuming as data must first be sourced about the relevant 'strata' before sampling can begin.
9.   What is the size of the population? (1)
The size of the population is 1400
10.   Sarah now wishes to design an experiment testing the impact of the colour of the drink on performance. Explain 2 things that she should consider (4)
Sarah should first consider utilising a different school as her population to ensure order effects will not effect her results, as some members of her school have already carried out a similar experiment. She would also need to utilise, perhaps, a colourless drink as a control to create a benchmark for comparison. Moreover she would need to understand that individual participant differences will effect her results as different people respond differently to certain colours.



- This week I will be placing emphasis on being succinct. Consider the mark allocations in forming your responses

[Bri MT]

4.   Would Group A or Group B participants be expected to achieve higher scores? Why? (2)
Group A, as sweet drinks are generally perceived as more enjoyable or pleasing stimuli than bitter drinks.

8.   What sampling procedure has been used? List one advantage and one disadvantage of it. (3)
The sampling procedure used was stratified sampling. This can be advantageous as it allows for the sample to contain population characteristic ratios relevant to the population. It can also be disadvantageous in the sense that it is time-consuming as data must first be sourced about the relevant 'strata' before sampling can begin.

For 4, this complies with the theme of being concise but you would probably only get 1/2 marks - you haven't linked being a pleasant stimulus to the relevant psych theory ( a pleasant stimulus/reward increasing the chance of the behavior occurring)
For 8, you're completely right (and would get the marks) but at the moment the answer reads as a bit "textbook-y". In many psych questions showing application to the scenario (eg. time consuming as Sarah has to source data about the year levels (strata)) can be the difference between keeping or losing marks.

You may already be aware, but as this was the set of questions for the previous week I have compiled a list of the best answers from users' responses (this is available on the previous page). I'm happy for you to provide responses to previous question sets if you want feedback on wording, but generally speaking I'd recommend doing the current weeks questions first - so you can benefit from being part of a group all working on it and getting ideas from each other.

As I notice that you are a new user, welcome!!!  Thank you for joining and especially for participating in this thread If you want to know more about ATARNotes or how to do things on the forum there's heaps of info here and feel free to ask in that subforum or send me a message if you want help

[Balfe]

You may already be aware, but as this was the set of questions for the previous week I have compiled a list of the best answers from users' responses (this is available on the previous page). I'm happy for you to provide responses to previous question sets if you want feedback on wording, but generally speaking I'd recommend doing the current weeks questions first - so you can benefit from being part of a group all working on it and getting ideas from each other.

Oh wow, my bad, complete oversight on my part - I missed your answer post and assumed they were carrying over, won’t happen again

And yes thanks a lot for the warm welcome to the community. I have a feeling I will be around here a lot and trying my best to input to this specific forum.

[Dr. Nick]

Weeks 4 and 5

Psych students,

You may have wondered why I have delayed starting the next week of questions. The explanation for this is:
1. Last week had received no suggestions of answers in the final stage and I wanted to provide extra time for this to happen
2. This week will be extended and run until the end of next week due to my absence from 12-15th Feb (owing to university).

As you have extra time, I’m providing an extra challenge.  This week you are to design an experiment that you could feasibly carry out. I’ll provide feedback on your idea and if you write up an introduction I will provide feedback on that also. If you submit your idea before Friday 5pm and what you would be using to collect data (eg. send a blank table with appropriate headings, or a sample questionnaire) I will provide mock data based on this, for you to visually display in an appropriate manner and use as the basis of a conclusion.
There’s no pressure to get through all of this, and it is highly unlikely that this will be your first priority now that we are in the academic year – but the more you submit the more I’ll be able to review.

As always, I encourage you to look at each others’ work and provide feedback and welcome any psych students to join in.

Design an experiment:
Research Question: What extent do state dependent cues impact memory retrieval

Aim: To investigate the influence of state dependnet cues on memory retreival ability.

Hypotheis:  It is hypothesised that year 10 students at Random High school, who learn a list of words while under time restrictions, will recall more words when asked to recite them while being timed, compared to those who learn a list of words under less time restrictions.

Opperationalised IV: Learning (forming a memory) of  a list of 10 random words within 2 minutes (being in a state of stress) compared to learning a list of 10 random words over the span of one whole day.

Opperationalised DV: The number of words orally recalled within 2 minutes 

Population: Year 10 students from Random High school
Sample: 8, year 10 students selected through convinience sampling.
Research Design: Repeated measures with counterbalancing.

Introduction:
* I didn't have time to find a study therefore there is no past research in my intro (

Ttile: Do state dependent cues influence recall?

Memory is an active information processing system, that receives, organises, stores and retrieves information that is learnt. Memory is the system that allows information that is obtained through learning, to be stored so that it can be retrieved. Retrieval is the process of locating information stored in memory and bringing it into consciousness when needed to complete a cognitive task. The process of retrieval is important, as without it, learnt information cannot be used or accessed. There are various retrieval methods that can be employed, these retrieval methods differ in terms of how sensitive they are, the sensitivity of a retrieval method is positively associated with the prevalence of of cues ( stimuli that are used to assist retrieval). Recall is the least sensitive retrieval method, as it involves retrieving information using few cues. Retrieval is not a rigid concept there are factors and techniques that can be used to enhance retrieval of memory. One of these factors being state dependent cues which are retrieval cues associated with the psychological state an individual was in when they initially formed the memory which enhance the retrieval of memory in that state. This concept suggests that an individual who forms a memory while being in a specific state, for example fear, stress or joy, will have enhanced memory retrieval if they are in the same state.

The investigation of the impact of state dependent cues on memory retrieval was the aim of this study. It was hypothesised that year 10 students from Random High School who learn a list of words, while being under time restrictions, will recall more words when asked to recite them while being timed, compared to those who learn a list of words under more relaxed time restrictions. The operationalised Independent variable of this study is whether or not participants form a memory while under a state of stress, more specifically, learning a list of 10 random words within a span of two minutes, compared to learning a list of 10 random words over the span of a whole day. The operationalised dependent variable is the number of words orally recalled within two minutes.

*Ive attached my data collection table

[Bri MT]

Introduction feedback

- Your IV is phrased in terms of learning, and in your introduction you refer to it as testing memory formation but everything else indicates that you aim to be testing retrieval.

- The link between your methodology and the aim is unexplained. Everything is based on the implicit assumption that: timed conditions -> stress , testing/recalling -> stress  (or a state other stress that both are linked to)  but this has not been addressed or mentioned in any way
 
- Your introduction has repetition in it, and at times this reduces its fluency.

[Bri MT]

Week 6

A teacher asks their psychology class to complete a task to be used for assessment on the nervous system. First, the students complete an activity in pairs. One person sits on a chair and the other person taps below their partner’s knee with a ruler to initiate the knee-jerk reflex. They also start a stopwatch as soon as they tap their partner’s knee and stop the timer once a cardboard box 30 cm away from their partner’s chair leg has been hit.      The time is then cleared, and the person sitting down is asked to kick the box, with how long it takes for this to occur being measured in the same fashion. This is repeated 3 times. The results are recorded, and the partners switch roles. After both participants have experienced the full procedure, all of the results are recorded on the whiteboard. 

On average, the time elapsed was less when the students freely moved their leg in comparison to when the knee-jerk reflex was initiated.

The whole class is instructed to write a practical report in the next lesson.
Some of the things that timothy writes include:
“I hypothesise that 20 students from the psychology class of Generic High School will hit the box faster when their knee is tapped by a ruler than when they consciously move it.

The results show that the spinal reflex is a slower response than consciously moving a limb as it took more time on average to hit the box when the person’s leg was tapped by a ruler.”

1.   Suggest a suitable aim for this experiment (1)
2.   Was Timothy’s hypothesis suitable? Why? (2)
3.   Was Timothy’s conclusion suitable? Why? (3)
4.   Discuss two ethical concerns surrounding this experiment (4)
5.   Identify two extraneous variables and their likely impacts on the results. (4)
6.   Explain two improvements that could be made to the experimental methodology (4)
7.   What experimental design was used? (1)
8.   What sampling procedure was used? (1)
9.   Identify an appropriate graph to use in displaying the data (1)
10.   The standard deviation for the conscious response was higher than for the knee jerk reflex. What does this suggest? (2)

[JessMotet]

1.   Suggest a suitable aim for this experiment (1)
To investigate the difference in time it takes to move your leg and hit a box a opposed to the knee-jerk reaction.

2.   Was Timothy’s hypothesis suitable? Why? (2)
The hypothesis is not suitable because he does not operationalise his independent and dependent variables. He has stated that the participant will hit the box faster, but he does not state how this is being measured.

3.   Was Timothy’s conclusion suitable? Why? (3)
Timothy’s conclusion was not suitable because while the results supported what he claimed, his conclusion was not in-depth enough. Timothy should address the aim of the study and then conclude with the results. He should have also discussed any further implications the results of this study might have.

4.   Discuss two ethical concerns surrounding this experiment (4)
There is no voluntary participation in this experiment because the teacher has asked her students to take part. She could have bribed her students or perhaps told them that they must take part in the experiment to pass the grade. Confidentiality has also been breached because the results of everyone was written on the whiteboard. The participant’s results should not be made public.

5.   Identify two extraneous variables and their likely impacts on the results. (4)
Participant related extraneous variables could have affected the study. For example, some participants might be weaker than others resulting in a greater time for them to kick the box. Considering that the experimenter used repeated measures, this introduces the problem of ordered effects. Because the participants had observed their partner doing the experiment before switching over, the time it took for them to kick the box might be slightly less than their partner who went first.

6.   Explain two improvements that could be made to the experimental methodology (4)
Considering that the experimenter used a repeated measures design, they could have used counter-balancing to minimise the impacts of ordered-effects on the results. The experimenter should also use random sampling (perhaps drawing names out of a hat of everyone in the school) which will provide a far better random allocation than convenience sampling.

7.   What experimental design was used? (1)
Repeated measures

8.   What sampling procedure was used? (1)
Convenience

9.   Identify an appropriate graph to use in displaying the data (1)
Bar graph

10.   The standard deviation for the conscious response was higher than for the knee jerk reflex. What does this suggest? (2)
There is more variation in the conscious response than the reflex which is due to the high number of participant related extraneous variables which impact the results. The time it takes to kick the box varies from person to person which is why it may not necessarily be accurate and reliable data.

[Balfe]

Week 6

A teacher asks their psychology class to complete a task to be used for assessment on the nervous system. First, the students complete an activity in pairs. One person sits on a chair and the other person taps below their partner’s knee with a ruler to initiate the knee-jerk reflex. They also start a stopwatch as soon as they tap their partner’s knee and stop the timer once a cardboard box 30 cm away from their partner’s chair leg has been hit.      The time is then cleared, and the person sitting down is asked to kick the box, with how long it takes for this to occur being measured in the same fashion. This is repeated 3 times. The results are recorded, and the partners switch roles. After both participants have experienced the full procedure, all of the results are recorded on the whiteboard. 

On average, the time elapsed was less when the students freely moved their leg in comparison to when the knee-jerk reflex was initiated.

The whole class is instructed to write a practical report in the next lesson.
Some of the things that timothy writes include:
“I hypothesise that 20 students from the psychology class of Generic High School will hit the box faster when their knee is tapped by a ruler than when they consciously move it.

The results show that the spinal reflex is a slower response than consciously moving a limb as it took more time on average to hit the box when the person’s leg was tapped by a ruler.”

1.   Suggest a suitable aim for this experiment (1)
To determine whether a conscious response to stimulus is faster than the unconscious monosynaptic knee-jerk reflex.

2.   Was Timothy’s hypothesis suitable? Why? (2)
Timothy’s hypothesis was not suitable as he utilised the first person singular pronoun ‘I’. Instead, he should be utilising a passive and third person case. This hypothesis is also difficult to follow as we have no information as to what the ‘box’ has to do with the experiment. He should be discussing the speed of the spinal reflex here.

3.   Was Timothy’s conclusion suitable? Why? (3)
Timothy’s conclusion is not suitable as he has utilised the word ‘shows’, which seems to signify and undeniable truth. However he has neglected to collect inferential statistics to prove this and even then he should suggest that the hypothesis was ‘supported’. Timothy also unnecessarily informed us of the reason behind his conclusion which should have been mentioned in the discussion.

4.   Discuss two ethical concerns surrounding this experiment (4)
This experiment has breached the right of voluntary participation as the teacher is coercing the students to undertake the task by allowing it to contribute towards their overall grades( as it is an assessment). There is also no informed Concent procedures taking place and instead the Teacher has merely told them what to do and not informed them of their rights or possible risks associated with the task.

5.   Identify two extraneous variables and their likely impacts on the results. (4)
Firstly, order effects would be an extaneous variable that has not been controlled for as by practicing the kicking of the box involuntarily the students will discover the rate at which they are able to kick the box, possibly without injuring themselves. This would make their conscious response to the stimulus quicker. The sample of only 20 students and from a single psychology class would also lead to an incredibly unrepresentative sample.

6.   Explain two improvements that could be made to the experimental methodology (4)
If at all possible a third student should be available to undertake the timing as this will limit the error in multi-tasking of the person wth the ruler. Additionally the sample could be drawn randomly from the school by perhaps randomly arranging student numbers and selecting the first 20 people on this list. Overall this would lead to a likely more representative sample.

7.   What experimental design was used? (1)
Repeated Measures Design

8.   What sampling procedure was used? (1)
Convenience sampling.

9.   Identify an appropriate graph to use in displaying the data (1)
Perhaps a scatter plot

10.   The standard deviation for the conscious response was higher than for the knee jerk reflex. What does this suggest? (2)
This suggests that the knee jerk reflex seems to take a fixed (roughly) amount of time for every person, whereas the conscious response times varied greatly between the participants as it was not an innate reflex action that occurs in almost identical fashion across individuals like the knee jerk is.

[Bri MT]

1.   Suggest a suitable aim for this experiment (1)
To investigate the difference in time it takes to move your leg and hit a box a opposed to the knee-jerk reaction.

In both cases the person is moving their leg, so more specificity may be required here

2.   Was Timothy’s hypothesis suitable? Why? (2)
The hypothesis is not suitable because he does not operationalise his independent and dependent variables. He has stated that the participant will hit the box faster, but he does not state how this is being measured.

A research hypothesis does not need to be operationalised.
 "Students could express their hypothesis in fully operationalised terms or in broader terms." - VCAA examiners report 2015.
This is an example hypothesis from 2013 "That adolescents experiencing increasing levels of sleep deprivation will show increasing irregularity in their sleep recovery patterns."

3.   Was Timothy’s conclusion suitable? Why? (3)
Timothy’s conclusion was not suitable because while the results supported what he claimed, his conclusion was not in-depth enough. Timothy should address the aim of the study and then conclude with the results. He should have also discussed any further implications the results of this study might have.

Where you have the option, it is generally better to target lack of understanding of scientific principles rather than breaks from convention (however at times both may be accepted)

10.   The standard deviation for the conscious response was higher than for the knee jerk reflex. What does this suggest? (2)
There is more variation in the conscious response than the reflex which is due to the high number of participant related extraneous variables which impact the results. The time it takes to kick the box varies from person to person which is why it may not necessarily be accurate and reliable data.

This could be improved by drawing a stronger comparison.  Would the participant variable have a greater impact on the conscious response? Why? ( not much depth required at all, be succinct)



Thankyou for your response You've shown a solid understanding of the content for research methods - I'd recommend for improvement that you focus on applying that knowledge and go through some Section C questions.

Edit: As I notice that you're a new user I also want to say a big welcome to ATARnotes!!! I hope that you find the forum and resources here useful - you might be interested in the New Users Lounge (contains helpful resources on how to use the forums and is a social space) , this resource compilation and/or the technical score discussion board (mainly study score predication and explanations). I hope I get to see more of your contributions in future, especially here on the Psych board
So again, welcome!

[Bri MT]

3.   Was Timothy’s conclusion suitable? Why? (3)
Timothy’s conclusion is not suitable as he has utilised the word ‘shows’, which seems to signify and undeniable truth. However he has neglected to collect inferential statistics to prove this and even then he should suggest that the hypothesis was ‘supported’. Timothy also unnecessarily informed us of the reason behind his conclusion which should have been mentioned in the discussion.

Ironically, given that your response shows that you understand why this isn't appropriate your response suggests that inferential statistics could "prove" this. A better choice would be "However he has neglected to collect inferential statistics to support this and even then that would not constitute proof.

There is also no informed Concent procedures taking place and instead the Teacher has merely told them what to do and not informed them of their rights or possible risks associated with the task. 

Even if something isn't mentioned in the provided description we shouldn't assume that it hasn't happened.

The sample of only 20 students and from a single psychology class would also lead to an incredibly unrepresentative sample.

This is true, but you haven't identified the extraneous variable/s involved that make it unrepresentative.

9.   Identify an appropriate graph to use in displaying the data (1)
Perhaps a scatter plot

A scatter plot would be more appropriate if the IV and DV were both continuous variables. However, we can see that the IV is grouped into two categories

This is a great start . Your responses show a bit of influence from previous study designs, which isn't innately bad but I'd suggest that you pay careful attention to make sure that your marks align with the current study design and that you don't waste too much time on what you don't need to demonstrate.

[Bri MT]

I'm making a separate post here as this concerns both of the above responses. You both clearly have very different ideas of what a conclusion is and what it should include.     I don't think I'd adequately be able to address that in a few lines so I'm going to work on a master-post just targeting conclusions. I'll edit this post with a link to that post once I have finished and submitted it.

[Jasmine.Lineage]

Each week, I will upload a text and questions aimed at helping you gain proficiency in research methods. It is ok if you aren’t sure or confident – I would highly encourage you to have a shot and learn something. I really hope that this thread is used by people with a broad range of abilities. Ideally, the difficulty/complexity of the questions will increase as the year goes on. Towards exam prep time I may post 10 markers here as  well.

     1st (day of questions being posted) to 3rd day: reply with your answers (it’s ok if you have no idea where to start for some of them – do what you can)
     1st to 4th day: Find answers that others wrote and you think are high quality (eg. 1.  Quote UserB    2. Quote UserA     3. Quote UserC ). Please also say why you think it’s a great answer.   This time can also be used to refine your answers, by quoting your previous post and/or relevant feedback and indicating what you are now changing your answers to. It can also be used to provide and query feedback.
     5th and 6th day: Group discussion on the optimal answers and agreement on answers that should make it into the solutions guide
     7th day: I will compile the exemplar answers into a solutions guide and post it here

This thread is designed for aspiring and current psych students (1/2 or 3/4) to improve their knowledge but feedback is welcome from previous students .


Currently taking: Week 6 answers, feedback and review

   1. 'To investigate the impact of colour in tablets on their perceived medical effect on participants.'
   2. 'It is hypothesised that participants aged 18-30 years old (without a pre-existing mental condition) who are given white coloured PainGo tablets will experience a greater reduction in pain after taking the tablets than participants who are given blue coloured PainGo tablets of the same composition.'
   3. IV: colour of PainGo tablet (white or blue)
   DV: level of pain experienced after taking the tablet (measured through self-rating scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest level of pain in response to a headache, both before and 1 hour after taking tablet).
   4. Independent groups design.
   4. a - The independent groups design is very time-effective, as the control and experimental group can be tested simultaneously.
   5. The experimental results and implications cannot be generalised to all age groups, as only individuals aged 18-30 were used as participants.
   The method of sampling is not representative of any particular population, as participants were chosen based on convenience, rather than randomly.
   6. The same procedures and methodology could be applied to participants of different ages, to establish whether the experimental results of the first experiment were age-specific.
   The data regarding levels of pain experienced by participants after taking a tablet could be measured objectively through medical testing, to ensure that results are accurate, as the use of a self-rating scale is very subjective and thus vulnerable to error.
   7. Subjective, self-report data.
   8. Confidentiality - Dr. Citizen made the results of the experiment public to all participants; it is not identified that permission to do so was received first by participants.
   Informed consent - participants were not necessarily informed of the fact that the blue and white tablets both had the same composition, thus they may not have been informed of the true nature of the experiment.
   9. Dr. Citizen's findings cannot be generalised because his experiment only used participants of a specific age group (aged 18-30) and thus cannot be applied to members of different age groups. Additionally, the sampling method used was not random, rather it was convenience sampling, which is not representative of a total population.
Group 2 (11.6 standard deviation)? Don’t think I've studied this yet.

[Jasmine.Lineage]

   1. 'To investigate the impact of colour in tablets on their perceived medical effect on participants.'
   2. 'It is hypothesised that participants aged 18-30 years old (without a pre-existing mental condition) who are given white coloured PainGo tablets will experience a greater reduction in pain after taking the tablets than participants who are given blue coloured PainGo tablets of the same composition.'
   3. IV: colour of PainGo tablet (white or blue)
   DV: level of pain experienced after taking the tablet (measured through self-rating scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest level of pain in response to a headache, both before and 1 hour after taking tablet).
   4. Independent groups design.
   4. a - The independent groups design is very time-effective, as the control and experimental group can be tested simultaneously.
   5. The experimental results and implications cannot be generalised to all age groups, as only individuals aged 18-30 were used as participants.
   The method of sampling is not representative of any particular population, as participants were chosen based on convenience, rather than randomly.
   6. The same procedures and methodology could be applied to participants of different ages, to establish whether the experimental results of the first experiment were age-specific.
   The data regarding levels of pain experienced by participants after taking a tablet could be measured objectively through medical testing, to ensure that results are accurate, as the use of a self-rating scale is very subjective and thus vulnerable to error.
   7. Subjective, self-report data.
   8. Confidentiality - Dr. Citizen made the results of the experiment public to all participants; it is not identified that permission to do so was received first by participants.
   Informed consent - participants were not necessarily informed of the fact that the blue and white tablets both had the same composition, thus they may not have been informed of the true nature of the experiment.
   9. Dr. Citizen's findings cannot be generalised because his experiment only used participants of a specific age group (aged 18-30) and thus cannot be applied to members of different age groups. Additionally, the sampling method used was not random, rather it was convenience sampling, which is not representative of a total population.
Group 2 (11.6 standard deviation)? Don’t think I've studied this yet.

[Bri MT]

   1. 'To investigate the impact of colour in tablets on their perceived medical effect on participants.'
   2. 'It is hypothesised that participants aged 18-30 years old (without a pre-existing mental condition) who are given white coloured PainGo tablets will experience a greater reduction in pain after taking the tablets than participants who are given blue coloured PainGo tablets of the same composition.'
   3. IV: colour of PainGo tablet (white or blue)
   DV: level of pain experienced after taking the tablet (measured through self-rating scale of 1-10 with 10 being the highest level of pain in response to a headache, both before and 1 hour after taking tablet).
   4. Independent groups design.
   4. a - The independent groups design is very time-effective, as the control and experimental group can be tested simultaneously.
   5. The experimental results and implications cannot be generalised to all age groups, as only individuals aged 18-30 were used as participants.
   The method of sampling is not representative of any particular population, as participants were chosen based on convenience, rather than randomly.
   6. The same procedures and methodology could be applied to participants of different ages, to establish whether the experimental results of the first experiment were age-specific.
   The data regarding levels of pain experienced by participants after taking a tablet could be measured objectively through medical testing, to ensure that results are accurate, as the use of a self-rating scale is very subjective and thus vulnerable to error.
   7. Subjective, self-report data.
   8. Confidentiality - Dr. Citizen made the results of the experiment public to all participants; it is not identified that permission to do so was received first by participants.
   Informed consent - participants were not necessarily informed of the fact that the blue and white tablets both had the same composition, thus they may not have been informed of the true nature of the experiment.
   9. Dr. Citizen's findings cannot be generalised because his experiment only used participants of a specific age group (aged 18-30) and thus cannot be applied to members of different age groups. Additionally, the sampling method used was not random, rather it was convenience sampling, which is not representative of a total population.
Group 2 (11.6 standard deviation)? Don’t think I've studied this yet.

8. It is likely that the participants did know that the tablets had the same composition so it would be better to comment on a different aspect of the experiment.
10.   Standard deviation is a measure of the level of variation around the mean. A higher standard deviation shows more variation whereas a low standard deviation shows lower levels of deviation from the mean.

Aside from that, your responses were quite good. As this is from a earlier week the best of the suggested answers have been compiled into a single post - you may find it useful to look at that too