A researcher recruited undergraduate students via an online campus noticeboard to participate in a study testing a new mobile 'brain-training' memory game.
Participants downloaded the game app and played a 5-minute memory challenge every morning for 10 days. Immediately after completing the daily challenge, the app displayed a performance percentile score. However, participants were unaware that these daily scores were entirely pre-programmed and manipulated by the researcher. Over the 10 days, every participant was shown that they scored in the bottom 20% (low performance) on 5 random days and in the top 10% (high performance) on the other 5 days.
Each evening, participants completed a brief online survey rating their cognitive self-confidence and perceived mental alertness on a scale of 1–10. Apart from the daily game and survey, participants continued with their normal academic routines.
Explain one way in which the researcher might deal with the deception in this study.
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