An occupational psychologist has been investigating the effect of placing small potted plants on office desks to see if this can reduce the frequency of non-work-related personal device checks (such as scrolling social media or texting) during working hours.
She conducted an experiment using a sample of 10 office workers obtained via convenience sampling. For one work week (Week 1), participants recorded the number of times they checked their personal mobile device during working hours. The following week (Week 2), two potted plants were placed on each participant's desk, and the same participants again recorded the number of times they checked their personal devices. The data collected is presented below.
| Participant | Number of personal device checks during the working week | |
|---|---|---|
| Without plants on desk (Week 1) | With plants on desk (Week 2) | |
| A | 25 | 18 |
| B | 14 | 15 |
| C | 30 | 22 |
| D | 19 | 11 |
| E | 22 | 20 |
| F | 8 | 5 |
| G | 17 | 17 |
| H | 35 | 28 |
| I | 12 | 14 |
| J | 29 | 19 |
Outline one advantage of having quantitative data in this study.
644 exam-style questions on OCR A Level Psychology Research methods and techniques. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.