Psychology Research Methods Weekly Practice

[Bri MT]

Week 2 Questions

[sarangiya]

1. The aim is to determine the effect of sleep deprivation on rate of copying from a text. (whoops lol)
It is hypothesised that year 11 students from the experimenter's school who experience total sleep deprivation the night before will have a lower rate of copying words from a passage than those who weren't sleep deprived.

2. IV - Whether the participant had total sleep deprivation the night before the experiment or not
DV - The number of words copied from a set passage within one minute

3. The mean represents the average number of words copied (17 words on the first attempt, 11 on the second). The median represents the number of words copied that approximately half of the participants were able to copy more than, and half were able to copy less than (19 and 8 respectively).
The mean represents the average number of words copied (17 words on the first attempt, 11 on the second). The median represents the middle value from the results: showing that approximately half the participants were able to copy more than 19 and 8 words (in the first and second attempt, respectively) in a minute, and half were able to copy less.
>>Edit:I edited this to be a bit more easily read.

4. Convenience
Random sampling
>>Edit: (Thanks Dr. Nick! Can't believed I got tripped up by not considering who the population were)

5. 1 -  Convenience sampling. By selecting participants easily accessible to the experimenter, the results may not be representative of the wider population and may cause experimenter bias.
Lack of specification in the control condition (no sleep deprivation). The participants were not asked to specify how long they slept when not undergoing total sleep deprivation. Some participants may have slept one hour, some fourteen, and those differences were not accounted for and yet pose a large influence on the DV.
>> Edit: Since convenience sampling wasn't a thing !
2 - Participant Variables. Individual differences between participants like prior practice copying texts, first or second languages, reading speed etc. may contribute to the DV (and therefore the results), making it an extraneous variable.

6. 1 - Random stratified sampling could be employed instead of convenience sampling. Although it may be less cost and time effective, the results would reflect a larger population and avoid experimenter bias. Also, using strata can account for participants variables like background language, experience copying texts etc.
A specified control condition for the IV. The participants should have been instructed to sleep for a certain number of hours in order to make sure the difference in sleep duration was accounted for.
>> Edit: Convenience sampling again....
2 - A matched participants experimental design could be used to avoid order effects. Even after a week, some of the passage may have been stored to LTM and written quicker because of recall. If participants are matched it would also account for individual differences.
Using counterbalancing to control order effects. Copying the same passage may increase results because of the practice effect/recall, or decrease the results due to boredom (fatigue effect).
>>Edit: seriously...

7. Although written consent was obtained, because most year 11 students are aged 16 or 17, parental consent is also required. Unless the participants are aged 18 or above, or parental consent has been obtained, it is an infringement of informed consent. There is also no mention of informing the participants of their withdrawal rights, which is an ethical consideration.

8. No, because the sample is too small and chosen through convenience sample, which is not representative of the broader population (Year 11 students).

9. The results suggest that after experiencing total sleep deprivation before undertaking an activity involving copying text (such as a test), the speed of copying is decreased from an average of 17 words/minute to 11 words/minute. Therefore, one may assume that taking a test after staying up the night before will have a negative impact on the rate of copying text/performance on a test.
Performance on a test cannot be assumed because it is a different condition to what was tested in this experiment. The results from this experiment cannot be generalised, and especially not to a scenario with different variables.
>>Edit: Dr. Nick again thank you!!

10. The data is quantitative and provided the participants stop writing after one minute and the number of words written is recorded accurately, it is unlikely the results are unreliable due to error in collecting them. However, not accounting for participant variables or order effects (even after one week) may affect the reliability of the results.


This was kinda hard. Not too confident with my 5 and 6. Also I'm tentatively challenging the one week gap, but it might be wrong to. :\\
>>Edit wowwwwwww really I didn't do well. Hoping to improve these more.

[Dr. Nick]

Week 2 Questions

Edit after feedback in red

1. It is hypothesised that year 11 students who have not been sleep deprived will likely be faster at copying a pasage in one minute, compared to year 11 students that have been sleep deprived. 
*edit: realised i didn't write year 11 students thanks sarangiya! 
It is hypothesised that year 11 students that have not been sleep deprived will copy more words from a written passage, compared to year 11 students thart have been sleep deprived

2. IV: The amount of sleep the students had: sleeping for 8-9 hours , compared to having total sleep deprivation (no sleep at all).
IV: amount of sleep, sleeping for a night, compared to being totally sleep deprived
DV:  Cognitive ability, as measured by the amount of words coppied from a passage in one minute.

3.  The mean and median are both statistical measures of central tendency, however the mean describes, the arithmetical average of a set of numerical values, this is done by dividing the sum of all data values by the total number of data values, wheras the median is middle data value within a set of data, which is founf by finding the middle value when all the numbers are in order. The mean's strength over the median, is that it takes all of the values into account , however the median's stength over the mean is that it is not affected by outliers.

4. Random Sampling

5.
- Order effects: Because a repeated measures research design was used, the participants behaviour may have been impaired or improved due to the order in which they undertook the experiment, this may have effected the validity of the results, as the change in the dependent variable may have been due to the possibility that the participants had lost motivation because of doing the same task again, or the results may have been better than what they could have been, because they were exposed to the same passage again.

-Because the task they were undertaking was simple task that did not require a high level of awareness, it may not have been the most appropritate measure of the effects of total sleep deprivation, as monotonous tasks are often less affected than controlled process in terms of total sleep deprivation.

Gahahaha^ wow need to revise that.
Another limitation may be the ethical breech on informed consent, because the participants were under the age of 18, consent had to be obtained from their parents or guardians. -thanks saringiya and carolinsale-17-

6.
-Use of counterbalancing, to control for the potential order effects that may affect the study.
-Use of a measure of variability when organising raw data, rather than using two measures of central tendency, e.g including the standard deviation in order to depict the spread and variation of the data (from the mean.)
-Collecting qualitative data, along with quantitive data, so the psychological effects of sleep deprivation can be examined in detail this can be through an interview or questionaire.

7. No Harm Principle: Because participants were required to be deprived of sleep, this may have breeched the no harm principle because it may have caused the participants, mental or physical fatigue, or left them potentially vulnerable to developing a sleep disorder/problem.
[color=red No Harm Principle: Because participants were required to be temporarily deprived of sleep, this may have breeched the no harm principle because they may have experienced theshort term impacts of sleep deprivation, such as fatigue, difficulty maintaining focus throughout the day and irritability ][/color]

8. No, because the sample may not have been representitive of the population "year 11 students", because the use of  random sampling still means the experiment is suseptible to participant related differences that may impact the results and therefore the generalisability of the study.

No, because the  sample is representitive of the population year 11 students attending Zac's school, and therefore cannot be generalised to all year 11 students.  Thanks carolinsale-17! I never picked up on that!

9. The results, support the notion that staying awake all night before a test will impair students ability to answer the test questions to the best of their ability, and under the time constraints of the test. However, because the conclusion cannot be genralised, a conclusion cannot be implied to this scenario based on the results, despite it being supported.

  The notion that staying awake all night before a test will result in impaied ability to answer questions is supported by the findings of Zac's study. However, because the conclusion of the study can only be generalised to the population: Year 11 Students at Zac's school, this conclusion cannot be implied to a different scenario that involves simillar, but still different conditions and a different population, which would mean extrapollating which is an unreliable method of forming conclusions. 

10.  Despite Zac's use of a fairly large sample, and a simple methodology, it cannot be stated that the the reproduction of this experiment will consistently lead to the same or simillar results, because the assesment of reliability is dependent on the statistical significance of the experiment, because there is nothing to indicate that the results are statistically significant, and therefore have not been affcted by chance, this experiment cannot be considered reliable.

There is nothing to indicate that the replication of Zac's experiment will produce the same/simillar results, therefore there is nothing to indicate the experiment is reliable

Thanks Miniturtle for the feedback, its very useful! My teacher has told me the same thing before hahaha :/ Also thanks to sarangiya and carolinsale-17 I used some of your answers to help when edititing 

[lazaward]

Week 2 Questions

1. It is hypothesized that year 11 students from Zac’s school who suffer from sleep deprivation will decrease in their ability to copy down information compared to year 11 students from Zac’s school who are not sleep deprived.

2.
IV - if students had a sufficient amount of sleep or are sleep deprived the night before participating in the task
DV - number of words copied down from a passage in one minute

For 2  We do not know hopw much sleep the students had and cannot say whether it was sufficient or not

Edit:
IV - if students are sleep deprived or not the night before participating in the task
DV - number of words copied down from a passage in one minute


3. The role of the mean is to provide an average of the set of results and is used in normally distributed sets of data. Where as the role of the median is to provide the middle number of the set of results and is used in data that is skewed to indicate the distribution of the data.

For 3  This feels like a further maths based response rather than a psych one.   I like that you have focused on the roles of the median and mean and contrasted the two however: You didn't clearly indicate a similarity and; I wouldn't be referring to normal distribution here - the mean can be used in a range of situations and in VCE psychology our main concern is the effect of outliers on it.

Edit:
Mean and median are both measures of central tendency. The role of the mean is to give a useful representation of the data, where results are evenly distributed (no outliers) around the central value where as the role of the median is to give a representative representation of the data, where results contain extreme scores (outliers).

4. Random sampling has been used.

5. One limitation of this experiment is the use of a repeated measures design which can lead to order effects, the second time doing the experiment the participants may of gotten better at copying down information as they had already done the task before (practice effects). Another limitation of this experiment is it may be time consuming to obtain a complete list of the target population required for the sampling procedure.

For 5 Random sampling is more time consuming than convenience sampling however you are more likely to get the mark if you list a limitation that increases the validity or reliability of the experiment. I would  link this to a suggested improvement for q 6 which could replace "using a different task".

Edit:
One limitation of this experiment is the use of a repeated measures design which can lead to order effects, the second time doing the experiment the participants may of gotten better at copying down information as they had already done the task before (practice effects). Another limitation of this experiment is that the control condition must be kept constant, for the group that is not sleep deprived the control variable needs to be defined as we do not know how much sleep is needed to be classified as not sleep deprived.

6. The experiment can be improved by using counterbalancing in order to limit order effects. Another improvement can be using a different task testing the same ability in order to control practice effects from repeating the same task.

For 6 Counterbalancing is no longer relevant if the task is changed - therefore your two points may only get you one mark. As counterbalancing is the stronger response I would replace your second idea with something else.

Edit:
The experiment can be improved by using counterbalancing in order to limit order effects. Another improvement can be made by defining how much sleep counts as not being sleep deprived (control variable).

7. Informed consent procedure was not fully considered as year 11 students may be under the age of 18 and therefore require written consent from their parent/guardian, not from themselves. Although Zac did debrief there was no mention of him providing counselling, another requirement of debriefing as the participants may of been affected by lack of sleep.

8. The results cannot be generalized to year 11 students. This is because the sample was drawn from year 11 students attending his school and therefore can only be generalized back to year 11 students attending his school, not year 11 students attending other schools.

9. The results suggest that staying awake all night before a test decreases students ability to copy down information.

For 9 this is very likely to be the most challenging question in this set.   You have not really addressed the question as copying down information and taking a test have not been linked. If you don't believe that these two things are linked strongly enough indicate that and back yourself.   You have the knowledge, so write confidently and address the scenario.

Edit:
The results suggest that staying awake all night reduces students ability to copy down information. However, we are unable to suggest that there is any link between staying up all night and taking a test as the results cannot be applied to a completely different scenario and if a conclusion were to be made it would be based off of assumptions, not sufficient evidence.

10. The data that Zac collected may not be reliable. This is because we do not know if when Zac repeats the experiment, he will have similar results.

I just want to say that the scenario confused me a little bit, partially might be because I'm overthinking it. The population is meant to be year 11 students from his school right? Since a sample was drawn from students at his school and the population is the larger group from which the sample is taken from which is why its not convenience sampling. But then with question 8 it asks if it can be generalized back to year 11 students (in general not only from his school) so is the population year 11 students in general? I have a feeling I'm really overthinking this hahaha.

[Bri MT]

1. The aim is to determine the effect of sleep deprivation on rate of copying from a text. (whoops lol)
It is hypothesised that year 11 students from the experimenter's school who experience total sleep deprivation the night before will have a lower rate of copying words from a passage than those who weren't sleep deprived.

2. IV - Whether the participant had total sleep deprivation the night before the experiment or not
DV - The number of words copied from a set passage within one minute

3. The mean represents the average number of words copied (17 words on the first attempt, 11 on the second). The median represents the number of words copied that approximately half of the participants were able to copy more than, and half were able to copy less than (19 and 8 respectively).
The mean represents the average number of words copied (17 words on the first attempt, 11 on the second). The median represents the middle value from the results: showing that approximately half the participants were able to copy more than 19 and 8 words (in the first and second attempt, respectively) in a minute, and half were able to copy less.
>>Edit:I edited this to be a bit more easily read.

4. Convenience
Random sampling
>>Edit: (Thanks Dr. Nick! Can't believed I got tripped up by not considering who the population were)

5. 1 -  Convenience sampling. By selecting participants easily accessible to the experimenter, the results may not be representative of the wider population and may cause experimenter bias.
Lack of specification in the control condition (no sleep deprivation). The participants were not asked to specify how long they slept when not undergoing total sleep deprivation. Some participants may have slept one hour, some fourteen, and those differences were not accounted for and yet pose a large influence on the DV.
>> Edit: Since convenience sampling wasn't a thing !
2 - Participant Variables. Individual differences between participants like prior practice copying texts, first or second languages, reading speed etc. may contribute to the DV (and therefore the results), making it an extraneous variable.

6. 1 - Random stratified sampling could be employed instead of convenience sampling. Although it may be less cost and time effective, the results would reflect a larger population and avoid experimenter bias. Also, using strata can account for participants variables like background language, experience copying texts etc.
A specified control condition for the IV. The participants should have been instructed to sleep for a certain number of hours in order to make sure the difference in sleep duration was accounted for.
>> Edit: Convenience sampling again....
2 - A matched participants experimental design could be used to avoid order effects. Even after a week, some of the passage may have been stored to LTM and written quicker because of recall. If participants are matched it would also account for individual differences.
Using counterbalancing to control order effects. Copying the same passage may increase results because of the practice effect/recall, or decrease the results due to boredom (fatigue effect).
>>Edit: seriously...

7. Although written consent was obtained, because most year 11 students are aged 16 or 17, parental consent is also required. Unless the participants are aged 18 or above, or parental consent has been obtained, it is an infringement of informed consent. There is also no mention of informing the participants of their withdrawal rights, which is an ethical consideration.

8. No, because the sample is too small and chosen through convenience sample, which is not representative of the broader population (Year 11 students).

9. The results suggest that after experiencing total sleep deprivation before undertaking an activity involving copying text (such as a test), the speed of copying is decreased from an average of 17 words/minute to 11 words/minute. Therefore, one may assume that taking a test after staying up the night before will have a negative impact on the rate of copying text/performance on a test.
Performance on a test cannot be assumed because it is a different condition to what was tested in this experiment. The results from this experiment cannot be generalised, and especially not to a scenario with different variables.
>>Edit: Dr. Nick again thank you!!

10. The data is quantitative and provided the participants stop writing after one minute and the number of words written is recorded accurately, it is unlikely the results are unreliable due to error in collecting them. However, not accounting for participant variables or order effects (even after one week) may affect the reliability of the results.


This was kinda hard. Not too confident with my 5 and 6. Also I'm tentatively challenging the one week gap, but it might be wrong to. :\\
>>Edit wowwwwwww really I didn't do well. Hoping to improve these more.

For 3   what you have said is very much true, but I was hoping for more emphasis on the role of the median and mean. Why do we use them? How do they represent data differently?

For 5 I'm not sure that describing participant variables is enough. Why are they likely to have a greater impact on the results of this experiment as opposed to other ones?        Alternatively, I'd recommend linking the limitation to your suggested improvement.

For 8 I think you should reread what you have written - you've acknowledged earlier that the sampling was random not convenience but it seems you have forgotten to change this response.

(Note that) For 9 Your original response isn't as silly as you might think - the key word suggest gives you greater flexibility in extrapolating and predicting what might occur. However, I wouldn't use numerical values in a response to this style of question as it is a quite rough estimate.     In this case, the activities of "taking a test" and "copying text" are different enough that your second answer is better.
          - I hope this hasn't created any confusion but please let me know if it has

For 10 You appear to have addressed validity rather than reliability.   
Reliability is reflective of the ability to repeatedly collect consistent results
Validity indicates the degree to which the data reflects the relationship between IV and DV    (Is the method appropriate? Are EVs influencing results?)


Notes:
-I have given feedback based on your responses after editing
-I intended for this week to be more difficult than the last one due to how well everyone did - I aim to target the questions to where the group has shown least confidence so if there is anything in particular you want to work on more let me know.

I love that you read other people's responses and then went back and adjusted your answers based on this while still allowing your original answers to be read. Even better that you have given acknowledgement to another user for their influence. A++ effort.

[Bri MT]

1. It is hypothesised that year 11 students who have not been sleep deprived will likely be faster at copying a pasage in one minute, compared to year 11 students that have been sleep deprived. 
*edit: realised i didn't write year 11 students thanks sarangiya! 

2. IV: The amount of sleep the students had: sleeping for 8-9 hours , compared to having total sleep deprivation (no sleep at all).

DV:  Cognitive ability, as measured by the amount of words coppied from a passage in one minute.

3.  The mean and median are both statistical measures of central tendency, however the mean describes, the arithmetical average of a set of numerical values, this is done by dividing the sum of all data values by the total number of data values, wheras the median is middle data value within a set of data, which is founf by finding the middle value when all the numbers are in order. The mean's strength over the median, is that it takes all of the values into account , however the median's stength over the mean is that it is not affected by outliers.

4. Random Sampling

5.
- Order effects: Because a repeated measures research design was used, the participants behaviour may have been impaired or improved due to the order in which they undertook the experiment, this may have effected the validity of the results, as the change in the dependent variable may have been due to the possibility that the participants had lost motivation because of doing the same task again, or the results may have been better than what they could have been, because they were exposed to the same passage again.

-Because the task they were undertaking was simple task that did not require a high level of awareness, it may not have been the most appropritate measure of the effects of total sleep deprivation, as monotonous tasks are often less affected than controlled process in terms of total sleep deprivation.

6.
-Use of counterbalancing, to control for the potential order effects that may affect the study.
-Use of a measure of variability when organising raw data, rather than using two measures of central tendency, e.g including the standard deviation in order to depict the spread and variation of the data (from the mean.)

7. No Harm Principle: Because participants were required to be deprived of sleep, this may have breeched the no harm principle because it may have caused the participants, mental or physical fatigue, or left them potentially vulnerable to developing a sleep disorder/problem.

8. No, because the sample may not have been representitive of the population "year 11 students", because the use of  random sampling still means the experiment is suseptible to participant related differences that may impact the results and therefore the generalisability of the study.

9. The results, support the notion that staying awake all night before a test will impair students ability to answer the test questions to the best of their ability, and under the time constraints of the test. However, because the conclusion cannot be genralised, a conclusion cannot be implied to this scenario based on the results, despite it being supported.

10.  Despite Zac's use of a fairly large sample, and a simple methodology, it cannot be stated that the the reproduction of this experiment will consistently lead to the same or simillar results, because the assesment of reliability is dependent on the statistical significance of the experiment, because there is nothing to indicate that the results are statistically significant, and therefore have not been affcted by chance, this experiment cannot be considered reliable.

For 1 the phrasing "be faster at copying a passage in one minute" is a bit awkward. You aren't assessed on your English skills but you could run into problems if the person marking your response isn't clear about what you are saying. The most concerning thing is having "likely" in your response. A hypothesis MUST be a predictive statement and you should have a very good reason if you're going to include probability in it.

For 2 The hours of sleep that you have included for the standard condition is an assumption. The scenario does not tell us that the students sleep a standard amount for their age group.

For 5 I would have loved your second point if it matched the course content learnt in unit 4; however, monotonous, boring, and simple tasks tend to be more impacted by sleep deprivation than complex tasks.

For 6 Your second point refers to the presentation of the data rather than the experiment itself. If the original data from the experiment is kept the standard deviation can be calculated an indefinite amount of time later.

For 7 During unit 4 you will be taught that there are no long term effects of temporary sleep deprivation so I'd be careful with some of the points that you suggested. (You could still use short term impacts such as fatigue in your response - it would be a good idea to link these to the scenario. Eg. difficulties maintaining focus, and impairments to learning and memory adversely affecting their schooling in week 2).    Alternatively, other responses could address a key ethical concern without requiring unit 4 knowledge.

For 8 No matter what sampling procedure is used participant differences may still impact the results. Random sampling is fairly good at constructing a more representative sample - I wouldn't blame on sampling procedure

For 9 I think that you are trying to make a good point. Unfortunately, you would have lost marks due to your wording.
Cannot be generalised to the population? To the new scenario? Both?
Why do the results support the notion that their ability to answer test questions would be impaired?

For 10 In this study design avoid falling back on statistical significance. Assess reliability based on other information provided in the scenario such as replication of the procedure.


Notes:  The amount of feedback I have given could prompt the view that you aren't good at research methods but this is not the case. You have good ideas and your biggest concern isn't lack of understanding but being able to show that understanding. I suspect that this may also be the case for you in other areas of psychology and would recommend placing a focus on tailoring your answers to examiners' reports during your study this year.

It's great to see you reading others' responses and re-examining your own - thank you for giving credit and indicating the change that was made

[Bri MT]

1. It is hypothesized that year 11 students from Zac’s school who suffer from sleep deprivation will decrease in their ability to copy down information compared to year 11 students from Zac’s school who are not sleep deprived.

2.
IV - if students had a sufficent amount of sleep or are sleep deprived the night before participating in the task
DV - number of words copied down from a passage in one minute

3. The role of the mean is to provide an average of the set of results and is used in normally distributed sets of data. Where as the role of the median is to provide the middle number of the set of results and is used in data that is skewed to indicate the distribution of the data.

4. Random sampling has been used.

5. One limitation of this experiment is the use of a repeated measures design which can lead to order effects, the second time doing the experiment the participants may of gotten better at copying down information as they had already done the task before (practice effects). Another limitation of this experiment is it may be time consuming to obtain a complete list of the target population required for the sampling procedure.

6. The experiment can be improved by using counterbalancing in order to limit order effects. Another improvement can be using a different task testing the same ability in order to control practice effects from repeating the same task.

7. Informed consent procedure was not fully considered as year 11 students may be under the age of 18 and therefore require written consent from their parent/guardian, not from themselves. Although Zac did debrief there was no mention of him providing counselling, another requirement of debriefing as the particpants may of been affected by lack of sleep.

8. The results cannot be generalised to year 11 students. This is because the sample was drawn from year 11 students attending his school and therefore can only be generalised back to year 11 students attending his school, not year 11 students attending other schools.

9. The results suggest that staying awake all night before a test decreases students ability to copy down information.

10. The data that Zac collected may not be reliable. This is because we do not know if when Zac repeats the experiement, he will have similar results.

I just want to say that the scenario confused me a little bit, partially might be because I'm overthinking it. The population is meant to be year 11 students from his school right? Since a sample was drawn from students at his school and the population is the larger group from which the sample is taken from which is why its not convinience sampling. But then with question 8 it asks if it can be generalised back to year 11 students (in general not only from his school) so is the population year 11 students in general? I have a feeling I'm really overthinking this hahaha.

For 2  We do not know hopw much sleep the students had and cannot say whether it was sufficient or not

For 3  This feels like a further maths based response rather than a psych one.   I like that you have focused on the roles of the median and mean and contrasted the two however: You didn't clearly indicate a similarity and; I wouldn't be referring to normal distribution here - the mean can be used in a range of situations and in VCE psychology our main concern is the effect of outliers on it.

For 5 Random sampling is more time consuming than convenience sampling however you are more likely to get the mark if you list a limitation that increases the validity or reliability of the experiment. I would  link this to a suggested improvement for q 6 which could replace "using a different task".

For 6 Counterbalancing is no longer relevant if the task is changed - therefore your two points may only get you one mark. As counterbalancing is the stronger response I would replace your second idea with something else.

For 9 this is very likely to be the most challenging question in this set.   You have not really addressed the question as copying down information and taking a test have not been linked. If you don't believe that these two things are linked strongly enough indicate that and back yourself.   You have the knowledge, so write confidently and address the scenario.

Notes:
- The population is year 11 students at his school, and generalisations cannot be made outside of the population. Usually question will ask about generalising to the population so this is naturally what students expect - even to the point where some students may read a generalising question to confirm what the population is.
-The responses to last week were stronger than I had expected so I made this week more challenging.
- I suspect that you should be more confident than you are

[Bri MT]

Week 2 Answers

1.

It is hypothesised that year 11 students from the experimenter's school who experience total sleep deprivation the night before will have a lower rate of copying words from a passage than those who weren't sleep deprived.

2.

  IV - Whether the participant had total sleep deprivation the night before the experiment or not
DV - The number of words copied from a set passage within one minute     

3.

The mean and median are both statistical measures of central tendency, however the mean describes, the arithmetical average of a set of numerical values ...  whereas the median is middle data value within a set of data ... The mean's strength over the median, is that it takes all of the values into account , however the median's strength over the mean is that it is not affected by outliers.   

   
Some content was removed and I bolded key points for emphasis.

4.

Random Sampling

5.

Lack of specification in the control condition (no sleep deprivation). The participants were not asked to specify how long they slept when not undergoing total sleep deprivation. Some participants may have slept one hour, some fourteen, and those differences were not accounted for and yet pose a large influence on the DV. 

Because a repeated measures research design was used, the participants behavior may have been impaired or improved due to the order in which they undertook the experiment, this may have affected the validity of the results, as the change in the dependent variable may have been due to the possibility that the participants had lost motivation because of doing the same task again, or the results may have been better than what they could have been, because they were exposed to the same passage again.

6.

The experiment can be improved by using counterbalancing in order to limit order effects. Another improvement can be made by defining how much sleep counts as not being sleep deprived (control variable). 

7. 

Although written consent was obtained, because most year 11 students are aged 16 or 17, parental consent is also required. Unless the participants are aged 18 or above, or parental consent has been obtained, it is an infringement of informed consent. There is also no mention of informing the participants of their withdrawal rights, which is an ethical consideration

8.

The results cannot be generalized to year 11 students. This is because the sample was drawn from year 11 students attending his school and therefore can only be generalized back to year 11 students attending his school, not year 11 students attending other schools.

9. 

Performance on a test cannot be assumed because it is a different condition to what was tested in this experiment. The results from this experiment cannot be generalised, and especially not to a scenario with different variables.

10. Zac only conducted the experiment once (and used a relatively small sample size to do so) therefore the results cannot be considered reliable.

[Bri MT]

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)
2.   Would this experiment be considered single blind or double blind? (1)
3.   List two advantages of double-blind experiments. (2)
4.   Would Group A or Group B participants be expected to achieve higher scores? Why? (2)
5.   List one limitation of this experiment. (1)
6.   Explain one suggested improvement (1)
7.   Would this experiment be considered ethical? Why? (2)
8.   What sampling procedure has been used? List one advantage and one disadvantage of it. (3)
9.   What is the size of the population? (1)
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)



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

[Dr. Nick]

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)
2.   Would this experiment be considered single blind or double blind? (1)
3.   List two advantages of double-blind experiments. (2)
4.   Would Group A or Group B participants be expected to achieve higher scores? Why? (2)
5.   List one limitation of this experiment. (1)
6.   Explain one suggested improvement (1)
7.   Would this experiment be considered ethical? Why? (2)
8.   What sampling procedure has been used? List one advantage and one disadvantage of it. (3)
9.   What is the size of the population? (1)
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)



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

1. It is hypothesised that students at Sarah's high school, who are positivly reinforced after volountarily responding to an antecedent with a certain behaviour, will repeat the volountary behaviour in response to a simillar or same antecendent in the furture, than those who recieved a punishment as a consequence to their volountary behavioural response to an antecedent.

I dont think thats correct this is my new answer: It is hypothesised that students at Sarah's school, who recieve a sweet drink after passing a test, will perform better on future tests than students who received a bitter drink after passing a test.

2. Double-blind

3. - They are a way to control the experimentor effect, a possible confounding variable
- They are a way to control the placebo effect, a possible extraneous variable.

4.  Group A:
According to operant conditioning, if individual recieves positive reinforcement (The sweet drink) as a consequence of their volountary behavioural response (passing a test/ trying to pass)  to an antecendent (the test) they are more likely to repeat that behaviour in response to future simillar/same antecedents (tests). In the case of this scenario, those who recieved a sweet drink after passing a test, will more likely perform better on future tests because they have learnt that doing well on a test results in being positively reinforced.

5. Taste is subjective, therefore bitter drinks may be a form of positive reinforcement for some individuals, which would potentially influence the validity of the results in measuring the effect of punishment on behaviour.

6. Using Random Sampling, instead of stratified sampling, because it is less time costly.

7. No, it breaches the no harm principle because it involves the use of the introduction of a punishment as a consequence to participant behaviour, which subjects the participants to possible harm.

8. Stratified sampling, an advantage is that it is results in a representitive sample, a disadvantage is that it is time and cost consuming.

9. 1400 people

10.
-She should consider the population she wants to study, and how she will select a sample from this population that would be representitive of the population by choosing an appropriate sampling procedure. So that he results of her experiment can be generalised to the population of intrest.
-She should consider possible extraneous or confounding variables that could have an effect on the results measured and therefore the validity of the experiment, so that her experiment is actually a measure of the effect on coloured drinks on test performance, which would allow conclusions to be drawn.

[sarangiya]

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)
2.   Would this experiment be considered single blind or double blind? (1)
3.   List two advantages of double-blind experiments. (2)
4.   Would Group A or Group B participants be expected to achieve higher scores? Why? (2)
5.   List one limitation of this experiment. (1)
6.   Explain one suggested improvement (1)
7.   Would this experiment be considered ethical? Why? (2)
8.   What sampling procedure has been used? List one advantage and one disadvantage of it. (3)
9.   What is the size of the population? (1)
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)



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

1. It is hypothesised that students from Sarah's school who have a sweetened drink will show greater improvements in their test scores than those who have a bitter drink.

2. Double blind.

3. (1) Avoids the placebo effect as the control/experimental participant groups are unaware of the condition and therefore are unlikely to form biases or expectations of the result, which may lead to manipulation of said result.
(2) Avoids the experimenter effect as the results are not known and unable to be manipulated by Sarah.
(Maybe (1) Avoids placebo effect, (2) avoids experimenter effect is enough?)

4. Group A who received sweet drinks subsequent to scoring 50%> correct on the test may be expected to score higher test results than Group B. This is because in most peoples' perception, sweet things are a pleasant stimulus, while bitter things are an unpleasant stimulus. By the principles of operant conditioning, those who receive (positive, in this case) reinforcement (a sweet drink) after completing the desired behaviour (scoring 50%>) will be more likely to continue that desired behaviour, while those who receive (positive, in this case) punishment (a bitter drink) are less likely to continue the desired behaviour.

5. The sample was experimented on multiple times over a week, which means participants may have been able to discuss their conditions or answers for the test, which negates the effect of participant blinding and the test results (because the knowledge of answers confounds the effect of the drink).

6. Participants should have been made aware that they may not share details of the experiment (although it may be unreliable to just ask), or otherwise be tested in conditions where they are unable to share impressions or results.

7. No, because punishment has been used which may cause psychological or physiological harm. Furthermore, the use of punishment was not disclosed due to the double blind procedure and is therefore a use of deception. Though deception may have been necessary, it must be fully explained during the debriefing and may have questionable ethical implications on the participants' right to withdraw and the experimenter's responsibility to gain informed consent.

8. Stratified sampling.
Advantage: representative of the population and considers participants' individual differences
Disadvantage: time-consuming

9. 1400 people

10. (1) Sarah should be cautious of participants' individual differences. The participants' own perception, bias towards and partiality to a colour may have a greater effect on her results than the colour itself. She might account for this by finding participants who are impartial to the colour she is using, and using the colour and no colour as the experimental and controlled conditions, rather than two different colours, for example.
(2) Sarah should consider using a different sample from the population to avoid order effects. If she uses the same sample, the participants might become aware of demand characteristics and behave in a manner biased towards their own expectations because they are likely aware of the purpose of the experiment.

lol idek

[Bri MT]

1. It is hypothesised that students at Sarah's high school, who are positivly reinforced after volountarily responding to an antecedent with a certain behaviour, will repeat the volountary behaviour in response to a simillar or same antecendent in the furture, than those who recieved a punishment as a consequence to their volountary behavioural response to an antecedent.

I dont think thats correct this is my new answer: It is hypothesised that students at Sarah's school, who recieve a sweet drink after passing a test, will perform better on future tests than students who received a bitter drink after passing a test.

You were right about your second response being better

3. - They are a way to control the experimentor effect, a possible confounding variable
- They are a way to control the placebo effect, a possible extraneous variable.

  I'm curious as to why you have listed the experimenter effect as a "possible confounding variable" and the placebo effect as a "possible extraneous variable". Was this to avoid repetition or do you believe them to be different types of variables? What do you see the difference between confounding and extraneous variables to be?

6. Using Random Sampling, instead of stratified sampling, because it is less time costly.

Does this improve the actual experiment, or is it just easier?

7. No, it breaches the no harm principle because it involves the use of the introduction of a punishment as a consequence to participant behaviour, which subjects the participants to possible harm.

Is drinking a bitter drink harmful? You seem to be suggesting that punishment is inherently harmful is that always true?

[Bri MT]

3. (1) Avoids the placebo effect as the control/experimental participant groups are unaware of the condition and therefore are unlikely to form biases or expectations of the result, which may lead to manipulation of said result.
(2) Avoids the experimenter effect as the results are not known and unable to be manipulated by Sarah.
(Maybe (1) Avoids placebo effect, (2) avoids experimenter effect is enough?)

From my experience, usually either "avoids experimenter effect" or "avoids impact due to biases or expectations of the result..." would be sufficient. In a test situation I would write out "avoids the placebo effect" then elaborate later if I had spare time at the end

4. Group A who received sweet drinks subsequent to scoring 50%> correct on the test may be expected to score higher test results than Group B. This is because in most peoples' perception, sweet things are a pleasant stimulus, while bitter things are an unpleasant stimulus. By the principles of operant conditioning, those who receive (positive, in this case) reinforcement (a sweet drink) after completing the desired behaviour (scoring 50%>) will be more likely to continue that desired behaviour, while those who receive (positive, in this case) punishment (a bitter drink) are less likely to continue the desired behaviour.

I would use "targeted" rather than "desired" for behaviour that is being punished, but in this situation it wouldn't effect you getting the mark or not.

7. No, because punishment has been used which may cause psychological or physiological harm. Furthermore, the use of punishment was not disclosed due to the double blind procedure and is therefore a use of deception. Though deception may have been necessary, it must be fully explained during the debriefing and may have questionable ethical implications on the participants' right to withdraw and the experimenter's responsibility to gain informed consent.

Given that the consent form was "appropriate" we can assume that it would have told the participants that they may receive a coloured and flavoured drink after the test.    Is it inherently wrong to use punishment in an experiment?

    In order to gain 2 marks you made 5 points, which is a bit overkill.

[lazaward]

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)
2.   Would this experiment be considered single blind or double blind? (1)
3.   List two advantages of double-blind experiments. (2)
4.   Would Group A or Group B participants be expected to achieve higher scores? Why? (2)
5.   List one limitation of this experiment. (1)
6.   Explain one suggested improvement (1)
7.   Would this experiment be considered ethical? Why? (2)
8.   What sampling procedure has been used? List one advantage and one disadvantage of it. (3)
9.   What is the size of the population? (1)
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)



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

1. It is hypothesized that students from Sarah's school who receive sweet drinks will have better test scores than students from Sarah's school who receive bitter drinks.
2. This experiment would be considered a double bind procedure.
3. Advantages of double blind procedures include avoiding experimenter effect as well as controlling participant expectations.
4. Group A would be expected to achieve higher results. This is because sweet drinks are a pleasant consequence and participants are more likely to repeat behavior if the consequence is positive.
5. A limitation of this experiment is that taste is subjective to each individual and so some participants might prefer bitter drinks to sweet drinks and treat the bitter drink as a positive consequence.
6. A suggested improvement could be using participants from multiple schools as this would expand her ability to generalize as she would be using a larger population.
7. This experiment would be mostly considered ethical. This is because participants have been debriefed and informed consent procedure has been used which are major components of ethics.
8. Stratified sampling has been used. An advantage of stratified sampling is that it produces a representative sample. A disadvantage of stratified sampling is that it can be time consuming to calculate proportions of the strata.
9. 1400.
10. Sarah should consider individual participant differences. This is because using colour to test a positive consequence is subjective, as people like different colours. Sarah should also consider using a control group (such as a group with no colored drink). This so Sarah is able to compare if colour was the reason that participants got better results and not something else.

[Bri MT]

Week 3 Answers

1.

It is hypothesised that students from Sarah's school who have a sweetened drink will show greater improvements in their test scores than those who have a bitter drink.

2. "Double-blind" - everyone

3.

- They … control the experimenter effect, a possible confounding variable
- They…  control the placebo effect, a possible extraneous variable

4.
 

Group A would be expected to achieve higher results. This is because sweet drinks are a pleasant consequence and participants are more likely to repeat behavior if the consequence is positive

note: Referring to the ABC model and relating that to the example is great but not necessary for 2 marks

5.

The sample was experimented on multiple times over a week, which means participants may have been able to discuss their conditions or answers for the test, which negates the effect of participant blinding and the test results
 

6.
 

Participants should have been made aware that they may not share details of the experiment (although it may be unreliable to just ask), or otherwise be tested in conditions where they are unable to share impressions or results.

7.

This experiment would be mostly considered ethical. This is because participants have been debriefed and informed consent procedure has been used which are major components of ethics.

note: other answers were possible

8.

Stratified sampling, an advantage is that it is results in a representitive sample, a disadvantage is that it is time and cost consuming.

9. "1400 people" - everyone

10.

Sarah should consider using a different sample from the population to avoid order effects. If she uses the same sample, the participants might become aware of demand characteristics and behave in a manner biased towards their own expectations because they are likely aware of the purpose of the experiment.

Sarah should also consider using a control group (such as a group with non-colored drink). This so Sarah is able to compare if colour was the reason that participants got better results and not something else.

Note: Not sure if it was the result of a typo or not but I have edited this response to read "non-coloured drink" rather than "no coloured drink" as having a colourless drink would be the most suitable control for testing the effect of colour