A sports scientist wanted to investigate whether reaction time to a visual stimulus is affected by the type of warm-up routine performed.
The scientist obtained a stratified sample of 50 athletes from a local sports club consisting of 150 sprinters and 100 long-distance runners.
Each participant was tested individually in a temperature-controlled sports laboratory. They were instructed to press a response key as soon as a high-contrast visual cue appeared on a monitor.
There were two conditions in the study:
The scientist recorded the exact reaction time (in milliseconds) for each participant.
Identify one extraneous variable that the scientist 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.