Attentional control is the ability to concentrate on relevant stimuli while ignoring distractions. A psychologist wanted to investigate this in a college setting using a sample of 30 undergraduate students.
In the first part of the study, the psychologist administered a self-report Attentional Control Scale (ACS) questionnaire to measure attentional focus. The maximum possible score was 50. The lowest score in the sample was 14, and the highest score was 46.
In the second part of the study, each participant completed a computerized visual search task. On a computer screen, a target shape (a red triangle) was presented among varying numbers of distractor shapes (green circles and blue triangles). There were 80 trials in total, with 20 trials containing 10, 20, 30, and 40 distractors respectively. Each trial was displayed randomly for 0.2 seconds. After each presentation, the participant had to press either the 'L' key if the target was on the left half of the screen, or the 'R' key if it was on the right. Once the key was pressed, the next trial started. The total number of correct identifications ranged from 22 to 74.
Question
Explain why it would be important for the psychologist to carry out a pilot study in relation to the second part of this study.
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.
