Focusing on study tasks can be challenging, and students always seek ways to minimize distractions. A psychologist investigated the effect of playing ambient classical music in a study space on reducing phone-checking distractions. She conducted an experiment using a sample of 12 sixth-form participants obtained via opportunity sampling. For one week, during daily 1-hour independent study sessions, participants recorded the number of times they checked their mobile phones for non-study-related activities (baseline condition without music). The following week, the same participants completed their study sessions with an ambient classical music playlist playing in the background, again recording their phone-checking frequency. The data collected is presented below:
| Participant | Number of phone-checks during 1-hour session | |
|---|---|---|
| Without classical music | With classical music | |
| a | 16 | 9 |
| b | 25 | 22 |
| c | 8 | 11 |
| d | 14 | 7 |
| e | 19 | 13 |
| f | 5 | 6 |
| g | 30 | 18 |
| h | 12 | 12 |
| i | 22 | 24 |
| j | 17 | 10 |
| k | 21 | 15 |
| l | 11 | 9 |
Outline one disadvantage of not having qualitative data in this study.
