Question

example 5: energy drinks and test performance
does drinking an energy drink before an exam help students score higher? describe a well - designed randomized experiment to test this. give all details, including the use of placebos and blinding. you have 20 students to work with.
(source: richards, g., & smith, a. p. “caffeine consumption and self - assessed stress, anxiety, and depression in secondary school children.” journal of psychopharmacology, 2015)

example 6: music and study focus
describe a matched pairs experiment to see if students focus better with instrumental music than with lyrical music. you have 30 students, and you measure focus by timed reading comprehension tasks. be sure to include how randomization is used in your design.
(source: perham, n., & currie, h. “does listening to preferred music improve reading comprehension performance?” applied cognitive psychology, 2014)

quick self - quiz: randomized experiments
design a randomized comparative experiment to determine whether mindfulness meditation improves memory recall. you have 40 students to use in the study, and the study will take place over one month.
(source: quach, d., et al. “a randomized controlled trial examining the effect of mindfulness meditation on working memory capacity in adolescents.” journal of adolescent health, 2016)

Explanation:

Example 5:

1. Randomly divide the 20 students into two groups of 10. One group gets the energy - drink (treatment group) and the other gets a placebo (a drink that looks and tastes like the energy - drink but has no active ingredients).
2. Implement double - blinding. Neither the students nor the examiners know who received the energy - drink and who received the placebo. After administering the drinks, have all students take the same exam and compare the average scores of the two groups.

Example 6:

1. Pair the 30 students based on similar characteristics such as previous reading comprehension scores, study habits etc. Each pair forms a matched set.
2. For each pair, randomly assign one student to listen to instrumental music and the other to listen to lyrical music while doing timed reading comprehension tasks. Record the time taken or the accuracy of comprehension for each student and compare the results within each pair.

Quick Self - Quiz:

1. Randomly divide the 40 students into two groups of 20. One group (treatment group) participates in a daily mindfulness meditation session for one month, while the other group (control group) does not.
2. At the start and end of the one - month period, administer memory recall tests to both groups. Compare the improvement in memory recall scores between the two groups.

Answer:

Example 5: Randomly assign 10 students to the energy - drink group and 10 to the placebo group. Use double - blinding. Compare exam scores.
Example 6: Match students in pairs. Randomly assign music type within each pair. Compare reading comprehension results.
Quick Self - Quiz: Randomly assign 20 students to the meditation group and 20 to the non - meditation group. Compare memory recall score improvements.