A cognitive psychologist wanted to investigate differences in executive control and attentional processing speed between bilingual and monolingual university students.
The researcher recruited participants from the modern languages and engineering departments of a university. There were 150 bilingual students and 200 monolingual students available across these departments. Using stratified sampling, the researcher selected twenty-five bilingual students and twenty-five monolingual students to participate in the study.
Each participant was tested individually in a quiet laboratory room, where they completed a computerised flanker task. The researcher recorded the mean reaction time (in milliseconds) for each participant to correctly identify target stimuli in the presence of conflicting distractors.
Identify the type of experiment used in this study. Justify your answer.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Experimental method with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 32 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.