A group of cognitive psychologists wanted to investigate whether background music with prominent lyrics affects reading comprehension.
An opportunity sample of 24 university students took part in the study. The students were randomly allocated to either the 'lyric music' condition or the 'silent' condition, with 12 students in each group.
In the 'lyric music' condition, participants sat in a lab room and read a complex academic article for 20 minutes while popular vocal tracks played in the background. In the 'silent' condition, participants read the exact same article in a silent cubicle. After reading, all participants completed a 20-point reading comprehension test under silent conditions.
The findings were as follows:
Question: Write a brief interpretation of the research findings. Comment on homogeneity of variance in your answer.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Data handling and analysis with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 263 questions, 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.
