A: To see whether males have better spatial awareness than females as suggested by research into brain lateralisation. Males are said to be better at spatial tasks than females.
P: A spatial rotation task consisting of 45 questions was found on the internet. The questions involved shape rotation and looking at a street map. An opportunity sample was used to collect 10 males and 10 female participants from the sixth form common room.
They were brought to the classroom and given a brief explaining to them they were taking part in an experiment on spatial awareness. They were asked to sign a consent form if they were happy to participate and informed of their right to withdraw. They were given 20 mins to complete the task and the DV was measured by number of correct answers.
F: A mann whitney test was conducted which found…
C: (use your results to draw a conclusion related to your aim)
Evaluation
Cannot be generalised as the sample was an opportunity sample which means the people selected may all have similar characteristics and not be representative. In this case it may be whoever had a free period so a lot of sports students took part due to no teaching at this time for this subject.
This study is reliable as it follows a standardised procedure. All participants were tested at the same time and received the same instructions. This means the experiment could be repeated.
This study lacks ecological validity as shape rotation is an artificial task and may not be reflective of spatial awareness in real life. A orienteering challenge involving map reading may have been more valid in measuring this. One participant asked at the end if it was about male and female brains being different, this shows there were demand characteristics as he guessed the aim.
All ethical guidelines were met as pp’s gave consent, were told their results would be confidential, informed of their right to withdraw and given a debrief at the end. No harm would have come to pp’s and at the end all were reassured in case they worried they had not done well.
P: A spatial rotation task consisting of 45 questions was found on the internet. The questions involved shape rotation and looking at a street map. An opportunity sample was used to collect 10 males and 10 female participants from the sixth form common room.
They were brought to the classroom and given a brief explaining to them they were taking part in an experiment on spatial awareness. They were asked to sign a consent form if they were happy to participate and informed of their right to withdraw. They were given 20 mins to complete the task and the DV was measured by number of correct answers.
F: A mann whitney test was conducted which found…
C: (use your results to draw a conclusion related to your aim)
Evaluation
Cannot be generalised as the sample was an opportunity sample which means the people selected may all have similar characteristics and not be representative. In this case it may be whoever had a free period so a lot of sports students took part due to no teaching at this time for this subject.
This study is reliable as it follows a standardised procedure. All participants were tested at the same time and received the same instructions. This means the experiment could be repeated.
This study lacks ecological validity as shape rotation is an artificial task and may not be reflective of spatial awareness in real life. A orienteering challenge involving map reading may have been more valid in measuring this. One participant asked at the end if it was about male and female brains being different, this shows there were demand characteristics as he guessed the aim.
All ethical guidelines were met as pp’s gave consent, were told their results would be confidential, informed of their right to withdraw and given a debrief at the end. No harm would have come to pp’s and at the end all were reassured in case they worried they had not done well.