Psychology Practical Experiment - Hypothesis - Participants who are taking part in a timed computer task in front of an audience would complete the task faster than participants without an audience

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Raj Rathod 13V

Psychology Practical Experiment

Hypothesis

Participants who are taking part in a timed computer task in front of an audience would complete the task faster than participants without an audience

Null Hypothesis

Participants who are taking part in a timed computer task in front of an audience would complete the task slower than participants without an audience

Design

An experiment is an investigation where the independent variable is manipulated. The dependant variable in my experiment is the time in which the task is completed in. The independent variable is if an audience is present or not. This experiment is an independent measures design where there are different people in different conditions.

Participants

The population will be taken from the sixth form common room. They will be an opportunity sample. This is when people are asked if they want to participate in the experiment. There will be 20 people in the sample with two groups of 10. The sample will be randomly allocated to a condition by giving each participant a number 1-20 each relating to a certain condition.

Procedure

Students will be approached in the sixth form common room. They will be asked if they would like to participate in my psychological experiment. They will be told they will have to complete a computer task and that if they had any questions they should ask me. After getting 20 students they will be allocated in their condition, ten in group 1 and the in group 2. Participants in group 1 would be called up individually to participate in the task in an isolated room. Once they have completed the task the time would be recorded. Participants in group 2 will all be taken up to a room full of students and asked to complete the task in front of them, one by one. After completing the task both groups would be thanked, debriefed and asked if they had any questions.

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Controls

I will be controlling whether or not an audience is present or not. The groups will be told the same thing and the task will be carried out in the same room.

Measuring variables

The task will be timed therefore a time will be recorded. I will make sure the time is recorded accurately by the computer to the nearest second

Test

I will be using the Mann-Whitney test. I have chosen this test because it tests for the difference in two conditions. The data can also be converted to ordinal data there- ...

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