Hypothetical studies analyses Study 1 “ Gambling Intervention A researcher is testing a new intervention intended to help self-confessed on-line gambling addicts overcome their addiction. Eighty gambling addicts volunteer to participate. Every day for the first seven days of the study, baseline gambling data were gathered. The participants allowed researchers access to their on-line transactions and a system was set up to record the time spent at gambling sites. Data were also collected for the amount of money spent and number of bets. These data presented a similar picture to the time data and are not reported here. Each participant’s daily data were averaged over the 7 days to yield a more reliable baseline measure of daily gambling at pre-test. The monitoring of on-line gambling continued for both groups throughout the intervention period (data not included). Prior to the intervention, the 88 participants were randomly divided into two groups of 44 each, with each group having 22 males and 22 females. One group was placed on a waiting list and served as the control group for the current study. The second group received the intervention, which consisted of a 4-week period of daily sessions with a therapist. The sessions involved cognitive behavior therapy, behaviour contracts, and some disagreeable punishments for gambling. For example, participants’ spouses were informed about gambling incidents, and participants were œnamed and shamed in front of other group members. At the end of the intervention, the participants who had not left the study had their gambling monitored for a further 7 days for the post-test. The researcher analysed the pre- and post-test data for these remaining participants to test the hypothesis that there would be a greater reduction in gambling in the treatment group. The data analysis for time (minutes) spent at gambling sites per day is presented below: 6 Questions 1a) 1 mark Draw a plot of the data showing the gambling score at each time point, with separate lines for each group. Label the axes clearly. 1b) 1 mark Briefly report the results in APA format, describing each significant main effect and interaction, and commenting on the results in relation to the predictions. Include MSEs (see study 3 results). 1c) 1 mark Is gender a PAV variable in this study? Explain your answer. [50 “ 75 words] 1d) 3 marks Interpretation Question: Would it be correct to conclude that the intervention was responsible for the reduced gambling in the treatment group than in the control group at post-test? Explain your answer. [100 “ 150 words] Study 2 “ Clear Thinking Instruction Program A lecturer devised a series of 6 classes to assist university students to argue positions soundly and clearly, and to think critically in analysing evidence and arguments. This œclear-thinking course examined arguments about important issues for contemporary society. The lecturer required the entire first-year cohort of 40 students in his department’s prestigious and difficult astronomy program to take the course in their first semester at university. In order to get an assessment of the course’s effectiveness, he recruited a comparison sample of 40 first-year Bachelor of Arts students, also in their first semester at university. The comparison (control) group did their normal courses and did not receive any specific training in argumentation or critical thinking. Prior to the pre-test, both groups were given an overview of the issues used as examples in the test, such as global warming and surrogate motherhood. None of the issues in the test was discussed in the clear-thinking course, and different issues were presented in the pre- and post-tests. Because existing cognitive ability is a possible confounding variable, the students in the control group were matched to the astronomy group on a cognitive test. This matching was accomplished in two steps. First, all 40 students in the astronomy cohort and the 250 students in the BA pool completed a test of reasoning and general cognitive ability in class. Second, for each of the 40 astronomy students, a BA student with a similar score on the ability test was invited to participate, until there were 40 students in the control group who were statistically similar to the astronomy group on cognitive test scores. At the beginning of semester and 6 weeks later, all participants were tested on critical thinking and argumentation about the issues presented at the outset of the study. Scores (percentages) on these tests were the pre-test and post-test data for the study. The lecturer analysed the scores to test his prediction that the clear-thinking course group would improve compared to the control group from pre-test to post-test. Presented below is the data analysis for the experiment: 7 Questions 2a) 1 mark Draw a plot of the data showing thinking scores at each time point, with separate lines for each group. Label the axes clearly. 2b) 1 mark Briefly report the results in APA format, describing each significant main effect and interaction, commenting on the results in relation to the predictions. Include MSEs (see study 3 results). 2c) 3 marks Interpretation Question: Would it be correct to conclude that the Clear Thinking program was responsible for better achievement in the astronomy students than in the comparison group at post-test? Give one reason why or why not. [150 words] 2d) 2 marks Suggest two improvements to the DESIGN of this study. Explain each suggestion briefly. [50 “ 75 words] 8 Study 3 “ Identity theft on-line A psychologist is interested in individual and situational factors affecting people’s attitudes to giving personal information on-line, for example in on-line shopping or on social network sites. She asks people to give ratings on a 7-point scale indicating how willing they would be to give their name, address and date of birth on-line. She expects that information technology (IT) expertise will impact on peoples’ attitudes and behaviour, so she compares 56 people working in IT with 56 people of a similar age and education working in other areas. The participants come to the lab for the study, and each occupational group is randomly divided into 2 subgroups of 28. All subgroups participate in an online game under one of two conditions. One subgroup from each employment group performs the game with a concurrent working memory task, requiring them to hold material for frequent memory tests administered during short breaks in the game (high cognitive load). The second subgroup in each occupation category answer general knowledge questions during the time that the memory groups are being tested, and are not required to memorise anything (low cognitive load). Thus the psychologist has a 2-way between-participants design with IVs occupation (IT vs. other) and cognitive load (high vs. low). Each participant is asked twice during the on-line game to type in some personal information in accordance with a cover story (e.g., to compare attributes of other game players who were born in the same year and in the same or a different month). Participants get scores of 0 to 6 on a DV tapping willingness to give personal information, based on whether they hesitated (queried the request) and what information they gave. High scores indicate more information given and less hesitation. She predicts that willingness will be higher for the non- IT than the IT group and higher for high than low cognitive load. The mean scores are shown below. In line with predictions, there were significant main effects of occupation, with higher scores for the non-IT than the IT group, F(1,108) = 78.91, MSE = .946, p < .001, and cognitive load, with higher scores under high than low cognitive load, F(1,108) = 90.55, p < .001. Unexpectedly, the main effects were qualified by a significant two-way interaction of occupation and load, F(1,108) = 7.00, p < .01, reflecting the fact that the load effect was most evident for the IT group. The researcher concluded that IT experts are more likely to conduct a rigorous and cognitive evaluation of the security threat posed by on-line requests for information, and thus they are substantially affected by concurrent cognitive load. 9 Questions 3a) 1 mark Plot the results in a line-graph with occupation on the x-axis. Label the axes clearly. 3b) 3 marks Interpretation Question: Briefly comment on the strengths and weaknesses of the DESIGN of this study. In your answer consider how the IVs were varied (in terms of within vs. between and manipulated vs. PAV). [150 words] 3c) 3 marks Interpretation Question: Comment on the unexpected two-way interaction. Was the researcher correct in concluding that people working in IT are more affected by ongoing cognitive demands when evaluating requests for personal information? Why or why not?