A sports scientist wants to investigate whether drinking a high-caffeine energy drink improves sprint performance compared to drinking a standard electrolyte drink.
Twelve amateur runners are recruited. Six runners are assigned to consume the energy drink 30 minutes before a 100m sprint. A different group of six runners are assigned to consume the electrolyte drink 30 minutes before the sprint. The sprint times (in seconds) are recorded, and the data is presented in the table below:
| Sprint time (seconds) | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Energy drink group | Electrolyte drink group | ||||
| Runner | Time (s) | Rank | Runner | Time (s) | Rank |
| A | 11.8 | 3 | G | 12.5 | 8 |
| B | 11.5 | 1 | H | 12.9 | 10 |
| C | 12.1 | 5 | I | 13.2 | 12 |
| D | 11.6 | 2 | J | 12.0 | 4 |
| E | 12.4 | 7 | K | 12.7 | 9 |
| F | 12.3 | 6 | L | 13.0 | 11 |
| n1=6n_1 = 6n1=6 | n2=6n_2 = 6n2=6 |
Identify one strength and one weakness of the experimental design used in this study.
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.