A department head at a financial firm conducts an unannounced field experiment on 40 junior analysts to study obedience and work productivity under invasive surveillance.
The junior analysts are randomly assigned to either Group X (the "monitored" group) or Group Y (the "control" group). Group X is informed via an urgent system pop-up that high-definition webcam monitoring and AI eye-tracking software have been activated on their work laptops to detect "unfocused behavior". They are told that any gaze deviation from the screen lasting more than 5 seconds will log an automatic infraction, potentially leading to immediate contract termination. Group Y is not subject to any webcam tracking or warnings.
To measure productivity, both groups are given a complex, 2-hour financial auditing task containing deliberately embedded errors. During the task, several analysts in Group X show physiological signs of extreme distress, including visible hyperventilation on camera, and two analysts log off the network entirely, later reporting severe panic attacks. Meanwhile, the remaining Group X analysts rush through the task, failing to spot 80% of the embedded errors, whereas Group Y performs significantly better but works at a much slower pace.
Describe two changes you could make to the study detailed in the source material.
201 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Planning and conducting research. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.