A researcher observes a school council meeting and uses a stopwatch to record the length of each pupil's contribution. The pupils have been told that their speaking time is being recorded. Before the meeting, the researcher predicts that pupils sitting in the front half of the room will make longer contributions than pupils sitting in the back half.
Explain how being told about the observation could affect the pupils' behaviour and the results.
Explain how the researcher's prediction could affect the durations she records and the conclusion she draws.
139 exam-style questions on OCR GCSE Psychology 7.2 Doing Research, covering 7.2.1 Experiments, 7.2.2 Interviews, 7.2.3 Questionnaires (Surveys), 7.2.4 Observations, 7.2.5 Case Studies, and 7.2.6 Correlations. Each one has a worked solution and a mark scheme showing where the marks go.