Music and no music condition Essay

The use of music seems to be a good way of operationalising the IV as many people do learn to the sound of music so therefore the difference between the music and no music condition should be marked. Also, getting the participants to write down the words is a good way of measuring the DV as it means it is easy to collect and analyse the data.  The study itself was quite simple and it seemed to measure what effects music has on learning. The independent variable was manipulated in such a way that it was hard for there to be anyway the results could have been affected significantly. Also because the measurement method was very simple there isn’t a chance that the results could be interpreted in the wrong way. As the study was a laboratory experiment it doesn’t have as high validity as a field experiment. Although the participants were not in a strange environment, the fact that they knew they were being studied may lower the ecological validity of the study.  Leading on from the fact that the study might have bad ecological validity, there is also the problem of the study having bad participant reactivity. Seeing as they know they are being studied and they know they have to learn the list of words given to them, they may try much harder than they normally would in their everyday life. There is the factor of social desirability and how some participants may deliberately try to recall fewer words. Improving Validity  Although it would be very difficult and expensive it could be possible to take the study outside the laboratory to increase the ecological validity of the study. You could monitor the participants while they are learning for something at home and while they are playing their own music in their rooms. They could then be tested unknowingly at school by one of their reachers.  However, even if these changes were made, the results would probably still stay the same. It has been proved before by numerous studies done by different scientists that music does help when trying to learn. This is why students are encouraged to listen to wordless music when revising for exams. These changes would also help improve participant reactivity if they are studied in a familiar environment. It would give them a sense of security and the need to look ‘cool’ is not needed anymore and there is no extra pressure put on them to learn because they don’t have the feeling they are being examined.  So, these changes could actually change the results slightly if only with a few participants. It might be found that there is higher recall in both conditions though but the difference may still stay the same. Reliability  The study is very easy to replicate as there is many references to other studies similar to it. Also because the study is quite simple in itself and very cheap to do there are very rarely any problems in recreating it for different purposes.  One possible confounding variable was introduced by the fact that there were four researchers in the room at the time of the study and they all knew the hypotheses. They may have tried give the participants help in recalling the words by giving hints and clues so that the results were more conclusive. This may have led to unreliable comparisons between conditions. As the study was a laboratory experiment it meant the researchers had good control over the study. The words that were chosen were all unambiguous so the participants would not have interpreted them in different ways. Also the test had been severely standardised. The words were shown on an over head projector so they were all looking at the same thing when learning was taking place. Also the testing was completed in the same room and at the same time of day for each condition so the participants were not feeling more tired in one condition than the other. Improving reliability  The only possible way to improve reliability was to keep researcher contact to a minimum or have a person in the room that was unaware of the hypothesis so they couldn’t alter the study in any way. This would be difficult though because once they are in the room it does become quite obvious what the study is about.  This could be controlled for by using an outside civilian to be the one person giving the participants instructions on what they have to do. There could be one person chosen for each condition so that they don’t guess what the study is about.  Even if these changes did increase the reliability of the study the only difference they might make to the results is to decrease the differences found between the two conditions.