Psychology

1. Does drinking Diet Coke before taking math exams improve student’s scores on these tests?

Hypothesis: Drinking Diet Coke 20 minutes before taking math exams improve scores on math exams because caffeine present in the Coke makes students more alert and able to focus better on the questions.

Sampling: 100 students, ages 13, from an eighth grade math class will be selected randomly from one local middle school to determine if there is a difference in basic math scores after they have been given Diet Coke to drink 20 minutes before completing the same math test under similar conditions.

Independent variable is the Diet Coke, whether or not the group is given it to drink before taking the exam.

Dependent variable is how the math tests will vary when the conditions are manipulated as in this case whether or not the students drink the Diet Coke before taking the exam.

Experimental: Fifty students will be assigned randomly in a blind study to drink Diet Coke 20 minutes before taking a math test.

Control group: Fifty students will be assigned to a group in a blind study randomly and not given anything to drink before taking the test.

All students will be unaware of what is being tested at the time of the experiment/research study until the experiment is done.

The teacher will administer the test to prevent any experimenter bias during the study.

All tests will be given conducted over 30 minutes as the same time of day and under similar conditions before lunch early in the morning at 9am to control variables that may influence the outcomes. Also, each student will be given 8 ounces of Coke 20 minutes before the test, which they must drink completely.

Evaluating results: Under these circumstances, I think, controlling for all variables and narrowing the study that the mean would be the appropriate measure of validity of the study to see if there are any changes in student’s scores on the tests. Now whether I can say these scores are...