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Methods

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PSY-22TW5

Dr DeLinda. Terry

September 28, 2022

Methods

Participants

The participants of this study comprise of students from Southern New Hampshire University. A sample of 41 participants was selected randomly to enable the study meets the outlined objective. Data was stored in SPSS and the analysis was also conducted in SPSS.

Procedure and Materials

A questionnaire was issued to the participants of the study containing several questions that were answered accurately to enable drawing conclusions for this study. Participants were given identity numbers based on the sequence in which they were given the questionnaire. Participants were first grouped into 3 categories based on the type of noise they were subjected to during an exam. Some were categorized into rock music, others into classical music and the remaining into white noise. Participants reported whether they had high experience or low prior math experience. Those participants who had taken three or more college math courses were classified as being high in math experience, whereas participants who had taken fewer than three were classified as being low. 1 = high and 2 = low. Anxiety level during the test was measured using Hamilton Anxiety Scale (HAM-A) where the anxiety levels reported ranged from 0-50 with 0 being low levels and 50 being high levels of anxiety. Performance was measured using a math test which had scores from 0 to 100 where 0 indicates poor performance and 100 indicates excellent performance.

Data Analysis

Descriptive and inferential analysis were conducted in SPSS and to examine the distribution and relationships that exist in the dataset collected. The dataset was reduced to 41 participants using simple random sampling of the data collected. Table 1 shows the descriptive statistics for the variables in the study.

Table 1

Descriptive Statistics

Analysis indicates that anxiety levels range from 26 to 46 and the mean and standard deviation were 36.93 and 5.70 respectively. Performance scores on math test ranged from 47 to 85 and the mean and standard deviation were 62.34 and 9.12 respectively. According to the frequency table, participants subjected to Rock music were 13, Classical music were 14 and those in white noise were also 14. The participants reported that 19 of them had high experience in math tests while 22 had low.

One way ANOVA was conducted to determine whether the different music sounds had an impact on the results of the students. Analysis was as shown in Table 2.

Table 2

Analysis of Variance

Results indicates that there was a significant difference in performance mean scores between participants in Rock, Classical music and white noise where F (2, 38) = 4.34, p = .02, implying significance at .05 level of significance (Warner, 2020).

Reference

Warner, R. M. (2020).  Applied statistics II: Multivariable and multivariate techniques. Sage Publications.