Biological Rhythms (AQA A Level Psychology)

Julia decided to record how many hours her baby slept for in the day and in the night for box one week.

Table 1 The number of hours slept in the day and the number of hours slept in the night over one week

Calculate the mean number of hours slept in the night. Show your workings.

Give your answer to two significant figures.

Explain one reason why the mean is the most appropriate measure of central tendency for this set of data.

A psychologist wanted to test the effects of biological rhythms on the ability to solve maths problems. She used random sampling to form two groups each of 20 students.

She tested one group on one set of maths problems at 3 am in the morning. The other group were tested on another set of maths problems at 3 pm in the afternoon. She found that performance of the group tested at 3 pm was significantly better than the group tested at 3 am.

When submitted for peer review the paper was rejected because of serious design problems.

Explain one problem with the design of this study and suggest ways of dealing with this problem.

Sam is a police officer. She has just started working the night shift and after a week, she finds that she has difficulty sleeping during the day and is becoming tense and irritable. Sam is also worried that she is less alert during the night shift itself.

Using your knowledge of endogenous pacemakers and exogenous zeitgebers, explain Sam’s experiences.

Julia complains that her baby is sleeping all day and keeping her awake all night.

Using your knowledge of research into exogenous zeitgebers, discuss what Julia could do to encourage her baby to sleep more at night.