Descriptive statistics and data display

Read the following information.

Identify the independent variable and the dependent variable in this study.

Independent variable

Dependent variable

Different factors can affect the accuracy of memory.

Which factor did the researcher investigate in this study?

Shade one box.

Identify one extraneous variable that could have affected the results of this study.

Outline how the researcher could have controlled the extraneous variable you have identified.

Extraneous variable

The results of the study are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 The number of objects participants correctly recalled in each group

Calculate the ratio of the total number of objects correctly recalled in Group A compared to Group B.

Write this ratio in its simplest form.

Read the following information.

Calculate the percentage of people who said Car B was further away.

Show your workings.

Name two monocular depth cues that are present in Figure 1.

Explain how both of the monocular depth cues you have named in Question 9.2 help people to perceive the distance of the cars in Figure 1.

Read the following information.

Table 3 The mean daily use of social media and happiness score for each participant

Use Table 3 to calculate the fraction of participants who had a mean daily social media use of less than 40 minutes. Write this fraction in its simplest form.

Use the graph paper to sketch a scatter diagram to display the results shown in Table 3.

Provide a suitable title and labels for your diagram.

Identify the type of correlation the psychologist has found between happiness and social media use?

Shade one box.

Explain the strengths and weaknesses of using correlations in psychological research.

In your answer, refer to the study investigating whether happiness is linked to social media use.

Researchers used a questionnaire to study personal space.

They asked 2000 people how many metres they prefer to stand away from a stranger.

The results are shown in Figure 1.

Figure 1 The preferred number of metres participants said they like to have between themselves and a stranger

Which of the following best identifies the type of graph shown in Figure 1 ?

Shade one box.

Calculate the range for the number of metres the participants prefer to stand away from a stranger.

Show your workings.

Researchers wanted to compare the use of different scanning techniques to identify brain functioning.

In the study, there were 40 participants who had experienced a recent brain injury. All of the participants had a CT scan and a PET scan of their brains.

The researchers recorded how many different areas of damage they identified using each scanning method.

Results are shown in Figure 2.

Figure 2 The total number of different areas of damage identified using CT and PET brain scans

Which is the correct ratio for the number of different areas of damage identified using CT scans compared to the number of different areas of damage identified using PET scans?

Shade one box.

The PET scans showed 50% more areas of damage than the CT scans did.

Write 50% as a fraction.

Calculate the mean number of areas of damage that were identified per participant when CT scans were used.

Show your workings.

Name the experimental design being used in the described study of scanning techniques.

Discuss why the researchers may have found the results they did.

Use your knowledge of CT scans and PET scans.

Read the following information.

Write two fifths as a decimal.

There were 200 participants in the study.

Calculate how many participants did not describe details of the wedding.

Show your workings.

The researcher claimed that his report on the study also contained qualitative data.

Use the description of the study to justify the researcher’s claim.

Ivan was a participant in the study. The researcher asked Ivan about a primary school camping trip to Snowdonia. Ivan remembered that Snowdonia is in Wales. He also recalled celebrating his best friend’s birthday during the trip and learning to paddle a canoe. As an adult, he still enjoys paddling a canoe on a nearby lake.

Episodic, procedural and semantic are different types of long-term memory.

Identify one example of each type from Ivan’s discussion about his school trip.

Write your answers in the correct spaces.

Which of the following is a reason why the range might be calculated in psychological research?

Shade one box.

Sketch the shape of a normal distribution on the graph paper.

Clearly label where the mean score would be on your sketch.

Read the following information.

Write a suitable alternative hypothesis for this study.

Identify one extraneous variable that might affect the results of this experiment.

The bar chart in Figure 1 shows the number of people who visited Waterlake Park in the 7 days before and after the introduction of the DinoCatch app.

State the number of people who visited the park on the Tuesday (Tu) after the DinoCatch app was introduced.

Outline two conclusions that can be drawn from the data in the bar chart.

At the end of the 14-day study, the researcher interviewed 10 participants about their experiences of using the DinoCatch app. She wanted to find out if there was a correlation between time spent outdoors and improvement of mood.

She asked the participants how many hours they had spent outdoors playing DinoCatch during the 7-day period after the app was released. She also asked participants to rate how much their mood had improved on a scale of 0–10.

A rating of 0 meant that their mood had not improved at all.

A rating of 10 meant that their mood had improved a lot.

The results are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Number of hours playing DinoCatch and mood improvement rating

Use the graph paper to sketch a scatter diagram to show the results given in Table 3

Provide a suitable title for your scatter diagram and a label for the x axis.

Estimate the mood improvement rating for someone who played the app for 20 hours.

Use the results from the study to help you.

The researcher concluded that playing DinoCatch caused participants’ mood to improve.

Suggest why the researcher is not correct to draw this conclusion.

Read the following article.

Use the article to identify two examples where the social factor of authority affected obedience levels and two examples where the social factor of proximity affected obedience levels.

Write your answers in the correct boxes.

Table 1 shows the results from the version of the described experiment where the researcher wore everyday clothes instead of a lab coat. There were 24 participants.

Table 1 Frequency table showing the voltage of ‘electric shocks’ given by participants in the everyday clothes version

Calculate the percentage of participants who gave the highest possible ‘electric shock’ when the researcher wore everyday clothes instead of a lab coat.

State your answer using two significant figures and show your workings.

The experimental design used in all of the versions of the described obedience research was independent groups.

Using your knowledge of how to plan and conduct psychological research, discuss the reliability and validity of using independent groups.

Briefly evaluate Milgram’s Agency theory of social factors affecting obedience.

What is the median for the total anxiety scores for 30 days?

The following scatter diagram also shows the results found by the neuroscientist.

The possible locations of two of the participants’ results are shown by the letters A–F.

Identify the correct locations on the scatter diagram for the results of participant 002 and participant 010.

Shade two boxes.

Name the type of correlation the neuroscientist has found between language difficulties and anxiety levels.

When the neuroscientist saw the results, she claimed to have found the cause of anxiety in people who have had a stroke.

Explain why the results do not show that language difficulties cause anxiety.

Outline how neurological damage from a stroke or injury can affect motor abilities and behaviour.

Refer to localisation of function in the brain in your answer.

Read the following article.

Table 1 shows the frequency of reported temperature scores for Condition A. One of the scores is missing.

Name the type of data that is shown in Table 1.

Calculate the number of participants who reported a temperature score between 6 and 10.

Show your workings.

Sketch a histogram to show the results in Table 1.

Include the number of participants you wrote in answer to Question 10.2.

Provide a suitable title and labels for your histogram.

The researcher found that participants in Condition B reported the water felt warmer than participants in Condition A.

Using your knowledge of ‘perceptual set’, outline one conclusion that the researcher could make from these findings.

Read the following information.

Explain one weakness of using a stratified sample when conducting research.

The responses of participants to Question 1 of the questionnaire are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Responses of participants to Question 1: ‘Do you think your progress in lessons is positively affected by the amount of time you spend doing independent study?’

Calculate the percentage of participants who responded YES.

State your answer using two significant figures and show your workings.

Participants were also asked to estimate the amount of time they spent working and chatting to friends during a typical 70 minute study lesson.

The mean estimates for 30 participants are shown in Table 3.

Table 3 Mean estimated amount of time spent working and chatting to friends during a typical 70 minute study lesson for 30 participants.

What is the ratio of time spent working compared to time spent chatting to friends ?

Write this ratio in its simplest form.

Read the following information.

Identify two ethical issues that researchers should consider in observation studies.

Sketch a frequency table the researcher and their assistant can use to collect information about the types of learning activity participants do during study lessons.

Include two categories of behaviour about types of learning activity in your frequency table.

Do not include ‘chatting to friends’ and ‘completing work’ as categories of behaviour.

The psychologist and their assistant had high interobserver reliability in their observation study.

Define what is meant by ‘interobserver reliability’ in observational research.

From the results of the observation, the researcher realised that students spent more time chatting to friends during study lessons than they had estimated on the questionnaire.

Briefly evaluate the use of questionnaires in psychological research.

In your answer, refer to the questionnaires about the use of study lessons that the sixth form students had filled in.

Read the following information.

Outline one strength and one weakness of using correlations in psychological research.

Participants were asked to rate their confidence levels on a scale.

The scale went from 1 (low) to 5 (high).

Participants used a similar scale to rate how likely they are to say something when they see someone dropping litter.

The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Ratings for participants’ confidence and the likelihood of saying something when witnessing littering.

Use the results in Table 1 to sketch a suitable graph to show the ratings for participants’ confidence and the likelihood of them saying something when witnessing littering.

Also include in your answer:

a label for the Y axis

a scale for both axes

a suitable title for your graph.

The researchers who carried out the described questionnaire would like you to do a follow-up study.

The participants who took part in the questionnaire have also agreed to be participants for your study.

You are also able to use the ratings they gave themselves for the different personality traits.

Describe how you would design a field experiment to find out more about how personality affects whether people would say something when witnessing anti-social behaviour.

In your answer include:

• a description of the procedure you would use

• what your dependent variable would be.

The ‘One day at a time’ research study asked people with a diagnosed mental health problem to regularly answer the question ‘What did you find difficult to deal with today?’

On 6 days, spread throughout the year, people were asked to write about their day.

An analysis of the answers was carried out and the difficulties most commonly mentioned by the participants were identified.

Many participants mentioned more than one of these common difficulties.

The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2 Difficulties most commonly mentioned by females and males.

One result is missing from Table 2.

Which of the following is the most likely estimate of the missing result?

Use the results from the rest of the table to help with your decision.

The questionnaire was answered by 671 females.

What percentage of females mentioned experiencing stigma about their mental health problem as a difficulty they had to deal with in their day?

State your answer using three significant figures and show your workings.

The researchers wanted to use the real-life stories they had collected to encourage other people. The participants’ answers were made available on the internet for anyone to read.

Identify one ethical issue that the researchers carrying out the questionnaire needed to consider.

Describe how the ‘One day at a time’ researchers could have dealt with the ethical issue you have identified.

Outline one strength of using questionnaires to carry out psychological research.

Imagine you have been asked to carry out a follow up study to the ‘One day at a time’ research.

One of the individual effects of having a mental health problem is the negative impact on physical wellbeing.

The researchers have asked you to find out more about how the negative impact on physical wellbeing affects people with a mental health problem.

You have decided to carry out your study by doing a questionnaire. You plan to use opportunity sampling to select your participants.

In your answer:

• explain how you will select your opportunity sample

• write one question that will help you to collect relevant quantitative data

• write one question that will help you to collect relevant qualitative data.

Write your answers in the correct spaces provided.

How you will select your opportunity sample

Question for collecting quantitative data

Question for collecting qualitative data

Read the following information.

Table 1 The estimated length of the spider, in millimetres, for each participant in

The range of estimated lengths for the spider for participants in Group B was 43 mm.

Use the information in Table 1 to calculate the range of estimates for participants in Group A.

Show your workings.

The mean estimated length of the spider in Group A was 93 mm.

Use the information in Table 1 to calculate the mean estimated length of the spider in Group B.

State your answer using two significant figures and show your workings.

50 teachers were asked whether they were more likely to praise student effort or student performance.

37 of these teachers said they were more likely to praise student effort.

Calculate the fraction of teachers who were more likely to praise student performance.

Name the descriptive statistic that is calculated by ordering the values in a set of data then selecting the middle value.

Read the following information.

Identify the dependent variable and both conditions of the independent variable in this experiment.

Write your answers in the correct spaces provided.

Dependent variable

Independent variable

Figure 1 Bar chart to show the number of participants who did and did not clean their desk in the smell and no smell groups.

The results of this experiment are shown in Figure 1.

Use this information to complete the table below.

33.3% of participants cleaned their desk in the no smell group.

Calculate the percentage of participants who cleaned their desk in the smell group.

Use the information from Question 22.2.

Show your workings.

State whether the environmental cue of smell did or did not influence participant behaviour in this experiment.

Use the data in Figure 1 to explain your answer.

Name the experimental design used by the psychologist in this study.

Explain your answer.

Experimental design

Explain your answer

Explain one weakness of using the experimental design you named in Question 22.5

A psychologist did a study to find out more about conformity.

She put participants into different sized groups.

She asked them to solve an easy maths problem. Then each person gave their answer to the problem out loud. In every group, there was only one true participant. The other people in the group were actors. The psychologist asked the actors to purposely give a wrong answer. The true participant always answered last.

The psychologist recorded how many times the true participant gave the same wrong answer as the others in the group. She believed this happened because they had conformed.

Her results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Total number of times the true participants gave the same wrong answer as actors in different sized groups.

Use the results in Table 1 to draw a histogram.

Provide a suitable title and labels for your histogram.

What is the ratio of the number of times the participants gave the wrong answer when the group size was 2 compared to when the group size was 6?

Write this ratio in its simplest form.

Outline one conclusion that the psychologist could draw about conformity from the results in Table 1.

In research investigating conformity, participants are often not told the real reason for the research. This goes against the British Psychological Society guidelines on ethical issues.

Justify the use of deception in studies of conformity.

Researchers carried out a study into the effectiveness of antidepressant medications. 150 people took part in their study.

The target population for the study were patients from the Good Health Medical Centre in London. They had all been diagnosed with unipolar depression within the past 6 months and were aged between 25 and 42 years of age.

Explain how researchers would select a random sample from this target population.

Identify one strength and one weakness of random sampling.

Figure 1 Bar graph to show the total number of participants who felt their mood improved a lot, a little or did not improve at all within two weeks of starting a course of antidepressants.

Complete Table 2 using the information from the bar graph.

Table 2 Total number of participants who felt their mood improved a lot, a little or did not improve at all within two weeks of starting a course of antidepressants.

Calculate the percentage of participants who stated that their mood improved ‘ a little

Show your workings.

Read the following information.

Calculate what fraction of the photos shown to each participant were fake.

The researcher had to choose the order in which to show a set of five photos.

Describe how the researcher could have used randomisation to decide the order.

Read the following information.

Figure 1 shows the Müller-Lyer illusion. The two vertical lines labelled a and b are the same length but sometimes people incorrectly perceive that line b is longer than line a.

A psychologist investigated whether the environment in which people lived affected how they perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion. He tested two groups of participants; there were 50 participants in each group.

Group 1 lived in a city environment so were used to seeing square buildings around them. Group 2 lived in a rainforest environment so were not used to seeing square buildings around them.

He asked each participant if the two vertical lines were the same length.

The results of the study are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The number of participants in each group who incorrectly perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion.

Calculate the percentage of participants in Group 2 who incorrectly perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion.

State your answer rounded to one significant figure. Show your workings.

What is the ratio of participants who incorrectly perceived the Müller-Lyer illusion in Group 1 compared to Group 2?

Write this ratio in its simplest form.

Outline one conclusion about the participants’ perception of the Müller-Lyer illusion that the researcher could draw from his results.

How can this conclusion be explained using Gregory’s constructivist theory of perception?

Which of the following sets of data is normally distributed?

Shade one box only.

Read the following information.

Identify the independent variable in this experiment.

Identify the dependent variable in this experiment.

Write a null hypothesis that the researcher can use in this experiment.

Table 2: Total number of days missed by 190 Year 9 students in the early and late start conditions.

Table 2 shows the total number of days missed by 190 Year 9 students in the early and late start conditions.

Calculate the mean number of days missed by students in the late start condition.

Show your workings.

The mean for the early start condition was 1.4

Use this mean and your calculated mean from question 22.4 to sketch a suitable graph to show the mean number of days missed by each student in the early and late start conditions.

Label the axes and provide a suitable title for your graph.

The researcher used a repeated measures experimental design. He also used counterbalancing.

Explain why researchers often use counterbalancing with a repeated measures experimental design.

This study is an example of a field experiment.

Evaluate the use of field experiments in psychological research.

The psychologist wanted to interview a sample of the students in his experiment to find out how they felt about starting school earlier and later in the day. He thought about using either opportunity or systematic sampling to get his sample of students.

Outline both opportunity and systematic sampling.

Compare the use of these sampling methods using your knowledge of their strengths and/or weaknesses.

A psychologist researched treatment for stroke patients with damage to the language areas of their brains. She compared the effectiveness of two kinds of speech and language therapy. One therapy was carried out in person by a trained therapist. The other therapy was carried out by a specially programmed computer known as a virtual therapist.

The psychologist timed each participant reading the same paragraph of text before and after six weeks of speech and language therapy. She then worked out how much faster the participants could read the text at the end of the six weeks. The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The decrease in time taken to read a paragraph of text after six weeks of speech and language therapy.

Name one of the lobes of the brain where a language area is located.

What is the mode for the decrease in time taken when the speech and language therapy was provided by the trained therapist?

Calculate the range for the decrease in time taken when the speech and language therapy was provided by the virtual therapist.

What percentage of the twenty participants were able to read the text more than 40 seconds faster after six weeks of therapy?

Show your workings.

Read the following information.

A teacher carried out an experiment to investigate factors that can affect perception. She divided her class into two groups: A and B. Group A was shown nine different pictures of rabbits. Group B was shown nine different pictures of ducks.

Both groups were then shown Figure 1 and were asked what animal they saw.

The results are shown in Table 1.

Table 1: The type of animal seen by participants

Calculate the percentage of students in Group B who saw Figure 1 as a rabbit.

State your answer using two significant figures and show your workings.

Which of the following is the correct fraction of Group A who saw Figure 1 as a duck?

Shade one box.

Use your knowledge of one factor that affects perception to explain the results shown in Table 1 (on page 10).

Which one of the following statistics is calculated by finding the difference between the smallest and largest values in a set of data?

Shade one box only.

Read the following information.

Total score: ______

Outline one strength of using a stratified sample when conducting research.

Give a definition of both qualitative and quantitative data.

Quantitative data

When collecting information about mental well-being, explain why collecting qualitative data rather than quantitative data may increase the validity of the data collected by the researcher.

Read the following information.

Table 3: The average daily exercise and mental well-being score for each participant

Identify the mode for the average daily exercise scores shown in Table 3.

Calculate the median for the average mental well-being scores shown in Table 3.

Use the graph paper to sketch a scatter diagram to show the results shown in Table 3.

Provide a suitable title and labels for your diagram.

Identify the type of correlation the researcher has found between exercise and mental well-being.

Shade one box only.

Read the following information.

Which of the following research methods is being used in this study on bystander behaviour?

Shade one box.

The results for condition 1 are shown in Figure 1.

When data is plotted on a graph and makes the shape seen in Figure 1, what name is given to it?

Name two other descriptive statistics that would have a very similar value to the mean in Figure 1.

A researcher wanted to understand the possible relationship between language and thought.

To help him understand this possible relationship, he carried out a study to see if there was any variation in the recognition of colours between people who speak different languages.

The participants were either English speakers or non-English speakers. Only the non-English speakers’ language includes words that mean ‘light shade of green’ and ‘dark shade of green’.

The researcher showed each participant 10 cards in different shades of green. Each participant was asked if the card was a light or dark shade of green.

The researcher recorded how long it took each participant to give a correct answer. The results of the research are shown in Table 1.

Table 1 Total time (in seconds) that 10 participants took to recognise all of the shades of green

Which is the correct ratio of time taken by non-English speaking participants to time taken by English speaking participants?

Shade one box.

Identify one conclusion about the participants’ recognition of colours that the researcher could draw from his results.

Use the data in Table 1 to explain your answer.

How can this conclusion be explained using the Sapir-Whorf hypothesis about thinking and language?

Researchers used an online questionnaire to investigate a possible link between the amount of time spent on social media and depression. Only people who regularly spend at least nine hours a day on social media were asked to complete the questionnaire. Fifty questionnaires were completed and returned. One of the questions asked participants if they thought that their sleep patterns were affected by spending time on social media. Table 3 shows the results.

Table 3 Responses of participants to the question: ‘Do you think your sleep patterns are affected by the amount of time you spend on social media sites?’

Calculate the percentage of participants who said their sleep patterns were affected.

Show your workings.

‘Changes in sleep patterns’ is listed in the International Classification of Diseases (ICD) as a symptom of unipolar depression.

Identify two other symptoms of unipolar depression listed in the ICD.

The researchers used opportunity sampling to select the participants who answered the questionnaire.

Explain one weakness of using opportunity sampling in psychological research.

Read the following information.

Sketch a frequency table the researcher and her assistant can use to collect their results.

Other than ‘making phone calls’ include two categories of behaviour in your frequency table.

Outline two ways the researcher and her assistant could make sure they have high interobserver reliability in their study.

After the questionnaires were completed, the researcher used the answers to record the daily phone use of the males and females. The results are shown in Table 2.

Table 2: The daily phone use of males and females.

Use the graph paper to sketch a suitable bar chart to show the mean results shown in Table 2. Provide a suitable title and labels for your diagram.

Calculate the range for the daily phone use of males and females.

Range for females:

Use the ranges you calculated in Question 25.1 to write one conclusion the researcher could draw from the information collected in her questionnaires.

Read the following information.

Table 1: bpm recorded at each point of the roller coaster ride.

Calculate the mean for the participants’ bpm recordings taken 20 minutes before the ride. Show your workings.

What is the median for the participants’ bpm recordings taken when they were halfway through the ride?

Identify the mode for the participants’ bpm recordings taken when the ride had just finished.

Shade one box.

Look at the changes in the heart rates recorded in Table 1. Use your knowledge of the fight or flight response to explain these changes.