Science Experiments

Question: Science Experiment Help.?

For my experiment i tested four people on reaction time. First i had each catch a ruler and see the distance on the ruler. Then i had them play 30 minutes of video games then tested the subjects again.

What are my manipulated and control variables?

Answer: Testing reaction time by dropping a ruler is a good experiment. In fact, one can calculate the speed of reaction by how far down the ruler falls. I hope that you had multiple tests for each person, otherwise it will be difficult to run any statistical tests with that small sample of 4 people.

Scientists usually set up a null hypothesis and then see if they can disprove it. If you can disprove it, then you can offer a new hypothesis. You can’t really prove anything. Einstein once said a thousand scientists can’t prove me right, but one can prove me wrong.

The null hypothesis is that “there is no difference in reaction time before and after playing with video games”. In the ideal situation you would have, say, 5 to 10 trials per person per situation (before and after), and then do a matched t test to see if there is a significant difference in the times (and individuals) between the two situations. You then either accept the null hypothesis that video games did not make a statistically significant difference in reaction times, or you reject the null hypothesis and say that video games appear to have an impact.

The control are the people’s data before the video game session.

Nice Guys Finish First (2/5) – Richard Dawkins