Answer all questions in this Section.

Question 3

Total for this question: 15 marks

In an attempt to investigate the effectiveness of tuition using a driving simulator, a driving school carried out the following field experiment. Ten new drivers were each given 5 hours tuition on the simulator before receiving any tuition in a road car. Another ten new drivers were taken straight out onto the road without first experiencing the driving simulator. Each driver was then assessed over the forthcoming weeks to judge the point at which they were considered ready to take their driving test.

The mean number of hours road tuition needed by the simulator group (after their time on the simulator) before they were considered ready for their test was 20.5 hours while the non-simulator group needed an average 23.5 hours before they were considered ready. The standard deviation for the simulator group was 2.7, and for the non-simulator group it was 6.3.

Comparison of driving tuition times for simulator and non-simulator group

	Hours spent on simulator	Mean number of hours road tuition to reach test standard
Simulator group	5.0	20.5
Non-simulator group	0	23.5

Table 1

(a) Suggest a suitable non-directional hypothesis for this investigation.

(2 marks)

There will be a statistically significant difference in the mean number of hours road tuition required to reach test standard between new drivers who have spent 5 hours on a driving simulator and those who have had no time on the driving simulator.

(b) Explain one advantage and one weakness of field experiments such as this.

(2 marks + 2 marks)

Advantage: Easier for the experimenter to generalize findings to real life situations, i.e. ecological validity is better than a laboratory experiment.
Weakness: Less control over variables than in a laboratory experiment, e.g. cannot control for variables such as the traffic conditions, individual differences between driving instructors.

(c) What was the independent variable in this investigation?

(1 mark)

Time spent on the driving simulator - 2 conditions: no time spent on simulator or 5 hours spent on simulator.

(d) Describe two other reasons (besides the effect of the simulator) that might account for the difference in the number of hours road tuition needed for the two groups of drivers before they were considered ready to take their driving test.

(2 marks + 2 marks)

1. Individual differences - some participants may be better than others at learning to drive, because they have better co-ordination, have had practice at driving vehicles/simulators in the past, or because of differences caused by age or gender.

2. Differences between driving assessors: there may be differences in the standard required by the different driving assessors before they consider the participants to be at test standard.

(e) From the information given in Table 1, outline two conclusions that could be drawn from this investigation.

(2 marks + 2 marks)

Participants who are given 5 hours tuition on the driving simulator before receiving any tuition in a road car took, on average, 3 fewer hours road tuition to reach test standard than those who had no tuition on a driving simulator.
Participants who are given 5 hours tuition on the driving simulator before receiving road took more hours in total (hours spent on driving simulator plus hours road tuition) than those who were taken straight out onto the road without first experiencing the driving simulator.

Question 4

Total for this question: 15 marks

Psychologists take part in many aspects of applied social research. Imagine you are part of a team of research psychologists interested in children's vulnerability to traffic accidents as pedestrians. In order to see if there are any age or sex differences in 'reckless' behaviour, you will need to observe children as they use the roadway both in their play and in their passage to and from school.

(a) Identify two ways in which you could operationalise 'reckless behaviour'.

(2 marks)
Use of pedestrian crossings: You could observe the number of children who make proper use of pedestrian crossings and those who do not and see if there are any age or sex differences
Use of the 'green cross code': You could observe the number of children who use the green cross code when crossing the road where there is no pedestrian crossing.

(b) Identify one way in which you could ensure reliability among the different observers, and explain how you might put this into practice.

(3 marks)

Train the observers and standardize their instructions. Then ask observers to rate the operationalized behaviours of the same children and correlate the scores between the observers. If a good correlation is found, the inter-rater is good. If not, they could be given further training and instructions could be improved. The procedure would then be repeated until a good correlation is achieved.

(c) Describe one way in which you could minimize the intrusive nature of your observations.

(2 marks)

Observers could be concealed if possible so that it is not obvious to the children that they are making observations of the children.

(d) Explain two features of the study that might affect the validity of the data being collected.

(2 marks + 2 marks)

Unique features of the area observed may be such that the results should not be generalized to other children in other areas. For example, if the school is located in a rural village with very little or no through traffic, the results would probably not generalize well to an inner city school located on a busy main road.
Characteristics of the children may be such that the results should not be generalized to other children, even those who live in a similar area. For example, the children may have recently received a program of road safety advice which has made them more aware of the dangers of traffic accidents and has successfully changed their behaviour. It may not be safe to assume that all children would then act so cautiously.

(e) Describe two ways of ensuring that this study would be carried out in an ethically acceptable manner.

(2 marks + 2 marks)

Consent: Because the study was using children, permission should be sought from the school who could then inform parents. This would avoid any unnecessary worry caused to parents who may be concerned if they noticed a stranger watching their children going in to school.
Feedback: information about potential dangers should be fed-back to the school and parents, and any advice or recommendations that are forthcoming from the study to improve safety should be given to the appropriate authorities.