Conduct an experiment to investigate a situation using statistical methods 3 credits Internal
USEFUL WEBSITES AND RESOURCESLiz Sneddon's website
IDEAS FOR YOU TO CONSIDERTask One Resource: List of experimental situations.
You may choose an experimental situation from the given list, or negotiate a suitable experimental situation with your teacher: 1. Can people memorise words better if they draw/imagine the words as pictures? 2. Does the size of a box affect the weight that people guess it is (even when holding it)? 3. Does using your non-dominant hand affect the speed that you can perform a simple task? 4. Does having your eyes open help you to estimate measurements? 5. Does knowing the dimensions of a page help when drawing dots a particular distance apart? 6. Do people think a drink/food tastes better if they know the brand? 7. Does jumping from your dominant foot improve your jumping length? 8. Does drinking from a bottle/cup labelled 'expired' change the perception of taste? 9. Do you jump further if there is a target line marked out for you? 10. Can you perform a task quicker/better if given some advice? 11. Does practice improve your ____ skill? |
Psychological experiments are good.
There are two types of experiment for this standard but you only have to do one experiment that compares only one changed variable. Type 1: Paired Comparison: Before vs After. Using one group but having a treatment in between eg a test to start with and one later with the same group with something else in between. Our example was counting the letter "f" and then we told people to check for a "v" sound for "f" Graphs to analyse: dot plot of difference, box and whisker of difference in score, link graph showing if their result has improved. Compare what you see Type 2: Comparison of two independent groups: Comparing two similar groups with different conditions and comparing their results Our example was wall-sitting allow one group to do warm-ups the other doesn't and compare the length of time they can stand against a wall Graphs to analyse: comparative dot plot, box and whisker, scatter diagram. Compare what you see. |
Key tips from Studyit:
- Practice posing questions about experimental situations.
- Ensure you can clearly identify variables used and how they were measured.
- Practice writing up how the experiment was conducted and how data was collected and recorded.
- Select and use appropriate displays and measures.
- Appropriate measures of centre could be mean, median and/or mode.
- Acceptable measures of spread are standard deviation, variance, and inter-quartile range. Stating the range, or the value of the maximum and minimum, or the upper and lower quartile, is not sufficient.
- Be able to use your statistics to answer your question.
- Practice writing conclusions to answer your question.