Experimental Report

An investigation into whether relaxing, instrumental music has an effect on the time taken and the performance of a participant when completing a mathematics quiz

Introduction

• The aim of this experiment is to determine whether the music I have created (instrumental and relaxing) improves people's times taken and performance to complete a mathematical quiz or not.
• Hypothesis: when listening to the relaxing, instrumental music, their time taken to complete the quiz will decrease (improve), and their performance will improve (e.g. no incorrect answers).

Method

Design

• Study - opportunity, everyone has an equal chance to be selected to take part and difference, as I am looking for the difference in times with and without music in this experiment
• Design - repeated measures: everyone takes the quiz twice

• Independent Variables

- There are 15 different participants taking this experiment.
- One quiz is taken with music and one is taken without.

- The quiz combinations vary but this should not affect the experiment. 

- Also, there is also different combinations of songs used. 

- One individual will listen to two songs, while another may listen to the same two songs or different two songs. Please see "Experiment Conditions (28 June 2016)" for more details on this. Link below.

• Dependent Variables

- The time taken to complete each quiz. The percentage change is calculated from these.
- The number of mistakes made in a quiz.

• Control Variables

- The questions are the same on both quizzes.

- Everybody follows the same procedure; they have the same quiz for "no music" and same quiz for "with music".

- The environment in which each person is in while they take the quiz is the same.

• Ethical Guidelines: individuals are not forced to take the test if they do not want to do it.

Participants

• The age range varies from 16 years of age to 18 years of age.
• The sample is opportunity random. Most people are randomly asked to take the quiz.

Materials

• Quiz 1 (no music)
• Quiz 2 (with music)
• Questionnaire
• Pencil and rubber or pen
• Timer
• Working out paper
• Phone for music
• Headphones/earphones
• A quiet area

Procedures

• Non-calculator
• NO MUSIC test is taken in silent areas
• WITH MUSIC test is taken with music playing through headphones. The music is produced by myself and is the independent variable in this experiment.
• A scrap piece of paper is given, which is optional, for calculations.
• The time taken to complete each quiz is recorded. Incorrect answers gain a 60-second penalty added onto their time (which is to stop people from randomly circling numbers and guessing). These should be relatively rare.
• Participants who take the first quiz must wait at least one day before taking the second quiz.
• The time taken by each participant is not compared to others' times, but instead their own times. This means it doesn't matter how quickly or slowly someone takes in comparison to others, and whether or not they like maths. The average time taken to complete the quiz should be around 6 to 9 minutes.
• The percentage increase is calculated and this is the value used to compare data.

For the WITH MUSIC test, there are 2 songs played in a loop for each person. This makes 4 songs in total being used in this experiment. I may submit more than 4 as artefacts, though. They are:

• Soundless Serenity (4AM)
• 5PM

        or

• Summer Evening (7PM)
• Graceful Aurora (8AM)

There will be an even split between how many people get which playlist.
Both playlists have one fast-paced song (4AM and 7PM) and one slower-paced song (5PM and 8AM).

• Please see "Experiment Conditions (28 June 2016)" for the procedures of this experiment. http://musicandepq.blogspot.co.uk/2016/07/experimentconditions-non-calculator.html