In: Statistics and Probability
Imagine you were conducting research on the relationship between academic performance (e.g., better grades) and different levels of loudness of music (interval scale) while studying.
How would you design the study using a correlational design?
How would you design the study using a quasi-experimental design?
How would you design the study using an experimental design?
How would you design the study using a correlational design?
The correlational design is mainly used to identify if two variables are correlated.
For example, here we are going to research with 9th grade students and find out any relationship between academic performances.
Firstly, we need to divide students in to four different groups. Each group would be placed in a controlled environment such as an empty classroom and given a study guide for the test.
Next, we would give a test in different subjects. This is going to be one-hour test where group one will be study in the class room without music.
Group two will study with soft music, group three will study with medium sound music and group four will study with loud music.
After the hour the study guide would be taken and the test administered to the groups in which they would have 45 minutes to complete it. The scores from each group would be calculated after the test was finished. With the scores calculated we would check to see if there is any correlation between listening to music while studying and grades received
How would you design the study using a quasi-experimental design?
We are almost going do the similar test with quasi-experimental. Again, we are going to take group of students from the 9th grade students.
In this experiment we are going to split in to two equivalent groups. Group one would involve students with high performance in the course, group two would have would involve students with low performance in the course
Each group would be given a certain amount of time to study the test with no music, and then take a test. After that results will be corrected and recorded.
Then the next step is Group one would be given time to study again just as before with no music and group two would have loud music played. They would be tested again and the results analyzed to determine if the studying with music had any effect at all on the grades for group two students
How would you design the study using an experimental design?
Here in the experimental design, we would take four different 10thgrade classes, Class one, two, three, & four
First, we would examine their test scores from the previous tests taken first. Then we would conduct the experiment. Class one would be the control. They would not listen to music. Class two would listen to low classical music; Class three would listen to moderately high volume classical music, and class four would listen to loud classical music.
Each class would be given four hours to study a study guide for the standardized test using the conditions above. After four hours each class would take the standardized test again. The scores would be analyzed and recorded again to see if there was any change in the grades. To see if it is the music that is truly effective we would complete the same study in different grade levels