A cognitive psychologist wanted to investigate whether reading comprehension speed is affected by the type of background sound.
The psychologist obtained a stratified sample of 30 students from a university department consisting of 120 undergraduates and 80 postgraduates.
Each participant was tested individually in a quiet laboratory room. They were instructed to read a 500-word academic text on environmental sustainability on a computer screen. All participants wore noise-cancelling headphones.
There were two conditions in the study:
The psychologist recorded the exact time (in seconds) it took for each participant to read the entire text.
Identify one extraneous variable that the psychologist should have controlled in this study and explain why it should have been controlled.
Practise AQA A Level Psychology Scientific processes with exam-style questions for A Level Psychology. 689 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.
