An educational researcher conducted a study to investigate if playing soft classical background music during reading tasks increased pupils' concentration and comprehension. An independent measures design experiment was used testing a small group of 12 pupils. Half of the group listened to classical music while completing a reading comprehension test, whilst the other half completed the test in silence. The data obtained from the study is presented in the table below.
| Score on reading comprehension test (max 25) with classical music or in silence | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Classical music | Silence | ||
| Participant | Score | Participant | Score |
| 1 | 22 | 1 | 18 |
| 2 | 24 | 2 | 15 |
| 3 | 19 | 3 | 21 |
| 4 | 25 | 4 | 11 |
| 5 | 20 | 5 | 16 |
| 6 | 23 | 6 | 14 |
Outline what is meant by the following feature of science and state how it applies to this study.
Manipulation of variables
