In an experimental study investigating attention allocation, participants were asked to track moving objects on a screen. One group completed the task in a silent room, while the other group completed the task while a recording of simulated office chatter played in the background. The researchers found that the group exposed to office chatter missed significantly more target objects. They inferred that auditory background noise competes for central executive resources, thereby reducing the capacity of visual attention focus.
Explain what is meant by 'inference' in relation to this study.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Approaches in Psychology with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 248 questions covering Learning approaches, Cognitive approach, Biological approach, Psychodynamic approach (A-level only), Humanistic Psychology (A-level only), and Comparison of approaches (A-level only), matched to the AQA A Level Psychology (7182) specification and written in Paper 1, Paper 2 and Paper 3 style. Every question includes a full worked solution and mark scheme, so you can see where marks are awarded rather than just whether you got the answer right.