A LevelPsychologyAQAExam QuestionsResearch MethodsExperiments: Types & Design

Experiments: Types & Design (AQA A Level Psychology)

Exam Questions

14 mins5 questions
Easy
Medium
11 mark

A psychologist wanted to test whether listening to music improves running performance.

The psychologist conducted a study using 10 volunteers from a local gym. The psychologist used a repeated measures design. Half of the participants were assigned to condition A (without music) and half to condition B (with music).

All participants were asked to run 400 metres as fast as they could on a treadmill in the psychology department. All participants were given standardised instructions. All participants wore headphones in both conditions. The psychologist recorded their running times in seconds. The participants returned to the psychology department the following week and repeated the test in the other condition.

Identify the type of experiment used in this study.

  • Laboratory

  • Natural

  • Quasi

  • Research

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2a2 marks

The psychologist decided to conduct an experiment to investigate the effect of watching box horror films before going to bed.

A volunteer sample of 50 university students consented to take part in the experiment.

The 50 students were randomly split into two groups. Group 1 watched a horror film before going to bed each night for the first week then a romantic comedy before going to bed each night for the second week. Group 2 watched the romantic comedy in the first week and the horror film in the second week.

When the students woke up each morning, each student received a text message that asked if they had had a nightmare during the night. They could respond ‘yes’ or ‘no’.

The psychologist used a repeated measures design in this experiment.

Explain why it was important to use a repeated measures design in this case.

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2b2 marks

The psychologist used counterbalancing in this experiment.

Explain why it was appropriate to use counterbalancing in this experiment.

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32 marks

Explain one strength of using a matched-pairs design rather than a repeated-measures design.

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41 mark

A researcher placed an advert in a university psychology department asking for third year students to participate in a sleep experiment.

Each student had a sleep tracker watch to wear at home for the two-week study. Each morning they were asked to open the sleep tracker app to view their sleep quality data on their mobile phones. The students were unaware that the sleep data they could see on their phones had been manipulated by the researcher. Over the two weeks of the study, each student saw that he or she had had poor sleep quality for seven random nights of the experiment and good sleep quality for the remaining nights.

Every morning, after viewing the sleep data, each student completed a questionnaire about the previous night’s sleep. One of the questions asked the students to rate how well rested they felt, on a scale from 1–10, after the previous night’s sleep. Apart from this, students were asked to continue their normal everyday activities.

Which of the following best describes the experimental method used in this study?

  • Field experiment

  • Laboratory experiment

  • Natural experiment

  • Quasi-experiment

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1a4 marks

The psychologist decided to design an experiment to test the effects of recreational screen time on children’s academic performance.

The psychologist randomly selected four schools from all the primary schools in her county to take part in the experiment involving Year 5 pupils. Three of the four schools agreed to take part. In total, there were 58 pupils whose parents consented for them to participate. The 58 pupils were then randomly allocated to Group A or Group B.

For the two-week period of the experiment, pupils in Group A had no recreational screen time. Pupils in Group B were allowed unrestricted recreational screen time. At the end of the experiment all pupils completed a 45-minute class test, to achieve a test score.

One criticism of the study is that the pupils were not matched on their typical recreational screen time.

Explain how the psychologist could have matched pupils on their typical recreational screen time across the experimental conditions.

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1b2 marks

Identify one other variable for which the psychologist could have matched the pupils. Explain how this might have affected the test performance if it was not controlled.

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