In a follow-up study, a psychologist asked the same ten undergraduate students to take part in an experiment to compare two strategies designed to reduce public speaking anxiety.

Condition 1: Five of the students completed an expressive writing task for 15 minutes before their presentation.

Condition 2: The other five students completed a cognitive distraction task (mental arithmetic) for 15 minutes before their presentation.

Each student's anxiety score (on a scale from 20 to 80, where higher scores indicate greater anxiety) was measured at the start of the session and at the end of the session.

What do the mean values in Table 1 suggest about the effectiveness of the different strategies? Justify your answer.

Table 1: Mean anxiety scores and standard deviations for expressive writing and cognitive distraction conditions

	Expressive writing condition		Cognitive distraction condition
	Start of session	End of session	Start of session	End of session
Mean anxiety score	65	42	64	61
Standard deviation	5.2	4.1	5.0	4.8

In a follow-up study, a psychologist asked the same ten undergraduate students to take part in an experiment to compare two strategies designed to reduce public speaking anxiety.

Condition 1: Five of the students completed an expressive writing task for 15 minutes before their presentation.

Condition 2: The other five students completed a cognitive distraction task (mental arithmetic) for 15 minutes before their presentation.

Each student's anxiety score (on a scale from 20 to 80, where higher scores indicate greater anxiety) was measured at the start of the session and at the end of the session.

What do the mean values in Table 1 suggest about the effectiveness of the different strategies? Justify your answer.

Table 1: Mean anxiety scores and standard deviations for expressive writing and cognitive distraction conditions

	Expressive writing condition		Cognitive distraction condition
	Start of session	End of session	Start of session	End of session
Mean anxiety score	65	42	64	61
Standard deviation	5.2	4.1	5.0	4.8

Data handling and analysis

Question 26

Table 1: Mean anxiety scores and standard deviations for expressive writing and cognitive distraction conditions

Markscheme

Data handling and analysis

Question 26

Table 1: Mean anxiety scores and standard deviations for expressive writing and cognitive distraction conditions

Markscheme

Data handling and analysis

Question 26

Table 1: Mean anxiety scores and standard deviations for expressive writing and cognitive distraction conditions

Data handling and analysis Questions

Data handling and analysis

Question 26

Table 1: Mean anxiety scores and standard deviations for expressive writing and cognitive distraction conditions

Data handling and analysis Questions