There have been recent claims that teenager's academic outcomes are closely linked to sleep patterns. A researcher conducted a study to investigate the relationship between the average sleep duration and cognitive performance in young learners.
The researcher recruited an opportunity sample of 12 students, aged 17 to 18, from a local further education college. Each student logged their average nightly sleep duration (in hours) over a two-week period. They were asked to exclude naps taken during the daytime.
Each student also sat a timed cognitive test assessing memory and attention, which yielded a score out of 100, where a higher score indicated superior cognitive performance.
The raw data collected in the study are shown in Table 1 below.
Table 1 Average nightly sleep duration and cognitive performance scores of 12 students
| Student | Average nightly sleep (hours) | Cognitive performance score |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5.5 | 52 |
| 2 | 7.0 | 78 |
| 3 | 4.5 | 41 |
| 4 | 8.0 | 85 |
| 5 | 6.0 | 60 |
| 6 | 5.0 | 48 |
| 7 | 7.5 | 82 |
| 8 | 9.0 | 94 |
| 9 | 6.5 | 70 |
| 10 | 4.0 | 35 |
| 11 | 8.5 | 90 |
| 12 | 5.8 | 55 |
Explain one reason why the researcher might have conducted a pilot study before carrying out the main investigation.
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