Essay - Experimental Design Question: as College Students, Since We Were Very...

Experimental design

Question:

***** college students, since we *****re very young both parents and teachers told us that sleep was important if we were going to do our best in school. Our parents made sure we didn't stay up late during the school week. Before achievement tests, the schools sent home instructions to our parents ***** included making sure we got a good night's sleep.

App*****rently most college students haven't listened to ***** advice, because as a group ***** tend ***** have pretty irregular sleeping habits, and yet we take tests all the time. So the question is, is sleep important to good performance on tests?

Hypothesis:

***** hypthothesis is that lack of ***** results in decreased ***** on tests.

How will you test th***** hypothesis?

I will have the participants ***** a ***** of 100 multiplication facts under two conditions: when *****y have had four hours of sleep or less the night bef*****e, and when they ***** had seven or more hours ***** sleep. They will take the test some time between 1:00 and 4:00 PM the follow*****g day so fatigue has had a chance ***** kick in ***** it will be present. I ***** tell students to pick days when they did not consume alcohol the night before just in case ***** lingering effects of alcohol might also affect the outcome. I will schedule a testing room so the conditions under which the test is taken will not vary much. I will ask participants to take the test 12 times over the course of a semester: six ***** when ********** have had 7 hours or more of sleep, and six times when they have had 4 ***** or less.

*****

The ***** ***** be ***** ***** who meet the criteria that ********** nights they get at least ***** hours of sleep, but some nights ***** only get four hours ***** less.

Wh***** is the experimental condition in your study?

***** experimental condition is taking the timed multiplication *****.

What is the control condition?

***** control condition ***** the amount of sleep the participant has had ***** night before.

How will participants be assigned to these *****?

Each student will be in ***** groups, since all participants will exhibit both *****haviors (full night's sleep vs. short night's sleep) over time. It does ***** seem likely that one could find two groups ***** students who either always got a good night's sleep or who never did.

What is the independent variable in your study?

The ***** variable in th***** study is the amount of ***** ***** participant ***** had the night *****.

What is the dependent variable?

The dependent variable ***** the individuals' performance on the multiplication *****.

What results would confirm your *****?

The first two tests *****n with seven hours or more of sleep will be assumed to represent optimal performance for each person. If participants' performance drops off from their baselines ***** they are short on sleep, the hypothesis will be confirmed.

Method:

This would be a